Seven days on the Rhine
Posted: July 29, 2026 Filed under: Uncategorized 18 CommentsToday was supposed to be a day of scanning all my sketches from a recent trip to Europe, but my scanner did not cooperate. After 15+ years as “my trusty scanner”, it has either died or needs a new power adapter. I hope it’s the latter, which is a much cheaper option. The adapter is on order and I will know more as soon as it arrives. If the scanner itself has reached the end of its life, I will thank it and say that I certainly got my money’s worth. I’m not exaggerating when I say that I’ve scanned thousands of sketches with it, and it has always worked perfectly.
I have always preferred scanned sketches to photographed ones. I find the colour is truer and the images require fewer adjustments in Photoshop to brighten the whites and get them to match the originals. But in the interests of time, today I took my book outside and photographed my sketches in the overcast light of this rainy day. They’re not as sharp as the scans I am used to, but they will do for now.
And now for the sketches…
I’m never sure what to put on the first page of a new sketchbook, but this time it was easy. I was in Europe to teach a French Escapade workshop on a Rhine River cruise boat along with my very talented friends Brenda Swenson and Suhita Shirodkar, so I designed some lettering for the page and added a sketch of a decorative ceramic frieze that I saw above a door in Amsterdam.
We spent a few days before the cruise with good friends in Amsterdam, and besides visiting the Rembrandts and the Vermeers at the Rijksmuseum, we had some time to draw along the canals. Can you spot The Girl with a Pearl Earring in my sketch?
The river journey started in Amsterdam (imagine 45 sketchers boarding the boat with all their gear!) and ended in Basel, Switzerland. Along the way we had tons of fun sketching at the open air museum in Arnhem, and then in Nijmegen, Cologne, Mainz, Strasbourg and Ribeauvillé. Below are my spreads from the trip, including some workshops demos and some sketches done on free afternoons — windmills, old wooden boats, timbered houses, the people on another boat when we were side by side in one if the many locks we went through along the way, and of course the very gothic cathedral in Cologne.
I regret not taking more photos of the sketchers on location in all of these places, but I was too busy teaching and sketching. Thankfully our wonderful organizers from French Escapade did a lot of that. Have a look at their Instagram or Facebook feeds to see some videos of the fantastic work from our talented group. It was thrilling to see all of the sketchbooks on our final night together! Tomorrow (or when my scanner cable arrives) I’ll post the sketches from my second teaching week, this time in Alsace. And if it turns out that my scanner is trusty no more, I will be certainly asking for recommendations!
These are all lovely. Welcome back!
Thanks Chris. It’s really great to be back. I finally had a chance to unpack all of my art supplies that I have been dumping in my studio all summer.
Found the “Girl” along with all the other magical touches you add to your sketches. Glad you had a great trip!
The “Girl” is on all the parking meters in Amsterdam! Yes, it was a wonderful trip!
Fabulous sketches, Shari, and yes, I did spot the girl with the pearl earring! Well done, as always!
Thanks so much Lynn!! It was an amazing trip.
Use your smartphone as your scanner….iPhones and all Android phones have scanning ability and do a good job of editing them.
Thanks so much Stanley. I will certainly look into that.
Very Nice! I worked and trained in baking and pastry in Dusseldorf. I lived 2 blocks from the Rhine! Great memories.
Thanks Daniel. The Rhine was very magical! Lucky you to have trained there.
What a wonderful summary & I am surprised how many sketches you / we were able to do! Looking forward to see you Rhine castle overview! 🙏
HI Bunny. We did accomplish a lot, didn’t we?? You did so many wonderful ones too! I just unpacked my accordion sketchbook and realized that I still have to complete my castle layout! Hope all is well with you.
Looks like such a wonderful time was had by all – so hard not to envy all the participants since I know how well Jackie and Valerie manage a retreat – and three spectacular instructors! Cindy and I stopped Mary Klump on Friday at the urban sketching meet up to hear all the details – and we got a look at her sketchbooks as well! Thanks for going the extra mile here so you could share your sketches with us – fingers crossed for the scanner!
Hi Kris, yes, a good time was had by all!! And it was lovely to meet Mary and her husband. In fact, Spyro and I had dinner with them one night. I’m so glad you got to see her sketchbooks too!! I hope you are having a great summer. Say hi to Cindy!!
what an amazing trip and it sounds like that printer has offered you 15 good years, so that’s not too shabby -)
Gorgeous sketches as always. Hope your scanner recovers. I completely agree about scanning compared to photos of sketches…. I use an expensive Epson perfection v600 photo scanner because I got fed up with conventional scanners not picking up the pink!
What a lovely chatty post: almost like being there with you. And of course I love the sketches and the beautifully designed first page. Good luck with the scanner … I know exactly how you feel because my trusty all in one printer/scanner has been making some very expensive sounding whirring noises for the last couple of weeks.
I don’t know how you manage to be so crazy productive while teaching! Looked like a fantastic trip– I enjoyed seeing various posts from teachers and students on IG.