after a long while not being happy with my drawings i spent a sunny and productive day at berlin zoo last weekend and now my sketch book is full of animals. yeah!
giraffes.
sleepy pigs.
angry looking penguins with great hairstyles (southern rockhopper penguins).
various birds (1. tawny frogmouth, 2. white-headed buffalo beaver, 3. spotted dikkop).
and some more birds sitting on a branch.
and some more birds (birds are the best!).
and that’s me, drawing the piggies…
… i have stopped writing regular stories on my blog for several reasons. but if you miss my drawings and want to see new material, you can find it here now: klaragrosz.tumblr.com! come on over!
it’s the very last days of the documenta 14 in kassel! have you been this summer?
my personal highlights were mostly to be found at the “neue neue galerie” – like the canteen with plants above…
… or the amazing and funny typography-related collages by ruth wolf-rehfeldt!
another favourite piece of mine was the movie “the dust channel” by roee rosen that was exhibited under the roof of the palais bellevue (here’s a teaser and another snippet on HR).
at the end of two full days of busy impressions i also enjoyed the calm installation “byzantion” by romuald karmakar (a movie showing orthodox monchs from greece and russia singing “agne parthene”).
here’s some more highlights, including the very best of the permanent exhibition of the ottoneum (natural history museum) and some details from installations at the fridericianum.
other visitors. and a gherkin (this is not a sculpture by erwin wurm, but part of our breakfast).
some of the best encounters are with animals. here’s my top 3 from this summer so far:
no. 3: rose-ringed parakeets in rome. they live up in these huge and beautiful pines – especially in ostia antica. and they have very lively and loud discussions… while i was witnessing parakeets defending their big round nest against pidgeons, they let this little green feather drop down for me to catch and keep (i guess)… thanks for the gift, my little buddies!
no. 2: lizards! little, cute, fast lizards! we had lots of them around our bus at the beach in puglia. one night we had a very special visitor though…
das urtier (=”the protozoan”). it was some kind of dinosaur (clearly). and it wasn’t very good at hiding (thanks for that!)…
can you spot him in this picture?
no. 1: by far the most magnificent encounter was this one though: we. saw. a. barn. owl!
it flew past us three times at the shores of gargano. and it blew my mind with its presence! so majestic and beautiful! my absolute favourite memory of this summer. ❤
last week i started showing my summer’s collection of things i saw on holiday (click here), here comes part II.
venetian pidgeons.
things to find on and around vaporetti – the public transport system by boat in venice.
ravens seen from the motorway back in germany.
beautiful landscapes of abruzzo on the way from gargano to rome.
to keep track of all those amazing things i see while travelling, i like to focus on certain topics or objects for a page or a spread. here are some of my collections from this summer:
my favourite dogs from the beach & campsite at molinella, gargano. (everybody kept calling pedro, but he simply didn’t care! pedro is the best! <3)
the best parasols at the beach.
my favourite pets around our bus… beautiful lizards at the campsite in gargano (the three visiting regularly were “the small one”, “the middle one” and “the yellow one” and then we had one very special visit by “the ancient one”).
my favourite cactei & friends at molinella beach.
is there anything better than having lots of time, a beach, sun & wind & waves… and a sketchbook on the side? we were on vacation at beautiful gargano, italy. here are some beachy impressions:
molinella beach in front of our camping door, with a view of the lighthouse of vieste.
the trabucco right around the corner (here is an explanation of what they are and what they are used for. all i know is that they’re used for fishing and that they look beautiful).
molinella beach and the trabucco from afar.
waves & fun!
haning out…
go on, travel around! don’t forget your sketchbooks!
aah… holidays… ❤ i just got back from travelling italy for 3 weeks and i’m just getting back into my daily routines in berlin. i spent so much time outside – even i got a tan, hurray! (well, except for those parts of my face at the top of my bangs…)
c. & i were travelling a big round through italy in a vw california (= our vehicle & accommodation). first we travelled via the austrian alps to venice (for the art biennale); then we spent a week at the beaches and in the forest of the beautiful gargano at the west coast and last but not least we were in rome for some days before returning to germany via a short stop at lake como in lombardia.
we saw soo much – different landscapes, the ocean, plants, animals, people, art… my sketchbook almost filled itself just on this one trip – and you’re going to see some of it on this blog in the next couple of weeks 🙂
we stayed at campsites (wild camping is not legal in italy) and we somehow managed to always have a great view from our bus. this is my little collection:
view (from the bus) 1: the alps at stubaital, austria.
view 2: a big old house right next to the campsite at lido di venezia.
view 3: the entrance of molinella camping, near vieste, gargano.
view 4: gnarled & shady trees at the campsite outside of rome.
view 5: sitting on the terrace of the very lovely bed&breakfast albergo sala in valbrona, lombardia, where we spent the last night before returning home.
about 3.300 km of driving through sun, wind, sand, mountains, forests, serpentines, also roman traffic – and an invasion of ants (i will get to this some other time)… the bus has seen a lot recently! so that carwash at the end was well deserved. thanks for taking us around, bus!
drawing after photography is so much fun!
after william klein.
after william klein.
after harf zimmermann.
both exhibitions have just ended at c/o berlin. but the next great show is coming soon, i’m looking forward to josef koudelka!
i can’t believe it! i managed to finish my never-ending to-do-list, my bags are almost readily packed and when i wake up tomorrow, i will be going on holiday, yay!
to celebrate travelling, here are some impressions of my neighbourhood close by, my kiez in berlin-wedding.
sprengelkiez.
view of the tv-tower from nordufer.
friedrich-krause-ufer aka. the “nichts”. it’s a non-place. there’s nothing to see on that side of the spree! there are just lots of functional bridges for trains & cars, the ever ongoing construction site for the s-bahn, dirt, noise, everyone here is only passing by, passing & leaving this corner as fast as possible. but there’s something magic about lingering between all those busy bridges and being a quiet observer in the middle of these crossroads that you wouldn’t usually ever take notice of.
gekritzel. 