Artist Marie Brozova's recollections of the public drawing event in Vodnany.
Oh my goodness, I've gained four pounds again, actually like always when I visit the beautiful region of South Bohemia with my project The Defense of Colored Pencils. There are very few days without sweet presents from my visitors, who come to thank me for the beauty I pass on during the public drawing event. Every day I was given some marble cake, ginger bread or pies with sweet filling, usually with the bunch of garden flowers. And in addition to that, I discovered the most dangerous sweet trap in Vodnany, The Angel Candy Store, maybe the most beautiful patisserie I have ever visited, situated only a few steps from the main square. As soon as I tasted the home made pistachio ice cream, I was sure that even the angels must be regular visitors in this cozy cafeteria where you can sit at the table by a mysterious deep well or relish at the sight of marvelous antiquities. I hope your mouth has been watering already, and I will go on temping you. When you order a cup of coffee with some delicious ice cream or the fantastic home made desserts by Mrs Kunova (the owner of the shop), kindly ask her to show you the guest book. During savoring the sweets you can find my small sketch portraying the angels enjoying their pistachio ice creams. At first sight you can see that is not a usual guest book, but really ancient treasure. When you turn it upside down, you will find that it used to be an accountant's book more than a hundred years ago, and maybe you will feel some melancholic longing for the past, when even such utilitarian things like accountant's books were made in the aspect of beauty. But nostalgia in combination with coffee and sweets brings on the right candy store atmosphere. Enjoy it!
That is really typical of me. Instead of recollections of my public drawing event, I have dedicated the whole paragraph to sweet memories. But in Vodnany all the memories and impressions were sweet. The ice cream-like colors of the houses, sweets smiles of grannies, grandpas, moms, dads, lovers and children, who all came to my easel with an ice cream in their hands, in high spirits. I also saw the sunsets over the ponds in sweet colors. Sometimes I looked at the sun setting down through a beautiful stone I was given as a present, a semitransparent green – violet fluorspar, in which the low sun discovered miraculous inner sceneries. Sweet was the smell of lilacs, lilac bushes lined our evening walks around the millstream leading to the quiet nature preserve of numerous ponds. Once we discovered a swan sitting on the nest in reeds, and we were scared a little at the moment. We also became friends with the local stork, nesting at the top of a factory chimney. This symbol of South Bohemia had to be represented in my drawing. When people noticed it, they started to tell me whole legends about this cherished bird that is adopted and pampered as a long awaited spring visitor. Last year the stork came before the spring began, there were lots of snow all around and no frogs to be eaten, so the fire department sent out a mission for its rescue – firemen on ladders regularly brought him food until the spring came. Ponds and fish are the center of interest in Vodnany too. At the very beginning I got as a present a small ceramics fish for luck. In the sky of my drawing titled "Willow Tree – the kind confessor", you can see fish even in the sky.
No wonder that this picturesque small town attracted many famous artist in past. For example painters Jan Zrzavy, Mikolas Ales or the writer Julius Zeyer. Even nowadays Vodnany are full of individual personalities, like the director of the Town Museum and Gallery Mrs. Jitka Velkova, the town chronicler Mr. Zdenek Hruska, outstanding photographer Mr. Karel Burda, who you can meet in his small photo shop close to the Museum, or young sculptor Mr. Cejka, who visited my project The Defense of Colored Pencils many times accompanied with other members of local artists group.
The public drawing event in Vodnany was special in many ways. For the first time it started by an announcement in local radio and the news was spread in loudspeakers placed on every corner. This public drawing event was also accompanied by so far the largest exhibition. The visitors could see eighty six originals, including thirty large formats created in public during my project The Defense of Colored Pencils. The exhibition was held in generous space of Municipal Museum and Gallery. This public drawing event in Vodnany also attracted the record breaking number of schools visiting my public drawing; classes came not only from Vodnany, but also from towns and cities nearby, like Prachatice or Volyne. All the days of the week were full of children, one classroom was followed by the other and I was so tired that I almost lost my voice. But when I got dozens of beautiful pictures drawn by colored pencils at the end of the week, I felt that my endeavor was meaningful. The children these days are just the same as we once used to be. Their emotional development depends on what we offer them.
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where you’ll find both the drawings created during public events and in the studio.
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