Loping Through London

 I did this sketch in Trafalgar Square early on in our visit to London. I'd arrived early to meet up with friends at the National Gallery and this is my favourite sketch so far as it reminds me of such a special day.


Some photos taken in Trafalgar Square.


There is nowhere else on earth like London and it would take several lifetimes to see it all, but we've had a nice taste of it over the last two weeks.


This was my second visit to Kew gardens - the first being four years ago. It is a nice leafy respite from the frenetic pace of central London.  I did a sketch of my outlook after polishing off my scones with jam and cream in a very pretty cafe just near the gardens. It needs more work to define things better but I simply haven't had time so I thought I'd post it anyway.





I LOVE bumblebees! They are so cute it's as if they are just made up creatures like leprechauns!

This one was supposed to be of the hotel lobby but I misjudged things rather badly and only had room to get as far as the beautiful ceiling and the top of the chandelier. I'm hoping I might get the time and energy to have another go at it before checking out tomorrow morning.


We've been whizzing around London by tube - I became very familiar with the system when over here on a backpacking holiday when I was 21. It's like riding a bike- you never forget how to do it.

This photo belies the busyness of how it often is, also, this is one of the quieter stations. There is nothing quite like the throng of stations and the interconnecting pedestrian tunnels such as Victoria. I'm constantly in awe of how well the system works when at times it seems little short of chaos.


We've also got around a lot by foot. Being that our hotel is right in the middle of some of London's most salubrious locations, we only need to walk down the street to see beautiful streets scapes such as these.






Will post more soon!

Glorious Wales

For a variety of reasons, including irregular access to wifi, I haven't been posting as often as I had hoped to.

We've been in London for about 10 days now and savouring every moment of it. It's a real contrast to the beauty and lushness of rural Wales and Ireland, but fascinating and beautiful in a different way. As promised in my last missive, I am posting some photos that I took while staying with friends in Wales.

I did one sketch while staying with our friends but it looks like a bit of a dud without colour and I haven't had time to work on it further as yet. I have, however, done a couple since then that are respectable and I will post them soon.

O

The Adventure Continues

We thoroughly enjoyed our time in Ireland. It's such a beautiful country and the people are VERY friendly. It was so great to spend some time with our brother and sister-in-law.
Dublin was pumping with life and there were a lot of colorful pubs around the place.

I loved all the flower stalls that we came across in the city centre.

The three hour ferry trip across to Wales was the smoothest crossing we could have hoped for. Things livened up a bit upon our arrival in holyhead when after a longish wait to disembark there was an announcement  advising us that the gangplank had been misplaced!!!!! Eventually we were disgorged via the vehicle drivers' exit and were bussed back to the baggage claim area. We caught our connecting train to Llandudno by the skin of our teeth.
Llandudno is a gorgeous Victorian seaside resort with the original buildings still intact and stunning. We enjoyed a walk along the amusement pier and joined friends later in the evening for a sumptuous meal at a beautiful hotel.
L



The next few days were spent nearby with friends on their rural property not far away. I will post photos in my next missive, but I warn you that the picturesque quotient is almost unbearable! They live in such quintessentially pretty British  countryside. Not that my photos have done it justice!

A Few Sketches

While staying with my brother and his wife I did a pencil sketch of their view from their dining room but didn't get a chance to finish it until last night. It's the first time I've used these watercolour paints and I painted by hotel lamp light which was rather subdued.

Today, my sister and I visited Trinity College which is the repository of the famous book of Kells - an illuminated manuscript from around 800AD. Amazing to see how intact and vibrant the text and illustrations are after all these centuries. Trinity College also boasts a three century old library which is a sight to behold. You feel like you've walked into a scene from a Harry Potter movie. We were allowed to take photos in the library as long as we didn't use our flashes.



Suddenly, I found the perfect spot to do a sketch. Luckily I had packed my sketching gear in the morning with the hope that such an occasion would arise.  There was a lull in the traffic and very few people were sitting on the few benches provided so I didn't feel I was in anyone's way. I really enjoyed myself and was astounded to discover that what felt like a ten minute sketch had actually taken me close to 40 minutes to do! Luckily my sister was happy to linger and soak up the amazing atmosphere of the place and she kindly took a few snaps of me sketching.

The photo below shows the back of my head and the view I am working from - the bust second to the left.
I'm afraid I'm unable to work out how to crop and rotate photos on my I-pad so you will have to crick your neck to view the outcome!

The Emerald Isle

I've been doing and seeing so much whilst here in Ireland, it has been hard to find the time to post on my blog.

After a nightmare trip over which involved three different flights, three long waits at three different airports and over 40 hours of all but no sleep, we arrived in Dublin. After a good night's sleep my sister and I were collected by my brother who lives an hour and a half south of the city with his wife. The view of the seats in front of us had been burned into our brain so it was wonderful to swap it for the gorgeous one above which is the view from my brother and sister-in-law's diningroom window.

We were well looked after and they drove us around to see all the local beauty spots. The windy hedge-lined lanes were dotted with rustic cottages and beautiful gardens and everywhere we looked was beautifully and quintessentially Irish. 

I've really appreciated all the comments that everyone has posted on my previous few posts and I'm sorry I haven't responded. I may not get much time to do so while I'm away but I really appreciate all my visitors!! I hope everyone is keeping well!

We are now spending a few nights in Dublin.

Waiting in the Departure Lounge

Yay! my first sketch and we haven't even left Perth yet.

Testing, Testing

After much gnashing of teeth - and with some help from my long-suffering husband - I have finally worked out how to do a blogpost from my i-pad!
I had to buy a special attachment to be able to upload the photos from my camera onto my i-pad, so I took my camera with me on my walk the other day to get some new snaps to upload.
I spotted this shag drying it's wings in the breeze.
So, I think I'm all set now for blogging all over the world!!

The Details are Sketchy!

Brighton Living Room - 1985

Historic House in Albany - 1989

Federation Home - 1989

I have some exciting news! Soonish, my sister Jenny and I will be spending five weeks in the UK together. It will be an early celebration of my fiftieth birthday which is still a few months away. The fact that I'm soon to be half a century old is almost as hard to believe as the fact that I will soon be swanning around Ireland, Wales and England. The latter is much more exciting of course!

We plan to take sketching materials along in the hope of creating some blogworthy works of art to accompany the photos I intend to post along the way. This reminds me that I will need to work out how to post via my i-pad!

It is a long while since I have done much in the way of sketching and pen and ink drawings, so long in fact that I had literally forgotten of the existence of the second and third of these three pictures. I found them this morning while hunting for the top one. While it is the least accomplished of the three it has a lot of sentimental value to me. It is the one-and-only ink sketch I did while on a backpacking holiday around the UK and Europe when I was twenty-one. Near the beginning of my eight month adventure I stayed for a few days at a friend's house in Brighton in the lead up to Christmas. I was totally entranced by their beautifully decorated town house and felt inspired to try my hand at sketching their living room. I didn't do any preliminary pencil drawing as you can see by the wonky walls, but worked in ink from the beginning. I suspect I used a Rotring pen which was a favourite tool of mine at the time. I definitely drew the second one in pencil first as it is too neat to have done otherwise but the tilt and looseness of the third makes me suspect I may not have done much preliminary drawing first at all.

I confess to being a bit startled at some of the techniques I used in the second sketch as I don't remember ever having these skills under my belt. I was very keen on ink drawings at the time so I probably familiarised myself with different cross-hatching styles before beginning; something I want to do again now in the lead up to going away. I'm not sure exactly what style I will come up with while I'm away. Before I found these I had imagined just doing a light ink outline with a watercolour wash - or maybe just pencil alone. Who knows! As long as I at least produce a few pieces of art I will be happy!

I have been very remiss with creating and posting of late but my excuse is that a lot of my time has been taken up with booking this holiday. Also, I needed a bit of a break. I wasn't getting enough down time as my stiff shoulders and continuing sore back could attest to. As for my book - I was a bit precipitate in announcing it was near completion. After getting further feedback from my latest round of readers, I know I have more culling and honing to do. It will be at the top of my list of things to do upon my return.

*****

I am also posting some photos of a beautiful hand made note-book my daughter made for a friend's birthday recently. I thought to post it after visiting Celia Blanco's blog where she showed how she'd cleverly made her own sketch book and asked if others had made similar items.

My daughter had learnt how to bind her own sketch book during an art class she had taken as a broadening unit at university last year. She has used hand-made paper bought from Oxfam for the cover and used some paper she'd bought in Japan for the end papers. She sewed it all together with bits of cotton she found around the place. I have dropped some VERY heavy hints that I would like a book like this for my birthday!!