This morning when I got up, my sister was reading on the patio where we are staying in Antigua. She looked so lovely sitting there with the shining tiles, the greenery in the background, and the two potted plants. It made me want to capture the moment in my sketchbook.
Studying Spanish in Antigua Guatemala seems to require doing a lot of homework. At some point this evening, as we sat around the table, I noticed the unenthusiastic demeanor of my sisters and brother-in-law while they conjugated verbs and translated paragraphs. Each of them was holding up their head as they struggled to focus. It brought back memories, and I had to abandon my worksheets and try to capture it all in a sketch.
I started this on Saturday as we were lurching our way across Largo de Atitlan in Guatemala. The wind was blowing and the waves seemed huge. I felt a sense of danger at the roughness but calmed down when I saw a kayaker in the distance.
I had my sketchbook in my lap and drew the broad lines of this sketch while we were in the motorboat. Then this morning I went back and added the gouache.
We are on a weekend trip with our Guatemalan language school to Lake Atitlan and Chichicastenango. Although we do not have much downtime, I did get in a fast sketch. It shows the small boat we crossed the lake in, and the view back across the lake looking towards Panajachel. The blues in the lake and mountains were incredible and I wanted to catch a bit of it in this sketch.
We climbed up to the Cerro de la Cruz in Antigua to get a view of the city and surrounding mountains shortly before sunset. I did not bring any paper but after chatting with a sketcher from Brazil, I was invited to add a quick sketch into her book.
I liked the way the people on the hill were mesmerized by the setting sun and felt so lucky to have been given the chance to capture it.
I have been so busy studying Spanish, which of course is good, but it was even better to dash off a quick sketch.
Antigua, where we are staying for a few weeks, is fairly flat with mostly one or two stories and some taller churches and trees. In contrast, the giant volcano, the Volcán de Fuego, totally captures my eyes and fills me with incredulity as I look out over the city and see the volcano rising above the clouds. I wanted to capture some of this feeling in this sketch.
I arrived in Antigua Guatemala late yesterday for a two-week trip with four of my sisters and a brother-in-law. We spent the morning out and about and then this afternoon we chatted and sketched. This piece shows two of my sisters on the patio where we are staying.
