Paper and Threads

Thirty-seven years ago, on our first visit to London, we visited the Royal College of Surgery Hunterian Museum.  It recently underwent a 3 year renovation and reopened in 2005.  The history of William and John Hunter and how the specimen collection was obtained is fascinating and they did a wonderful job presenting lots of relevant information about the times in addition to the many specimens.  One of John Hunter's prized possessions was his sketon of the "Irish giant" and I collaged a photo from the brochure on this page with the Royal College of Surgeons logo (in my own colors). 

I met Katherine Tyrrell <http://makingamark.blogspot.com/ > again to spend another "art day" during our visit to London.  This was my first visit to Bankside Gallery where they currently have the Royal Watercolor Society's 21st Century Watercolor exhibit.  I loved seeing the exhibit, the gallery, and the book store.  If the exchange rate weren't so dreadful for Americans visiting England, I'm afraid I would have purchased several new art books!  We then had lunch in the Member's Cafe at Tate Modern (which is adjacent to the Bankside Gallery) and sketched as we looked across the Thames.   Katherine sketched the area around "the Gerkin" and I faced the other direction and sketched Puddle Dock and the Blackfriars train station.  I love glancing through her sketchbooks when we meet.  She has wonderful pen sketches and many more detailed pages using colored pencil. 

Posted by Shirley at 8:49 AM | Permalink | Comments (6)

I usually have a problem doing the EDM weekly challenge when we are in London.   However, the light bulb from the lighted globe that we bought for our 3 year old grandson Henry for  Christmas burned out last night and I sketched it before taking it out to shop for a new one.  I'm having fun playing with a Winsor-Newton gold gouache and used it for the brass bottom on the bulb.  Although the photograph doesn't show it, it actually glitters on the page.

Posted by Shirley at 8:42 AM | Permalink | Comments (5)

Another sketch from the London Natural History Museum.  This was sketched using a Derwent sketching medium wash 4B pencil and then "washed" by using a waterbrush over the sketch lines.  Interesting.  Need to play around with this pencil a little more.

There is a wonderful drawing exhibit at the Courtauld Art Gallery at Somerset House.  Guercino was the foremost Italian drawing artist during the 17th C. and his drawings are brilliant.  The gallery also is displaying some Rembrandt drawings to enhance the exhibit.  This is a quick sketch of St. Jerome that I did just to remember the joy of seeing his work.

We walk by this pub several times each day and I finally sketched it.  In spite of multiple visits to London over the past year, we still haven't gone to a pub.  There are several in our neighborhood that I've been meaning to sketch, but I feel that I should at least stop by for a drink.

Posted by Shirley at 5:26 PM | Permalink | Comments (6)

We found this wonderful "Drawings" exhibit at Petley Fine Art on Cork Street and I fell in love with the Elephants.  I didn't record the name of the artist, but I suddenly developed the need to sketch elephants.  My husband and I went to the Natural History Museum several days later to fulfill this need and I sketched both elephant exhibits. 

Both of these sketches were done with a Derwent Sketching Medium Wash pencil - 4B.  I loved using it and can't wait to see the effect of using water to create a wash.  I'm sorry that I didn't do the sketches in pen - next time!

Yesterday we went to the Mall Galleries for the first time.  It was the first time that we went through Admiralty Arch since many, many years ago.  I took a photo for this sketch because it was raining most of the time we were there.

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My husband and I went "gallery hopping" for several hours on Cork Street - primarily because the Helly Nahmad Gallery had 20 Picasso paintings from "La Californie" in an exhibit.  We found several other wonderful exhibits and then stopped at our favorite coffee bar - Caffe Nero on Piccadilly.   I thought that it was finally time to sketch the counter area for my travel sketchbook.

Rachel and I took Callum for his first immunizations and when walking back along Sloane Street saw this interesting roof top (4 tops like this along the front of the building) and a cute little vacuum called Henry which was being used while changing a window display at Peter Jones Department Store on Sloane Square.  I'm glad that I took a photo because it was gone by the time we took our Henry to see it.

This is a photo of the building showing the elaborate fronts that are part of the otherwise plain rooflines on these beautiful Victorian buildings.

We went early one morning this week to see the Hogarth exhibit at Tate Britain.  It was crowded, but later there were long lines and even bigger crowds.  I liked his engravings best and copied a few of the faces from one of my favorites - entitled "Characters and Caricatures."

Yesterday was drizzly and we decided it was the perfect day to go to the National Gallery to see their exhibit "Manet to Picasso."  It is a nice small exhibit - with many impressionist paintings on loan from the Tate and private collections.  There is only one early Picasso.  Since I am constantly trying to improve my skills drawing figures, I sketched this painting of Carlo Pelligrini (labeled Carol Pelligrini on the postcard I bought) by Degas.

Posted by Shirley at 10:20 AM | Permalink | Comments (8)