Views
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Reigate Priory – History
Reigate Priory was originally an Augustinian priory, founded in the 13th century. Following Henry VIII’s dissolution of religious foundations in the 16th century the building became a private residence. The Priory remained a private home until just after the end of the Second World War, when the buildings became a school. Although the extant structure was (re-)constructed after…
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Kanazawa Castle
Castles in Japan are both quite different and very similar to those I am used to back home (in England). So for example, they have moats, big thick stone walls and slits through which to fire at anyone who is attacking the castle, just as I imagine castles must have almost anywhere in the world.…
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Singapore – viewed from Marina Bay Sands
I’m not normally a fan of heights, but a friend had recommended seeing the view from the rooftop bar at Marina Bay Sands. The building is rather tall, and hence as promised the rooftop gives a very fine view. Somewhat surprisingly the bar is surrounded by quite mature trees, which I can only assume are…
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Marina Bay Sands – Singapore
This is quite a building! They only finished constructing it in 2010 but already it seems to be quite an icon for Signapore, which just maybe was the idea when it was built. I have heard it described as a (cricket) wicket, which accurately summarises the basic shape of the structure, but somehow misses out…
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Mount Fuji
Easily visible from many places in the region around Tokyo (except for most of the time when the clouds hide it!) this famous mountain is of course extremely iconic. The advantage of this from an artist’s point of view is that, provided you have managed to draw two sloping sides and a snowy summit, the…
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Seagull at Scarborough
This bird settled close to me as I was eating a sandwich, and started eyeing my food rather hungrily. I quickly finished my lunch and then (by way of “retaliation” I suppose) I took a photo of the bird before it flew off. This “painting” was done with a drawing app, in this case with…
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Venice – Grand Canal
In my art group I have a reputation for drawing “a lot of detail”, or sometimes even of drawing “too much detail”! Often I think this criticism is justified, and I do try to limit the detail in most my artwork. Sometimes however I feel that the detail is justified, and I’m happy about every…
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Venice by Lamplight
There is an almost infinite choice of vistas and objects to sketch in Venice. Nevertheless originality is still rather difficult since almost every wannabe artist who has visited the place in the last few centuries has had a go! So here, without any claim to originality whatsoever, is one of my contributions. This scene is…
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Reigate Heath – Grass & Cow Parsley
I don’t normally see these plants at eye level, but that is the view I wanted so a certain amount of crouching down was necessary to take the photo from which this scene was drawn. Worth it though – the contrast between the foreground and the background in particular is very pleasing, to me at…
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Gozo Coastline – Dandelions
Normally I consider dandelions to be weeds, and if they appear in my lawn I try to get rid of them. When these plants grow elsewhere I tend to ignore them, but in this view along the Gozo coastline they were so abundant and colourful that I had make an exception and pay those dandelions…
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Lisu Lodge, Mae Taeng – Pond Cartoon
For some reason the flora in northern Thailand put me in mind of Herve’s Tintin. I’m not even sure that Tintin ever had a jungle adventure, although it wouldn’t surprise me if he did. Anyway, this view in particular seemed to cry out to be drawn as a comic book scene in which an adventure…
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Lisu Lodge, Mae Taeng – Balcony Sketch
In Thailand we were lucky enough to spend a few nights in an amazing hill tribe village. The buildings were to all appearances very traditional, but also very comfortable and not at all lacking in mod-cons, so perhaps they were more “traditional” than traditional. Anyway, the bamboo building we were staying in had a large…
Doodling ... 