5 days of Art in Slavonice

Last week, I was in Slavonice a small town in the southern Czech region. The town has a traditional medieval renaissance city center and the oldest building is dated to 1545.

This trip was a requirement to complete an art course in drawing and painting, at the University of South Behemia. I love art and I figured it would be a good way to gain extra points. 

The main objective was to study perspective in art by doing 3 paintings and 6 drawings of architecture, trees and landscape. I hadn't taken classes in drawing for such a long time, it was tricky at first to draw the angles of buildings in the right perspective. My work got better as the week went along.

The one drawing I will always remember is my water painting of a simple house. That evening, as with the end of most days, we had put all our drawings for the day in the center of the room for critique. I got my best review ever. The professor, not knowing that it was my painting, said that the person who painting this has managed to draw with perfect perspective. Using his ruler, he then said, each line of the house was is in the right position and angle. He further said that this person has developed their own unique style, the sky painted vertically instead of horizontal as is the norm. 

I never imagined that I would be in a small European town painting and drawing architecture. I learned a lot of things during that week. For one thing, talent can only take you so far, if you want to go the extra mile learn the tricks of the trade and if you want to reach the sky break the rules.