Recent Trip to Switzerland

My son and his partner have been living in Switzerland for a year now and though we miss them terribly we are lucky that we have the opportunity to visit them often and spend lovely time with them. The weather is usually really good and so much better than the UK which when I realised how far South in comparison Switzerland is makes a lot of sense!! Not to be on this trip however as we had rain for virtually the whole time we were there. Which leads me on nicely to my painting efforts there.....that age old dilemma, plein air or not!!

So I painted from their house looking out into the courtyard with one of the doors slightly open.... now that's close...isn't it?

They have a magnificent magnolia tree which we were hoping would still be in bloom when we arrived and they had actually taken some close up photos of the individual flowers at it's peak so I didn't miss out and it was still looking good though the ground was full of petals with the rain and wind. This is the outlook showing the tree and their shed

Another view where you can just see Riehen Church in the background

A close up from one of the photos

and finally an intepretation of some gerbera from a floral arrangement ( have to admit this was inside!!)

I don't normally get chance to paint much in Basel as we go out sightseeing to the lovely areas nearby and in the past have visited France, Germany, Lake Lucerne and of course Basel and their lovely little village Riehen, but as the weather was so awful we were somewhat confined to barracks which for us was absolutely fine.....the reason for our visits is to see our son and partner so it really doesn't matter to us where we are!! Having said that, next time we visit we are hoping to go to Zurich, only an hour away by train and a lovely city... looking forward to it already!!