Pastel by Michele Wells
Gateway Gallery's next theme show was brought on by a
trip to Germany for Michele Wells. She spent 10 days visiting with family in
the very South of Germany. Here is her experience in her own words....
I flew into Munich on August 4 and was picked up by my
Dad and Step Mother. My Dad was born in Germany and spent his childhood there.
They now live in Vancouver Canada but he has many friends and family to
visit. After visiting with my Dad's
cousins for a few hours we drove 2+ hours southwest to the little town of
Markdorf Germany just a few miles north of the Bodensee also known as Lake
Constance. My parents had arranged to swap houses and cars for a month with a
family from this little town so we had a nice spacious place to stay and a way
to get around. We used this as a central place to do our day tripping from.
One of my favorite drives was east into Bavaria. Our plan
was to go to Fussen and take some photos of the famous Neuschwanstein castle.
The drive there was one of the most beautiful with the view of the alpine
valleys and the Austrian Alps. When we got to the castle we were disappointed
to find the castle covered in scaffolding and huge crowds so we turned back to
the old town site and spent the afternoon in Fussen. This is a beautiful old
town just a mile or so from the castle.
Pastel by Michele Wells
Another day trip was through the Black Forest stopping in
Titisee, a small mountain town next to a beautiful lake. Of course we had to
have black forest cake for lunch. We drove on through to Frieberg and found a
huge market surrounding the old Cathedral in the center of town. There were
many venders selling things from flowers, produce, sausages, mushrooms,
handmade brooms and brushes to items made from olive tree wood. And much much
more. We took the drive south along the Rhine on the trip home.
The small towns dotting the edge of the lake were all
great places to visit. One of my favorites was Meersberg. It is a very
beautiful town set up on a bluff. We shopped, had lunch and toured the old
castle. Another day was spent riding a ferry along the lake. It stopped at 7 or
8 towns dropping off and picking up passengers. It was like a mini cruise. We
got off at Lindau and had a nice leisurely lunch and then took the next ferry
back. This was about a 7 hour round trip and the weather could not have been
better.
Pastel by Michele Wells
Many of our other days were spent driving the countryside
and visiting the small villages and markets of the area. The landscape is full
of agriculture with a wide variety of crops. We saw orchards, vineyards, corn
and many grains to name a few. I was always amazed at the number of beautiful
window boxes, many of them filled with Geraniums. Almost every building had
them.
On the last full day we drove back to Munich to be close
to the airport for my flight the next day. This also happened to be my
birthday. While there we went to the famous Hoffbrau House for lunch. Unfortunately
it was not our best experience in a restaurant. The food was just okay and the
service was not great. But our decision to eat cake for dinner was a great one
especially since it also happened to be my birthday. We found a nice little
place near the hotel that had great cake and coffee. Our last evening was spent
strolling through the city park known as The English Garden. We had heard to
look out for the surfers and could not imagine what this meant. It turns out
there is a place in the river that has some large waves and there were many
young guys surfing in the middle of the park. Too funny.
Pastel by Michele Wells
It was a great visit. I took over 1000 photos and all of
my paintings for this show were done in my studio from some of these photos.
There are so many great subject matters it was hard to just pick a few.
Next.... I am planning a painting trip to France in Sept.
2013.
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Blog post by Gateway Gallery Artist Daniel Fishback.
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