Vaud – Jane Sketching

Château de Vufflens, Vaud, Switzerland

Fine rain started as I sketched the Château de Vufflens. At first I thought I could keep sketching. But then rain arrived in large-size drops, some containing ice. I took refuge under an archway. There was a view of the castle from there, but a different view. Also, standing there, I was, very possibly, in someone’s garden. I am not sure about Swiss laws on trespass. All I was sure of was that there would be laws. I assembled suitable French phrases in my head, to be ready to explain and apologise. And I restarted the sketch from this new angle. Then the rain stopped.

I inspected the sky suspiciously. I watched the cloud movements. Clouds just appear here, over the mountains, as from a volcano. They don’t proceed in an orderly succession as they do over the Atlantic. However all seemed more lightweight and friendly than it did earlier. I exited from the archway, and resumed my place on the public roadway. There are probably laws about sketching on the public roadway too.

But no-one even walked past. Not a car. Not a person. Not a dog. So that was alright. I finished the sketch. And then the rain started again.

Château de Vufflens in the morning, 24 March 2024 11:15 in Sketchbook 14

This castle is privately owned. It is on a rock in the valley, surrounded by high walls. Houses cluster at the bases of the walls. if you know the work of Mervyn Peake, think “Gormenghast”.

It was originally constructed in the middle ages, 1420-1430, for Henri de Colombier, an adviser to Duke Amadeus VIII of Savoy, I was told. It looks well maintained, and vast.

Later that day I made another attempt at drawing the castle, from a different angle. From this new viewpoint I could be under cover, but there were trees. I put the trees in.

Château de Vufflens in the afternoon. 24th March 2024, 4pm. 6″ x 8″ on Arches Aquarelle card

The walnuts came from the trees.

Sainte-Croix houses

In the afternoon I sat down on the stone steps and sketched the houses that were in front of me.

I was struck by how the afternoon sun cast shadows on that glass screen, centre left, and illuminated the little greenhouse-type roof on the house in the centre. These are solid Swiss houses, with heavy tiled roofs and properly operational shutters. Some of the metalwork, such as the guttering and the surroundings of the chimney stacks, is in actual copper. Even the downpipes are copper.

One tree was a fir tree and was opaque. The other tree was twigs, and was transparent.

Although it was spring, this is at 1200m, and it was cold. The deciduous trees are still bare. The hill is the background is Mont-de-Baulmes. Many of the trees up there are deciduous larch.

I painted this picture in watercolour-only. Usually I use pen. Here, I did a quick pencil sketch and then straight on with the colour. It was too cold to try to get any details or do any penmanship. The solid plainness of the houses seemed to demand flat colour washes. I deliberately left lines of white between the slabs of colour – the sun always catches edges.

Wind turbine construction in Sainte-Croix, Vaud, Switzerland

In the Swiss hotel there was much talk about the wind turbines. They are being constructed on a nearby hill. I could see them from a bench by the church.

Wind turbines above Sainte-Croix, Vaud 6:30pm, 16th August 2023. A5 Arches 300gsm NOT

People said, you should go up there and see them, you can get very close. So on Sunday afternoon, we visited the construction site. There are information placards and a visitor car-park. Plenty of local people were up there viewing the machinery. The general atmosphere was one of curiosity and admiration.

It was a Sunday afternoon family outing: Let’s go and see the wind turbine construction site…

The blades are huge. 43 m.

As a British person, I was surprised at the openness. As it was the weekend, the site had no workers. The fascinating machinery was separated from us by some notional fences. It was supervised only by a few CCTV cameras on a stand. Perhaps there were also hidden ones. As you see from the photos, we could get close, and walk freely around the crane. My Swiss companion was surprised at my surprise.

It was also remarkable how positive the feeling was amongst the sightseers. A local person said that in the past they had been opposed to the turbines, but now that construction was started, they could see how clean and organised it was. “It’s better than a nuclear power station!” they observed. There’s no immediate benefit for the local people: they do not get a reduction on their bills. “But it’s better for everyone.” I was told.

“Here we are building the first Wind Turbine park in the Canton of Vaud”. Note the line of cars to the right: local people have come to visit the construction site.

The next day, Monday, my host came rushing up to me as I returned from a walk. “Quick, look! They are raising…”. We found a vantage point. There, on the distant hill, the blades were being raised up the mast by the crane. They moved very slowly, but definitely, “like the hands of a watch” said my host. For that Swiss person, this engineering feat had become a source of local pride.

Gorge de Covatannaz, Vaud, Switzerland

I walked up the gorge from Vuiteboeuf to Sante-Croix. Half-way up I paused to sketch this amazing rock formation.

It was an ideal place to sketch, under the trees.

As I sketched, the silence was broken by thumps and scrapes behind me. A bear? A tree fall? A rock avalanche? No. A mountain bike rider descending the path at speed. These riders are skilful – they jump and bounce, and turn in the air like dancers.

I saw one in the distance as I navigated a narrow part of the path. Since there was a steep drop on the right hand side, I flattened myself against the rock to give them room. But there was no need. The rider brought their bike to a graceful halt, slipping sideways like an ice skater. They grinned as I greeted them. “Il faut du muscle” they said in response to my comment on the steepness of the path. Yes, you have to be strong. And have a sense of balance, good eyesight and rapid reaction times. And courage. After I passed, they backed up their bike and jumped on, to hurtle off down the slope.

My sketch took an hour. It’s on Arches 300gsm paper, with Daniel Smith watercolours. The colours I used were: