Friday 12 July 2013

Ukrainian sketchbook: a sleeping Cat

Here is one of the two dacha's cats, a watercolour from my sketchbook from Ukraine:


Post holiday part 1 - a trip to Ukraine

I do not think I've had such a long time of non stop travelling before (ok, maybe about 8 years ago when we've used to own a sailing boat and we've sailed around Baltic to St Petersburg). I've had to refuse lots of interesting jobs (sorry clients! no internet connection where I was going + no access to the flatbed scanner either) and stress a lot about simple things (like toilets) but after about 8 weeks I am able to sum it all up: that was a great time! (Thank you husband for dragging me out! My poor stressed out head had such a fantastic time!) and my Russian has greatly improved from a leap from non existant to understanding a almost being able to communicate without introducing random words in Polish and English.

We've started our 3 weeks trip with a visit in Krakow and from there via train, to a longer stay in the south of Ukraine. I've had some blissful time of making apricot jams almost every day at our friend's dacha  by the Dnepr river, some kayaking and drawing in my sketchbook under a tree in the garden.

Have a look first at the images from my iPhone:
Art Nouveau in Odessa, cat at the dacha, hot, vast landscape (no wonder that the Ukrainian flag represents their blue skies and fields of grain producing plants stretching up to the horizon), famous Einseinstein's steps in Odessa, train station in Odessa