More Monaco Sketches

One of my pocket sketchbooks from Monaco surfaced just this week. It had been tucked in a pocket of a carry-on bag and escaped notice. These are graphite (mostly) in a 3x5 book that can fit into a shirt or jacket pocket. A sketchbook this size, plus a pencil and a kneaded eraser, is really all you need to make quick views of wherever you are, even indoors. These are necessarily very fast and loose drawings but I try very hard to make them as accurate as possible. Once in a while a composition seems good enough to render further in watercolor or ink (or a combination), but mostly these are reminders of a place, a view, or a feeling. These are a handful winnowed from quite a few sketches I managed during our recent visit to Monte Carlo and France. Most are simple notations or personal reminders and don't bear publication, but give me a flavor of my surroundings.

"Elephant Act," graphite and ink

This is a sketch of one of the elephants in the Monte Carlo International Circus Festival we attended. The animals (all Asian females) seemed well cared-for and quite happy. I suppose they only work a few hours a day and are fed and housed well. Further, these are domestic elephants, as are many of the Asian type, and would be working much harder and under much worse conditions in Myanmar or another Asian nation. The Monte Carlo Circus Festival makes an effort to encourage humane animal acts, believing that they improve conditions for all circus animals. 

This is a sketch of an antique truck that makes the rounds in Monaco advertising the circus festival. It was parked at the circus entrance when we visited. It's a flat-bed vehicle from the 1920s that has been restored to gleaming perfection. The paint is a satisfying deep green and the stakes and seats on the bed are stained a dark wood-red. 

"View from Le Rocher," graphite

Finally, here is an image from the top of Le Rocher ("the Rock"), which has been the stronghold of the Grimaldi principate since the 13th century. The view down to the harbor and the Mediterranean beyond are simply spectacular. Le Rocher has walls and sentry boxes perched over the cliffs, from the days when many of their neighboring nations wanted to conquer the country.

Perhaps we'll visit there again one day.