Number 6 tram, Helsinki, originally uploaded by Brin d’Acier.
Trams are my favourite form of transportation.
Number 6 tram, Helsinki
E-Train 13:35
Sketchbook Helsinki August 30, 2010, originally uploaded by Brin d’Acier.
Pyramid House, Pikku Huopalahti
Pyramid House, Pikku Huopalahti, originally uploaded by Brin d’Acier.
The view from my window. The pyramid belongs to a recent, architecturally a bit more daring neighborhood in Helsinki.
My Favourite Coffee Pot – Broken
My Favourite Coffee Pot – Broken, originally uploaded by Brin d’Acier.
When an old favourite object breaks, I take a picture or make a drawing before throwing it away.
My wife has promised to try to re-attach the handle with epoxy glue. Besides being a sculptor and an archeologist, she is a professional restorer specialized in polychrome sculpture. So maybe there is still hope for this old pot.
Very old high tops I had to finally throw away in Paris. They were not a famous brand and made in Czechoslovakia, but they had lasted long. So long that the textile parts had faded from black to purple.
Waiting. Huopalahti train station
Waiting. Huopalahti train station, originally uploaded by Brin d’Acier.
There’s a chill in the air already. It’s getting dark at night. Autumn is approaching.
Senate square, Helsinki
Sketchbook Helsinki, August 26, 2010_2, originally uploaded by Brin d’Acier.
Senate square, Helsinki
I kept being interrupted by heavy downpours that almost washed away this drawing. I opened my umbrella and switched to water-proof markers.
Most of the buildings on the square were designed by Carl Ludvig Engel, all in the neoclassical style.
I love this square because it exemplifies the forces that shape a city. On its four side are:
1) The Church
2) The University
3) The Senate
4) A mixed bag of commerce: Shops, a bank, a café that also shows art movies (one of my favourites, but now closed for renovation). The mayor’s residence is squeezed a bit on the side, and there used to be a police station, but they got bumped.
– And The Czar in the middle of the square.
I’ll get some more sketches done later when the tourist buses leave…
Yes, it’s a huge ferryboat behind the building. It’s bigger than the buildings in the old town. They cross the Baltic between Helsinki and Stockholm daily.
A ray of sunlight during a rainstorm
A ray of sunlight during a rainstorm, originally uploaded by Brin d’Acier.
Mixed media on paper.
There was a break in the clouds and the sun transformed the highway into a river of gold.
I spent my lunch hour trying to capture the effect.
This is a view from the city of Espoo towards Helsinki. The little peaks you can just barely make out behind the bay are in downtown Helsinki. In the summer I come to work by bicycle, on a bike path running in the woods on the right side of the highway, over a series of little islands.
The rain it raineth every day…
Sketchbook_Paris_1991_032, originally uploaded by Brin d’Acier.
Second day of heavy rain, and more to come.
My plans of sketching outside have to be postponed.
James Gurney has a great list of other things going awry when doing art en plein air:
Gamestoppers on Gurney Journey
So, here’s a post of houseplants – in many ways the ideal model, as they never move or get impatient.
Number 10 tram, 16:10
Number 10 tram, 16:10, originally uploaded by Brin d’Acier.
Sometimes you get lucky and the people you start sketching are stuck standing in the same spot until the end of the line.
Morning, approaching rainclouds
Morning, approaching rainclouds, originally uploaded by Brin d’Acier.
When I arrived at work this morning, I saw this cloud bank approaching from the east. I had planned to go sketching outside in the afternoon, so I had my watercolours with me.
Half an hour later the rain started.
Mille Croquis 