Costa Rica


I promised to show you some more pictures from Costa Rica. Sorry it's taken so long, but I've hardly been home since I got back to England.

Most of the paintings are on the main blog (see I'm Back!), but there are still a few left to show, including this one. This was my first watercolour attempt in Costa Rica, and the first page of my brand new moleskin, so rather daunting all round. I painted it sitting on a big, flat rock, beside a river. It had taken me ages to choose a subject, as the forest is so intense that I was struggling to isolate a detail from the tangled mass of green stuff!

I also took my A6 sketchbook for pencil sketches. As you can see, the beaches were horrible:


The drawing below, also done on the beach, was one of those spur-of-the-moment ones, where I only had a few minutes to spare:


This next one was even more so. We were in a minibus, travelling down from the mountains, when the traffic was suddenly stopped: high winds had blow large trees onto the road and men with chain-saws were busy clearing the way.


On a whim, I jumped out of the bus and ran as close as I could get away with. I only just managed to get it done, as they were incredibly efficient and cleared the way in under 10 minutes.

I had a bit longer for this one. We were waiting to be picked up, near a little aerodrome on the south coast. There happened to be a little plane on the tarmac:


By chance, this turned out to be the very same plane we flew out on a few days later. On that second occasion, I decided to sketch the ticket office, as it was so wonderfully laid back, compared to New York, where we'd come through:


It was lovely too, spending only about 45 minutes hanging around, compared to the hours you get stuck in a regular airport. This one was done waiting for our flight out, at Manchester Airport:



We had a 4 hour delay, on top of the 3 hour check-in, which is why John is looking so cheesed off here:


I didn't get to draw the animals in Costa Rica, though we saw loads of monkeys, sloths, turtles, crocodiles - all sorts. But they were all too fleeting. So, here is a photo of me holding an iguana, rescued from under a car outside our hotel in La Fortuna. I have no idea why I'm looking so anxious - I love iguanas!

6 comments:

Casey Klahn said...

Favorite Costa Rican animals: Jesus Lizard, Howler Monkey and Quetzalcoatl Bird.

Least fave: Crocodile, Bushmaster snake and Vampire bat.

Fun report, art and pics.

Lynne the Pencil said...

When we first heard a howler, outside the cabin in the early hours, we thought it was a big cat!

I rather liked the very shy, white-faced monkeys. They couldn't make any noise, so shook their tree violently if they wanted you to go away.

We never saw a VAMPIRE bat! Just cute tiny ones that sat in a long line, pretending to be a snake!

andrea joseph's sketchblog said...

Don't mind me. I've just hanging around your blog for about an hour. You are so talented Lynne, I feel quite envious.

Wow, these Costa Rica drawings are amazing. As they all are.

Lynne the Pencil said...

Thanks Andrea, your kind words are much appreciated!

Anonymous said...

You have been to Costa Rica!! I
lived there for 3 months and worked as a waitress in San Jose (half time - the other half I travelled.

I absolutely loved it there and never wanted to come back. I even wrote my master thesis about Costa Rica (all in Spanish! :) ) - about political reasons and consequences
of the 1948 Civil War in Costa Rica - not exactly fascinating but I was quite fascinated.

Your sketches are lovely. I know I am a horrible copy cat but now I
want to try watercolours too - you make it look so easy and effortless
though I am sure I will stumble!

Kinga

lots for sale in Costa Rica said...

Hello!
I want to congratulate to them by its site of the Web of the excellent looks like entertained and very good to me it elaborated, really interesting!