In October 2023, I was delighted to attend a 10 day pastel art retreat in Appenzell, Switzerland, hosted by Gillian Grove of Artable, with the amazing Lyn Diefenbach.
It was a small group of 8 students from Australia, with one woman from Idaho in the US so there were lots of opportunities for one-on-one tuition from Lyn. Appenzell is the smallest canton in Switzerland. It is up in the N-E corner of the country near Germany and Austria. The main language in that area is Swiss German so I was able to practice my High School German, much to the delight of the hotel staff and others!
Appenzell is a small village or town nestled in green rolling hills with surrounding mountains. We stayed in a small family-run hotel right on the town square. It was a beautifully decorated Swiss chalet. The town is located 1.5 hours by car from Zurich. The emphasis of the retreat was on pastels, particularly landscapes, portraits and florals. But there was also an opportunity to do en plein air in the spectacular Swiss landscape and travel journalling.
We were also very fortunate to have been in Appenzell for the annual parading of the Alpine cows down the main street, with the people dressed in traditional costume or “tracht” and the cows adorned with massive traditional cow bells. The Swiss brown cows had been brought down from the surrounding hills and mountains with the cow who had produced the most milk leading the parade.
Lyn did some amazing demonstrations during the retreat including a portrait of a young Swiss girl she photographed at the parade, a portrait of a backlit Swiss Brown cow and an incredible en plein air landscape of the river running through the town, with the hills in the background. She emphasized the importance of colour, edge, line and values. Lyn also regaled us with her cleverly crafted poems she wrote overnight about our amusing experiences, including a story about one of the Swiss Brown cows at the previous year’s parade making her way into the local perfume shop!
We were also amused by an art installation on a main thoroughfare that was nothing much more than a rotating manhole in the middle of the road. We had some very talented women on the course and participants particularly admired the travel journalling skills of mother and daughter, Tanzy and Julie. I was able to produce a number of human portraits, a couple of animal portraits (a goat and a cow) and a floral of a poppy with a buzzing bee. (See photo)
We also fitted in some sight-seeing (including a cable car ride to the top of a nearby mountain) and some great culinary experiences! There was much frivolity singing songs from The Sound of Music, particularly on our outings. I earned the name “Madame Butterscotch” on the trip from our very entertaining waiter, Florian, due to my request for a Butterscotch Schnapps post dinner – the only flavour that they didn’t have on their extensive list!
I managed to haul a 30 kg bag all the way to Switzerland and back. I had to have my favourite sets of pastels with me at the expense of my wardrobe. We were blessed with 10 perfect days of weather in their Autumn or “Herbst” and even managed to get around at times in a T shirt.
This was truly a once in a lifetime experience not only for the art learnings and insights but for the wonderful cultural experience, new friendships, and warm hospitality of the Swiss people.