Dalston Eastern Curve Garden

Sheltering from the rain under the Pavillion

We've been back home from Canada for a month now and since then I have largely taken a break from sketching.

Tuesday was my birthday in addition to it being the Battle of Britain Day. Usually I really enjoy my birthday but this year I didn't. I found the whole day to be emotional gruelling and a bit of a slog. This is because the next day, 16 September, was my mum's birthday and she died just over a year ago so I spent the day mourning her absence.

I decided not to spend the day moping around at home and went by bus to visit the Dalston Eastern Curve garden which I have visited before but not for a long time even though it was a rainy old day. This is a thriving community garden that has been formed from on the old Eastern Curve railway line and is a delightful spot to spend a few hours even when it's cold and wet.

I sheltered underneath the Pavillion which was designed and built by a French architectural collective called EXY2T in spring 2010 while I drank tea and ate cake. I took my usual collection of sketchbooks, water soluble pencils and ink pens with me and I chose to concentrate on the view above and I thought I was mostly concentrating on the foliage.

I realised while I was drawing the table that I had got the perspective wrong and this meant I couldn't include all of the table that I could actually see. What I didn't realise until I got home was that the table was dominating the entire composition. I would have preferred to have an equal balance of table and plants but I couldn't see that until I got away from the view. I feel quite critical of this sketch but am glad that I have restarted sketching and hope that my results are more successful when I visit Freightliner's farm in Islington with the Islington Art Society next week.

Postcards from Canada: 20 (the grand finale)

Today is our last full day in Canada so we chose to stay close to where we are staying on the University of British Columbia campus and walked over to the Museum of Anthropology. This is one of BC's most popular museums and houses many thousand artefacts from the First Nations and is built on ancestral land belonging to the First Nations.

The size of some of the totems that were on display were staggering and the weaving of the baskets and fabric were very intricate. In the grounds outside some examples of family houses have been built and they are also very impressive. It would have been nice to be able to go inside them but they were locked but you could get some sense of the interiors if you could find a knot in the wood and then squint through it.

We left when the museum was getting very busy and began walking back to our apartment. Then we saw a signpost to Wreck Beach and took off down the path to find it. We enjoyed a stunning walk through the forest and then came across the beach which is clothing-optional. We opted to keep our clothes on because it was quite chilly and there were very few people on the beach. If we'd visited yesterday when the temperature was a lot higher it might have been a different story.

Postcards from Canada: 7

Southwood Green townhouses, Winnipeg Manitoba

Postcards from Canada: 5

The chairs that we've spent a good deal of time lazing on

We're leaving Orillia today and heading for Winnipeg. The weather has been glorious while we've been here but thunder is forecast for later on today.

Yesterday we had lunch at a small restaurant in Washago called R Cottage which only opened very recently and on our way home had a brief drive round Fern Resort. It reminded me of an old fashioned version of Butlins and it opened back in 1895/6.

My final quick sketch yesterday was a pen drawing of the dining room seen from the sitting room. Then we helped our friend hang some artwork which proved to much more complex than we bargained for but we were all happy with results.

Postcards from Canada: 4

We had a brief period of respite yesterday between lunch and returning to our temporary home so I knocked off this sketch without thinking about it too much. It was on the property of the Leacock Museum and very close to the gracious boathouse which overlooks Old Brewery Bay on Couchiching Lake, Orillia. This had been the home of Stephen Leacock who was both an economist and a humorist and became famous for his books 'Sunshine sketches of a Little Town' and 'Arcadian Adventures with the Idle Rich' while his textbook 'Elements of Political Science' sold well for many years.

Museums back home in the UK tend to have barriers beyond which visitors must not stray. 'Do not touch' notices are everywhere along with scowling room warders. Here, we were able to stroll in and around without being herded along in a group. We were able to get a sense of what it was like to live in the house with its extensive rooms. There were framed photos of Mr Leacock in different locations and he seemed an affable sort of chap. The house felt very much the domain of a bachelor who liked to have his friends around. Although he had been married I didn't feel the presence of the lady of household although there was a portrait of a lady in the hallway who could have been his wife.

The museum also has a restaurant in a separate building where we were informed that this attraction "is Orillia's best kept secret". This was hard to believe given the number of people queuing for a table. We found ourselves sharing a table with two retired couples who were old friends. There was Barb and Dennis and Norman with his wife Helen who we were told is part witch (you'd never know it to look at her). We spent the better part of two hours in their genial company listening to what's important in their lives and them laughing at our English accents. By the time we parted company I was convinced that I'm not anywhere near ready for retirement.

I was using watercolour paint for this sketch but have realised it's the wrong
type of paper for this medium 

Picnic weather

We've been enjoying glorious weather in London the last couple of days and we only need the sun to show itself briefly and the barbecues are fired up including our wee one.

This is a drawing I made years ago of a previous cook-up and I've just noticed that we were cooking fennel and mushrooms on that one which is just the same as we did yesterday. I hope you all have a nice weekend too.

Feeling stressed

My second visit to the Timber Yard café

I have been wondering on and off since my one outing with the Urban Sketchers back in January why I had such a negative response to the outing when I had been looking forward to it so much. Yesterday I had some free time in the late afternoon so I returned to the Timber Yard café with my sketch book with the intention of settling down to doing some drawing while drinking my coffee, a sort of solo urban sketching trip if you like.

I realised that over the years I have bought into the idea that visiting a café is a relaxing experience and it dawned on me yesterday that I actually find it really stressful. The Timber Yard café has only recently opened, is in a popular location, is full of comfy seating, has pleasant staff, art on the walls and nice things to eat and drink. What's not to like?

Well here goes: being surrounded by people hunched over their laptops and/or smart phones. Sitting near people having a business meeting or conducting interviews or even worse speed dating. Having to endure a young couple practically having sex at the next table and then glancing up from my sketch book to see a young, very fashion conscious girl posing on the stairs as though she was in a fashion show and we were merely her audience. I managed to draw the sketch above and I think you can see that I was anything but relaxed when I made it.

So this made me think of times when I have made what I think of as much more interesting drawings when I have been relaxed and unaware of the world around me. For example I met another sketcher in London Fields a couple of weeks ago. It was the first time we had met but we spent a convivial couple of hours of chatting and drawing together and this is what I produced.

Union Chapel from Highbury Fields

And on another occasion I drew this sketch of Clapham Common after I had visited the dentist and before I had to be at work. I was relieved the dentist visit was over and was able to enjoy some time to myself and relax while enjoying the view. So now I know I need to avoid situations where I'm going to be full of inner turmoil if I'm going to draw anything worthwhile.

View of Clapham Common

A Crisis of Brilliance 1908-1922

Last Sunday, for my birthday outing, we visited Dulwich Pictury Gallery to see the exhibition A Crisis of Brilliance 1908-1922. Sadly it finishes today so there's no time for a second visit.

This exhibition traces the work of Paul Nash, C.R.W. Nevinson, Stanley Spencer, Mark Gertler, Dora Carrington and David Bomberg who were students together at the Slade School of Fine Art under the tuition of Professor Tonks. Henry Tonks studied medicine and became a surgeon before becoming an artist. Judging by the exhibition notes Professor Tonks was a task master who ran his studio like a military camp. So life for his students was no a 'walk in the park'.

However their work flourished as they were exposed to Futurism, Cubism and Vorticism and they became some of the most well-known and distinctive British artists of the twentieth century. The exhibition culminates with a selection of their drawings and paintings depicting the horrors of WWI.

I was particulary attracted to a landscape by Paul Nash using graphite and ink wash which has inspired me to try something similar. I think this simple sketch of mine evokes a similar mood.

Bittern Lookout