Sturm and Maroni- Tis the Season

 

 What is it about the flattening of the angle of the sun that causes the population at large to turn out and run for the vineyards. As last weekend was rainy, and this week we had a car, we fled the nearly empty streets of our urban jungle to join the throbbing masses as they headed to the wine street, thirsty for Sturm and the first Maroni of the season.

  Sturm the first 'raw' wine, freshly fermented, sweet and cloudy is only available for a short time in late September and early October. It is the drink of choice for most of the day's visitors. Available in both red and white (obviously), it pairs nicely with Maroni (roasted chestnuts) and Brettljause- a wooden board covered in sliced meats and the occasional pickled vegetable or slice of cheese.

 

  One of the interesting things about the Wine region is that as you are driving along you pass almost without warning from a moderately hilly, agricultural area onto streets balanced along ridges from which cascade steep slopes,  plummeting deep into the narrow valleys. Each one with row upon row of perfectly spaces vines stretched onto straight fences.

This swan was swimming happily in a small pond in the flatter area just before the wine street.

   On these pinnacles perch the Buschenschanks. Small restaurants belonging to individual vineyards, offering a variety of cold meats and cheeses along with baskets of bread and, of course, all of the products produced by that vineyard. To wander the wine street is a culinary delight. tasting the wines and fresh grape juice, the specialties of the different places, schnapps, sheep cheese, and different types of cured hams and bacon, and to feast on the small morsels that the land puts forth in autumn to the addition of our enjoyment.  Maronis, Pumpkin seeds, fruits...

   And of course where better than on the terraces, so highly situated, to absorb the very last rays of Autumn sun as twilight begins to creep into the valleys.

   Of course, this being an art blog there must be an art angle somewhere, and sure enough, there is one.  Landscape drawing, perspective, and layering. I am involved in a Natural History Illustration seminar at the moment and one of our assignments, due Tuesday, is to create a landscape/ habitat drawing. In this exercise the instructors are primarily looking  for 3 things:


-A strong vanishing point

- Layering (objects superimposed over one another, hills over mountains, fields over hills, and so on.)

- and high contrast objects in the foreground fading into less distinct (more blurred) objects in the background.

An d of course, the wine street offers all of that. Since every good landscape drawing is based on an actual landscape, I did several sketches and took photos for reference while there. What better way to spend a day off than to combine play with pending work? I can't think of any. The studio is always there anyway and has become my natural habitat.


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