Wayfarer's Walk / Combe Gibbet

This is the start of a new, personal, sketchbook project. I have a smallish panoramic sketchbook containing khadi paper, and it's dedicated to documenting the Wayfarer's Walk.

The Wayfarer's Walk is a long distance path running from one end of Hampshire to another. It joins the Test Way at Walbury Hill, just short of Combe Gibbet. The Gibbet is technically on the Test Way, but let's not worry about that, nor which county it's in. It's a landmark, and it makes a good subject for a sketch...

The paper's a bit wrinkly because, on the other side, there's a line and wash (Uniball and Inktense) of the view from Combe Gibbet, looking south.

That's definitely Hampshire.

English Civil War Society at Basing House

When I visited Basing House as part of Artikinesis on Wednesday, I discovered that this weekend was Civil War weekend at the property. I was busy yesterday, but today we went as a family.

These are a few of my sketches.

Crookham Manor

Crookham House from the back.

This place has a bad past, and an imminent new future - Rose and I caught it on the cusp when we visited it last weekend. We were told that the builders are moving in this week. The building is to be boarded up again; the debris and overgrowth is the be cleared; extensions and outbuildings are to be demolished; and the property is to be redeveloped.

One of the outbuildings

There has been a lot of interest in Crookham Manor. It was a boys' boarding school, closed down in the early 1980s after horrendous revelations of child abuse. Part of the property was converted into bedsits, but much of it remained untouched. A few years ago, a set of stunning photographs of the eerie abandoned school made a stir, on the Internet and in the UK press. The place became a minor, unofficial, tourist attraction. While most visitors came to look, some were more destructive. Thieves stole the lead from the roof, leaving precarious stacks of roofing tiles and gaping holes through which the rain came. The water in the fabric of the building has made the upper storey unsafe. Vandals destroyed much of what was left.

My drawings don't show the graffiti, the litter or the broken glass that crunched underfoot. But I did attempt to show some of the damage - the bare laths in the ceiling of the chapel, the shattered stone font, the silenced organ...

Vandalism in the chapel

And the complete removal of the balusters from the grand staircase.

The full set of sketches is on Flickr.

A journey by train

I went to London by train on Wednesday. I started to draw the inside of the carriage. When we were approaching Basingstoke, I added the departing passengers.

This left a commuter working on his laptop. We didn't seem to stop long at the next station, Woking; the sketch incudes impressions from the train on both the outward and return journeys. The refreshment trolley came down the train and, after it had gone, I noticed the battered upholstery on one of the seats in front of me.

On the way home from London, I arrived at Waterloo with time to spare...

On the return journey, I drew a couple of fellow passengers.

Chickens

Derwent Graphik Line Painter pens.

Garden Flowers

The sweet peas did come from my mother's garden, but they were in a vase when I painted them.
Left: watercolour; Right: watercolour with graphitint pencil in the additional image to the top left.

The poppies and lilies stayed in the garden:

Watercolour with added white Uniball and white Derwent Drawing

Watercolour with added white Uniball and white Derwent Drawing

From up on the downs

A selection of quick sketches made yesterday on a short walk aong the Wayfarer's Walk over Cannon Heath Down and Watership Down.