Thursday, November 3, 2016

People on the way • Aurore

It's been a long time I wanted to sketch the Eritrean community coming to celebrate its weddings in the park of the old city and on Jaffa beach !

Every week end almost, a new group appears, always dressed in white with architectural hair style.
They are all dressed in white in the same costume with a pattern that define them as a group, only the groom and the bride has a different color of pattern.

They are simply beautiful…



People on the way • Aurore

It's been a long time I wanted to sketch the Eritrean community coming to celebrate its weddings in the park of the old city and on Jaffa beach !

Every week end almost, a new group appears, always dressed in white with architectural hair style.
They are all dressed in white in the same costume with a pattern that define them as a group, only the groom and the bride has a different color of pattern.

They are simply beautiful…



Sunday, August 14, 2016

Beaches, parks and people

Well we don;t have a see in Berlin, but we have many lakes. Here is my drawing for Nathan Sketchbook.
A friend who lives at Halensee lake invited a bunch of friends to a bbq and bath, the villa had direct access to the lake.

This is my last drawing on my sketchbook. Saturday and Sunday there is a Thai pick-nick in Preussenpark in Berlin, Normally is not possible to put a kiosk to sell food on a park, but you can have a pick nick So many Asian people sit on blankets under an umbrella offering the food they prepare there. A huge crowd of people gathers around to eat, sit and enjoy the good weather.


Sunday, August 7, 2016

"Beach" in Berlin

No, Berlin is not a city by the sea. But yes, we have some beaches and a lot of water (the Spree-river and many lakes). The biggest lakes are Wannsee, Müggelsee and Tegeler See. Today I made a bike tour with my family around the Tegeler See and in the end I sketched the beach in Saatwinkel in the late afternoon sun. It's 20 minutes from my home by bike. We live near the lake.



Tuesday, July 19, 2016

"Your city - your story" from Marina and Nathan

Katrin's book is full!

Last week I invited my friend Nathan to meet in Tel Aviv and to try to fill our entries.

As we do some sketching projects together, Nathan and I meet very often, almost always in Tel Aviv, so my story of Tel Aviv naturally includes... Nathan ;)
We started our meeting with a good plate of humus, sitting at on of the corners of the HaCarmel Market in Tel Aviv.
 Here I captured one of the streets near the market, were you can still meet old professions, like this shoemaker, repairing shoes and bags on the street:
 Here are Nathan's entries, he sketched... me! eating the humus ;)
 and another character from the same street - the barber taking a rest and drinking some coffee.
The sketchbook is coming with me to Manchester, where I'm going to give it to Omar.

Monday, July 11, 2016

Flea market in Berlin

Yesterday I visited the flea market in Straße des 17. Juni in Berlin-Tiergarten. It was a hot sunday and I was glad to find a place in the shadow. The flea market is the largest and oldest one in Berlin and well known by tourists. So it's more expensive than the small markets. You can find some beautiful antiques here. When I was a child, here I have bought a small peacock of glass. I loved small animals of porcelain and glass.


Monday, July 4, 2016

"Your city - your story" Aurore in Jaffa

Here is my participation for Katrin Merle's sketchbook !

About specificity of city furnitures, one is the street lamps which design change according to the area of Tel Aviv… In North Tel Aviv street lamps look like snakes overlooking the people passing by…But I live in south Tel Aviv, in Jaffa : you may see different one in the port (first sketch) and in the old city… (second one). Here you'll find the old white stones they used to build with, coming from the Judea mountains around Jerusalem. Of course they don't use them anymore, but they try to respect the color when they renovate old building.

A bit of history about Jaffa (arabic) or Yafo (hebrew), meaning "The beauty" !
Jaffa was one of the main and oldest port in the history, more or less 3500 years old. This old lady was one of the main passage for business between the west and the East and Egyptian mentioned her in their papyrus. It's also present in the Old Testament telling the story of Jonas that takes place in Jaffa…

Many people passed by such as egyptians, vespasian, crusaders, ottoman empire, Napoleon's army, arabs, british… etc. and conquered Jaffa that has a long and bloody story that I'm not going to developp here more… The old city was destroyed few times (… earthquake, second world war) and rebuilt in the sixties, while the city hall of Tel Aviv planned to erase everything and came with buldozers (!) they just in time changed their mind and renovated this place that was the perfect location for dealers and all kind of "small business". Tel Aviv started being a neighboorhood of Jaffa and finally grew, grew grew… until Jaffa became the ancient part of Tel Aviv !!!

It's now beautiful again and tourists love this place almost as much as I do… I have my studio / gallery in the middle, I live nearby and this is one a the few places in Israel where Muslims arabs, Christian arabs and Jewish are living together, so it not rare to hear the calls for prayers at same time from churches, mosques and temples !

The port of Jaffa (sea behind my back)
Entry of the Old Jaffa part from the city, going in the direction of the port…
Behind my back the area of the flea market, you have discovered in my own sketchbook


Monday, February 29, 2016

People on the way

Here is my drawing for my book people on the way.. in German: "Menschen unterwegs"... I am trying to find out a translation to Hebrew.. and asked some Israeli friends.. and ended having strong discussions about it but no answer...you know what they say: two Israelis discuss and they ended with 3 different opinions..but in the other hand every language has expressions that are difficult to translate.

Tuesday, February 16, 2016

Urban Furniture

My last drawing for Katrin Merle's Sketchbook with the subject: Your city your story
Urban Furniture you would find around Schlesisches Tor, Kreuzberg, Berlin. I had a lot of trouble finding something to draw, then I realized that there where many interesting things around me that are quite unique to this neighbourhood. It made me wonder what would I find in Tel Aviv if I go around?


Urban Furniture 
Do you have public waterfountains? or fire alarms in the streets?(this one does not work anymore) candy maschines? Advertising columns? or Taxi columns? (there is a phone inside, I didn't know that!) or how does your mailboxes look like?

Sunday, February 14, 2016

Berlinale

For Katrin Merle's sketchbook I have to tell something about my city. It could be something personal or something historical or just an anecdote about my city. I have been a little late for my drawings.. But I managed to do some this weekend, because there is the Berlinale, what a great opportunity to tell something about Berlin. So I went to Potsdamer Platz (as a Berliner you never go there, is something for tourists) and catched some reporters doing some piece with the Theater in the background.
It's Berlinale
As you see I extended a little on the top right and left bottom, but leave some space on the right top, encouraging you to interact with my drawing.

Tuesday, February 9, 2016

"My favorite place" Baretto in Wrangel Kiez

Baretto is a nice cafe  in my street. People know each other here,
Watercolor on site. a watercolor for Detlef Surrey Sketchbook "my favorite place"

Saturday, February 6, 2016

A walk in the flea market - Hallentrödelmarkt Berlin Treptow • Detlef

My first sketch in Aurore´s book.
Unfortunately, January is not the most pleasant month to draw flea markets in Berlin. :-(
So I chose the covered hall of the Hallentrödelmarkt in Berlin Treptow for my sketching.















Wednesday, February 3, 2016

People in Motion - Potsdamer Platz • Detlef

Berlin, Potsdamer Platz. Rush hour.

People hurrying across the huge place past the Café Caran, where I sit drawing in the warmth close to the window.






















The green street lights tower in the center is a replica of Europe's first traffic lights, erected in 1924 in an attempt to control the traffic passing through.


Tuesday, January 26, 2016

Bon Appétit! - Birthday cakes

To the "Kaffeetrinken" (coffee drinking) the family meets relatives in birthdays or holidays like easter sunday, or in the afternoon friends meet in the café or at home. Besides, it plays no role whether coffee, tea or cocoa is drunk, however, cakes or biscuits are always present.

My sister celebrated her birthday and had baked these wonderful cakes.

Blueberry-Tarte, cranberry-cheesecake and chocolate muffins

Sunday, January 17, 2016

Bon appetit! - German food on cold days

A yummy, a tasty, a delicious sketchbook! I like the drawings very much which I've seen in that book.
Today it's a snowy winter day in Berlin, so we like to have a solid stew. This one is with Wirsingkohl (savoy), Kartoffeln (potatoes), Möhren (carrots), Zwiebel (onion) and Wiener Würstchen (sausages). A bit of cayenne pepper, Muskatnuss (nutmeg), herbs and cream - and you're getting warmer.




Thursday, January 14, 2016

"People in motion"

The drawings I made last summer in Omar's sketchbook. People at the underground station and in a shopping center.




Wednesday, January 13, 2016

"Your city - your story"

The first drawings in my sketchbook "Your city - your story".

The balcony and stairway to the garden in my parents house in Berlin. Memories of my childhood and the summer holidays...



The next drawing shows the Bösebrücke, the bridge wich connects West-Berlin with East-Berlin. My family and I live in West-Berlin, my relativs in the East. This is an urgent point in my family history.


And finally the registry office, where I got married to my husband.


All the text I wrote to the drawings you can find in an english translation in the little bag at the end of the Moleskine. It would be nice, if you do the same, when you get this book. Please tell us about your own private story in Tel Aviv! Which places are urgent to you?

Favorite Places - The Admiralbrücke • Detlef

The Admiralbrücke over the Landwehrkanal in Berlin-Kreuzberg.
A meeting point or people from all over the world. Vivid, relaxed and bit chaotic. The neighbors are not very amused...





Saturday, January 9, 2016

A walk in the flea market - Drawings by Marina & Nathan

I post myself Marina and Nathan's drawings because I did the scans before I sent them to Germany… Here are the drawings they did in Jaffa in my sketchbook "Flea Market".

Marina drew here a typical scene in Jaffa's flea market where the sellers are playing backgammon and arguing about the same stories from the last 30 years they've known each other… Best way to spend the time waiting for clients !
Nathan's first sketch was a mistake… but a nice one ! I thought each one draws his own subject in all the sketchbooks.
Never mind, the beach in Jaffa is not very far from the flea market, so let's say that after you did a tour in the flea market, it's nice to stop and have a rest at the beach !
Here Nathan sketched a typical old painting and frames shop.
On the left, you can see big natural sea sponges and cosmetics coming from the dead sea !

Then, I decided to glue funny staff I found in the market in the verso of the sketchbook. My idea was to creat a mess - a "balagan" as they say in hebrew - of faces and objects. A multitude of small and quick drawings or elements made by the 6 sketchers… Here, Nathan got very excited as you can see, please keep on filling this messy area if possible !







Thursday, January 7, 2016

People in Motion - Winter´s day in Berlin-Mitte • Detlef

A cold snowy Winter´s day in Berlin-Mitte.

People are hurrying to get inside one of the warm cozy cafés around and have a "Latte Macchiato" ...

Omar´s sketchbook: "People in Motion"

Wednesday, January 6, 2016

Drawing in Marina's sketchbooks

Food is easy, there are many places I could draw, so I went to my favorite market and try to draw sausages or how sausages are made. They were not preparing sausages at the moment, but I draw the counter with their products.
Butcher shop