Sketching Tours

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Sketching Tours

Fun, inspirational Travel Sketching Tours around the globe with renowned top Urban Sketchers and artists giving workshops each day.

Anyone welcome - you don’t need to be an artist, just want to travel and learn!

16/08/2024

Corfu from my bedroom window.
,

21/07/2024

One of my favorite streets in Paris.
Rue Galande.
Steeped in history you can see all around you in its houses, churches, street signs and stories.
As an Australian 150 years is old - let alone 1,000 years.

15/07/2024

Strasbourg and the Alsace region SKETCHING TOUR with the talented Albert Kiefer in May 2025
7 days sketching and filling our sketchbooks with mementos of this wonderful area of medieval picturesque France.
All sketchers of any ability welcome.
Bring your watercolors or your marker pens and sketching with us!
It will be fabulous.
Go to www.frenchfusion.com.au for all details

14/07/2024

Hammersmith Bridge on boat race day 1862 - about 130 years before any Occ Health and Safety rules.
Concerns were held for the bridge not supporting 12,000 spectators and possibly collapsing.
But not THAT concerned obviously
I wonder how they had a p*e from the top scaffolding…? 🤔.

13/07/2024

Visited the national portrait Gallery today
Parts of it are very good for one’s Ego.
I will never doubt myself again .
If these works are considered worth getting into the national portrait gallery then why on earth am I doubting my ability?
🤣

12/07/2024

PROVENCE FRANCE SKETCHING TOUR in 2025
with IAN FENNELLY
Only 4 rooms left on next year’s Provence tour.
It will be magical
Don’t miss out.
(my sketch done on our last sketch day together in Domme Dordogne France

09/07/2024

Footsore and exhausted yesterday I sketched this.
Cupid the god of love is blowing on H***n’s flame. H***n, god of marriage needs his flame rekindled every now and then - now there’s a surprise!
I sat down on a chair with a rear view to idly sketch this quite homo-erotic sculpture in my opinion. I thought I was sketching a man and a woman until to my surprise I came around the front and noticed two (very) small wi***es.

This superb sculpture by George Rennie is luminously white but you will have to take my word for it.
I came nowhere near achieving it.
I blame the watercolor paper!🤣

05/07/2024

Not my forte but I have to practice watercolor washes.
Padstow harbour this week. I’m here doing reconnaissance for a possible sketching tour down to Cornwall.
Delightful villages and the crowds are fine.

02/07/2024

A rushed and very breezy sketch done in the lea of the Cathedral sheltering a bit from the wind which nearly blew me off my seat.
Some handsome youths from Paris filmed us for a university doco that no one will see.
Certainly I shan’t
But I like to think of myself as possibly attracting paparazzi now wherever I sketch.

28/06/2024

Quick sketch in 32 degrees yesterday
Provence
J’adore.
A dog came up and sniffed me and I screamed
The dog got more of a fright even than I did!

11/06/2024

Beautiful Sarlat in the Dordogne sketching last week with .
A quiet back street sketching the chapel of the Blue Penitents on a warm sunny day.

11/05/2024

Probably the most photographed / sketched street in Paris: Rue Galande which I sketched from a different angle a few weeks back.
I’ll be in Paris this month before I host my tour with The Talented Mr Fennelly in the Dordogne.
Any historic structure, - preferably medieval or earlier - is perfect for sketching.
No Tissue Box modern houses or 20th century cement office blocks thanks.
Ghastly.
I love wonky, worn, hand-hewn, pock-marked and organic as my sketch subject.
But I’d probably prefer not live in it…. 🤣

06/05/2024

It’s glorious fiery Autumn here with blue skies and warm days with nippy nights. The tree colours are intoxicating.

27/04/2024

Glorious Aireys Inlet lighthouse in Autumn sunshine.
And a tree like an elephant’s foot that just made me laugh.

23/04/2024

Sketching workshop weekend in Anglesea Victoria.
The WILDLIFE! King parrots and kookaburra eating out of my hand each morning. Kangaroo sitting beside me whilst I sketched.
What a delight .
And the native fauna - silver gums, hakias and banksias. A joy to sketch.

15/04/2024

This is my favorite street in Paris because it is DRIPPING with history and really has not changed much in 800 years.
* It used to be a Roman Road through Paris
* The street was named after Louis King Louis The Fat’s, favorite mistress Etienne Garlande
* It has the oldest street sign in Paris up on the wall
* It has the oldest little church in Paris
* The church you see in the sketch St Severin, was named after an ancient hermit who lived on the site in the sixth century and performed miraculous deeds apparently
* It also houses a 15th century “ charnel house” or mausoleum for all the corpses that were lying around un buried
* It is in the famous Latin Quarter named for the Sorbonne university that was established here in the 12th century
* The famous philosopher and academic and all round good guy, Pierre Abelard, lectured to students on pallets of straw in this street in the 12th century before he was castrated by an angry monk for having a love affair with his niece.
And there are many more fun facts about the street but I won’t bore you with them now as I know we SCROLLERS have a very short attention span!🤣

19/02/2024

Broken pot sketch.
Acquafredda
Italy

02/02/2024

I love travel journalling and sketching on location. Sometimes I have little time to create an urban sketching “masterpiece” 🤪, so I just do small vignette sketches in frames like this one.
It’s just for me afterall. When I travel I do the same thing often.

27/01/2024

French day on Australia Day this year

02/01/2024

Fully escorted 4 star sketching tour in the magical Dordogne area of Southern France.
Step back in time
Paleolithic cave art
Perched castles
Medical covered markets
Ancient stone bridges
Lush rolling hills
Ancient pilgrimage sites
7 days sketching with

Go to www.frenchfusion.com.au for booking details.

31/12/2023

2023 sketching tours memories with great artists, friends and clients.
Southern France, the Lake District, Ireland, Portugal, Florence….
Roll on 2024 and more tours!

26/12/2023

Happy paint slopping during the Christmas break. I’ve had a large Dulux paint brush in my hands non-stop since September and I’m looking forward to getting back to a size 6 round and watercolour paint very soon.

07/12/2023

Sketching Tour in the South of France
8 days with Urban Sketcher Annette Morris.
Amazing accommodation. No crowds, no tourists, vineyards, wines, canal du midi incredible sketch opportunities. Great value.
Link in bio for all details

28/11/2023

Chateau de Beynac in the Dordogne.
This famous castle from the 12thC was once home to Richard, the Lionheart.
We sketch it and visit the medieval kitchen, banquet Hall, and chapel and guards rooms in our tour next June in 2024 Sketching with
This really is a wonderful historic tour full of the most wonderful sites to sketch.
3 rooms still available
www.frenchfusion.com.au

14/11/2023

Join sketching the Paleolithic era and more in France June 3 on our Dordogne Valley travel sketching tour.
See 17,000 year old cave art done by the first modern man Cro Magnon Man discovered here in 1868.
See paintings of bison, horses, mammoths, bulls, bears, rhinos and hunters.
See TROGOLODYTE cave houses used for millennia and medieval forts, castles and dungeons.
Join us on this immersive week of sketching and history.

https://frenchfusion.com.au/tours/dordogne-france-sketching-tour-with-ian-fennelly/

08/11/2023

Come sketch this exceptional place in the Dordogne next year with in June.
First built in the 13th century this whole place was abandoned and derelict for 600 years before the Commarque family bought it in 1972 and cleared the layers of silt and rubble away.
There are prehistoric cave paintings, troglodyte homes, a creek and a very high tower to explore.
Wonderful to sketch.

https://frenchfusion.com.au/tours/dordogne-france-sketching-tour-with-ian-fennelly/

06/11/2023

Quick sketch done during lunch pre-Covid when I was in this beautiful town last. The bell tower of Sainte Marie was built in 1385 originally. It now has an indoor market and a glass lift up to the top of the bell tower so that you can get a panoramic view over this beautifully restored and preserved medieval township.
It is a Sketcher’s delight full of little medieval twist and turn streets, honey, colored stone, unusual buildings and cobbled streets.
Join me, and when we stay here a week and explore and sketch the magnificent Dordogne region of France. June 3-9

https://frenchfusion.com.au/tours/dordogne-france-sketching-tour-with-ian-fennelly/

02/11/2023

Come travel sketching with in the picturesque Dordogne region of France in June next year.
June 3-9 staying in Sarlat and sketching on location in the Valley of a Thousand chateaux.
Go to our website for all details

https://frenchfusion.com.au/tours/dordogne-france-sketching-tour-with-ian-fennelly/

19/10/2023

I love this town.
Join me sketching with next June for a week in this glorious, medieval historic French village.
Great accommodation right near the action and wonderful sketching opportunities each day.

Go to our website for all the details

https://frenchfusion.com.au

Address

French Fusion Travel, Suite 901/101 River Street
Melbourne, VIC
3141

Website

http://www.frenchfusion.com.au/

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Check out our sketching tours in France next June at https://frenchfusion.com.au

Still some places left on this wonderful art sketching tour in France this June 3-13. Extraordinary value and an idyllic experience. Fully escorted tour with renowned artist and wonderful teacher @annettemorris.art as your host and tutor. Stay in a small medieval village in our private Manor House with pool. Details in link above.

This is SUCH an amusing skit on the Italians. It is very witty. I am organising a sketching tour for a very special spot in Italy for 2024. Yes I know it’s a long way off but it does take time to organise tours and everyone is travelling again post-covid and many of my tours are full or nearly full for next year. We all need to plan ahead. Want to come along?

Ciao @ianfennelly - check out his amazing art he produced in our Puglia to Pompeii Sketching Tour. Wonderful teaching, food, weather and group of fun happy eager sketchers who produced amazing results with Ian.