I’m working on a new project. Painting Kaiserslautern on my new iPad. I’m stoked.

Reputation?  Google Joan Jett.

Took a painting weekend last week. Attended Beverly Never’s painting workshop. Always learning something new. Weather was bad so, other than a brief post-lunch walk, we stayed indoors and painted from photos of the German landscape. I’m in a rut. Time for a change.

Untitled, watercolor & ink, 7×5″

Untitled, watercolor & ink, 5×7″

And if I say to you tomorrow. Take my hand, child, come with me.
It’s to a castle I will take you, …

Many times I’ve lied – Many times I’ve listened
Many times I’ve wondered how much there is to know.

Lost Landscape 1. Oil on phonebook page. ca 2005.

My travels in the past 2 weeks have taken me to Brussles, Belgium for some great beer and to Garmisch-Partenkirchen, Germany for a dose of the Bavarian Alps. If you want to see a quintessential, southern German town, free from tourist trinkets, then Partenkirchen is your place.

Gasthof Frauendorfer. I recommend staying at, or at least eating at, Gasthof Fraundorfer. Warning, you will need reservations after 6-7pm.

Dinner

Shopping, a typical male bonding activity

View from the golf course

Can painters cover paintings like musicians cover songs? I have done it before (Van Gogh in Arles). I did it in Paris. And I’ll do it again.

A contemporary of many French impressionist artists, Albert Marquet walked the line between fauvism and impressionism. While I was in Paris last week I painted the same bridge that he painted (many times). I did it on  purpose. I meant to do it. I don’t regret it and I will do it again.

Albert was an impressionist who used vivid colors now and then (with all due repect to Renior’s Bal du moulin de la Galette). Having said that, here are two rather dull, of his many paintings of Pont Neuf in Paris. My watercolor sketch of Pont Neuf is from a similar vantage point. Maybe next time I am in Paris, and my French is better, I will try to get to the same vantage point. Lest you do not think to highly of his work, the dark painting at the bottom sold for about $330,000 at a Christie’s auction in 2011.

Here is one of his more colorful paintings.

Poissy, the White Fence. Paintied in 1929.

I set out to draw Nanstein Castle in Landstuhl, Germany today. It seems like all I paint these days are churches and castles. Don’t ask me why. According to what I read, most of the castle residents were less than reputible folks and the “kights in shining armour” were their enforcers.

But luck was with me today… I got a set in the shade for the first drawing; it was a very sunny day. The second view came from my seat at the little cafe in front of the castle, where I was eating lunch. It was quite a good lunch, too. They served traditional German food.

M. Liebhaber, Burg Nanstein, Watercolor and Ink, 2012

M. Liebhaber, Burg Nanstein Entryway, Watercolor & ink, 2012