Views
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Sundial
Sundials work better on some days than others. This one in the gardens at Polesden Lacey was working on the day that we saw it, for the simple reason that the sun was shining. Curiously however it was not quite showing the correct time – even after making allowance for the fact that our watches…
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Siding – Shenfield Station
Shenfield is a commuter town on the train line out of Liverpool Street in London, and happens to be where I grew up. Today the town has become one the the endpoints for the shiny new Elizabeth Line, but not so long ago this decrepit guard’s van was also to be seen in a siding…
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St Michael’s Church – Betchworth
Another place where our art group meets to draw and paint in the open is Betchworth, and one obvious thing to concentrate our artistic endeavours on is the parish church. This is a quintessential rural parish church building that found recent fame as one of the film locations for the film “Four Weddings and a…
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Murano – Canale San Donato
Venice is lovely, but quite intense. The nearby islands of Murano and Burano offer a respite of calm – both the building and the tourist density on these islands is noticeably lower than the slightly misnamed “Serenissima”. This painting is fairly faithful to the photo that I took during our visit to Murano, in that…
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Cologne at Night
It seems that almost everywhere you look in Cologne you can see the twin towers of the cathedral and the glass roof of the main train station. Of course there are places from which neither landmark is visible, but there don’t seem to be as many such places as one might expect. So, true to…
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Fünf Höfe, Munich
I was rather taken with the greenery hanging from the ceiling, and indeed with the view and colours of the whole space. I suspect that I was supposed instead to have been taken by the range of shops, but getting me interested in shopping is not easy, as my wife will readily attest! I think…
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Wat Mahathat, Ayutthaya
Ayutthaya Historical Park in Thailand contains a large complex of ruined temple buildings. We saw them in the early evening, at a time when the lower position of the sun gave a deep warm glow to the brickwork and created many interesting shadows. Ignoring the wonderful colours of the evening light, I used a simple…
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Spotlight
This is my first attempt to draw on black paper. I used a white pen, so one might imagine that the approach is basically the reverse of the more normal black-pen-on-white-paper drawing skills that I have been honing. So for example, the pen has to mark highlights rather than shadows. It turns out that things…
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Summerhouse & Shelter
I have already commented on the bad weather we had during our recent visit to Ichi-Coo Park. Early that afternoon we experienced a really heavy downpour, so I took refuge in a summerhouse which was the driest place I could find, and started drawing on the only “waterproof” pad that I had – my iPad!…
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Avenue of Trees
Another drawing from Ichi-Coo Park, this one from a visit made last summer, when the weather was dry enough that we were able to sketch in the open. The park has many dramatic perspectives, and this one funnels towards a fantastic set of wrought iron gates, although they are rather lost in this sketch as…
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St Peter’s College
Many, many years ago I was a student here. The college buildings are not stereotypical for an Oxford college, but then the college was only founded in 1929, so a series of gothic quads would be a bit of a surprise! In fact, many of the buildings shown here were built or rebuilt since my…
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Bruges Station
Bruges is well known for its pretty old buildings and canals. However, few who have visited the city other than by train will realise just how modern by comparison the station is. Of course the station is not brand new – rather it is modernist, with lines that are very straight and clean, the building…
Doodling ... 