|
sketchcrawl #14, this time in london
While I was back in London, on May the 19th, I still managed to take part in the 14th international sketchcrawl, going down to the Thames with Simon, a sketchbook and some paints; we began in a small cafe by London bridge station, before heading off to Borough Market, sketching Southwark Cathedral on the steps leading down from the high street.
We ate cheese in Borough Market and walked down the narrow alleys along the south bank of the Thames, pauisng to sketch here and there (the Golden Hinde, below).
 And then we met my wife and crossed over the river to search the empty city streets for signs of the FA Cup Final. Unfortunately the cup final turned out to be a boring waste of time, but the sketchcrawl definitely wasn't. You can see the results properly here on the sketchcrawl site. Of course, I did more drawings while in London, but you'll have to wait for those I'm afraid. I don't think I appreciated before just how much there is to draw in London. I mean, there's only so many trees and wooden buildings to draw in Davis and Sacramento. |
|
|
1.6.07 06:45 |
|
|
minty polo
may 20, while at the mr solo gig waiting for the acts (including a flying v ukelele) to come onstage at the little red room above the enterprise in chalk farm. |
|
|
3.6.07 20:27 |
|
|
two more from the thames
may 22, down on the south bank, looking across the river. i like the river. except i wouldn't want to live in it. apparently though, you can drink the water. it will probably kill you, but you can drink it.
|
|
|
4.6.07 06:48 |
|
|
later that afternoon, across the river
may 22; after some south bank sketching, simon and i went across waterloo bridge to drury lane for a quickish beer and croque monsieur in the lowlander cafe. They have a large selection of belgian and dutch beers; i asked if they had one of my all-time favourites, charles quint, as it wasn't on the menu. i'd been introduced to this tough but tasty drink many years before in charleroi, by a burly sailor from antwerp who said he could drink no more than two of them, and i've never seen the drink outside la belgique. Well the waitor said you're in luck mate, I have some charles quint of my own, and would gladly share with a fellow appreciator. He didn't have the special cup though. But it was still good. I forget what simon had, but it had an interestingly unusual name. And below, a pic I did near drury lane, is this broad court or martlett? i can't remember. Answers on a postcard.
|
|
|
5.6.07 03:54 |
|
|
good evening, this is burnt oak
This is Watling Park, in Burnt Oak, where I grew up. The park's down the end of my old road, where my mum still lives, and I did this while I was back. Looks nice doesn't it. The view across to Deansbrook, to the old football field, past old oak trees, look there's a group of chavs getting drunk on thunderbird, and look there's a kid mugging an old lady, and there's someone taking drugs, and look there's a teenage father teaching his kid how to do graffiti, ah isn't that nice. Not much has changed over the years I suppose. The amount of time spent in this park as a kid, jeez, playing footy on the bowling green, messing about in the stream and on the tarzan rope, going on the swings, playing hide-and-seek in the bushes, avoiding the gluesniffers and the crazy stray dogs and the kids from grahame park. And down below, that's the view I saw every day from my bedroom window, norwich walk. drawn may 23, 2007, watercolour, purple micron pigma .005 pen.
ps: 20six is very annoying for always going offline and making the blogs disappear, at the only times i get to update. i am not amused. pps: more pictures to come, but i promise i'll get back to some actual writing at some point soon as well... |
|
|
8.6.07 08:03 |
|
|
in sacramento once more
sunday june 3; a break from my endless london sketches, some stuff i did in sacramento on sunday, while people asked me for any spare change, any spare change. Had a couple of beers in between the one below (the blessed sacrament cathedral) and the one above (the state capitol), discovered pyramid alehouse, their amber weizen is g.u.d. good. using the new cotman paints, trying to get used to them, they really are quite different, i like the payne's grey but hate the greens in the set. Learning curve. and 20six is still being lame.
|
|
|
9.6.07 09:37 |
|
|
and finally the rest of the london sketches
these london drawings seem to go on forever! there's even more. but you know what, you can see them all on my flickr site. Below, st james' park looking past horseguards and towards the big london eye. And also a trip around london drawing statues and domes and what not. Above, trafalgar square on those days when they decided to turn it green and cover it with grass - very nice. Oh there's more, but they'll all go the flickr site. For now, there's this! It's June! I wish to write and draw anew. Hope all are well. California is getting hotter. It's that time of year again.
|
|
|
11.6.07 07:51 |
|
|
the davis copy shop
cotman watercolours, micron pigma pen; the davis copy shop on university avenue, painted last thursday, i'm not sure about the greens in these paints, i think i'll have to check out some more pete-friendly hues; i like the payne's grey though. And so, back to more wooden houses and trees, back to davis. Flat valley fields, distant blue hills (that get yellow when seen up close), and hot weather. It's only June. But July is comning, and that, last year, was a journey into fahrenheit hell... |
|
|
11.6.07 08:06 |
|
|
in the city there's a thousand things i wanna say to you
(fleet street, may 21) I know I know, I said this was gonna be the last of the london pics and to look on my flickr page, but i forgot about these ones, and fleet street is my favourite street in london (it don't half pen and ink though). There's st.paul's, not the sacramento capitol building, and there's the olde cock tavern, which has been around since before the united states of america was a twinkle in george washington's pistol. Though it used to be over the road; why did the cock cross the road? Enough of that. Samuel pepys, the adrian mole of his day, used to drink there before going home and writing his diary; he wrote in 1661: "Thence with him to the Cock alehouse at Temple Bar, where he did ask my advice about his amours, and I did give him it, which was to enquire into the condition of his competitor, who is a son of Mr. Gauden’s, and that I promised to do for him, and he to make what use he can of it to his advantage". The phone boxes are at the back of the royal courts of justice, which sounds very grand, and is. i used to come down here evry day when i studied at king's, and used to go to the maughan libray on chancery lane. In the computer room of that very library i started this blog, while procrastinating over an essay about saint erkenwald. Two and a bit years later i'm in davis, california (followed by weather). |
|
|
12.6.07 06:42 |
|
|
4th street in santa rosa, or 'what do i get?'
on sunday in santa rosa, la ville de ma femme, i had heard tale of this statue of a korean carrying some sort of water device, that looks from a distance like a woman throwing up, and it really does as well, so i had to draw it, but from the opposite end, or you'd think it really was a woman throwing up. and that's barnes and noble behind it, on 4th street, and guess what, that used to be a dept store, and was featured in that film, oh what was it called, i saw it in france & it was called 'the man who wasn't there', it was about a barber i think also in santa rosa, went to see a band in a pub. the band were called 'huge large'. seriously. i was expecting eddie little. And they did, after me going on about the buzzcocks to my wife just minutes before ("if i could be in any band it would be the buzzcocks, and i'd play what do i get and boredom) and listening to a load of buzzcocks stuff in the car on the way over, the bloody huge large band play 'what do i get' by buzzcocks, in an american accent too (whadda ah get?). I woudn't let it lie. I could have let it lie, but i didn't let it lie. |
|
|
13.6.07 06:38 |
|
[next page]
powered by
20six.co.uk
