Warneage

Four A6 fountain pen sketches

Warneage Wood in Wanborough, near Swindon was the venue for my meet-up with Polliemath today. We both did some sketching. These are my sketches.

Grassland in mixed media
(fountain pen, watercolour and Molotow marker)

Path in mixed media
(various inks, applied with fountain pens, brush,
poured and smudged with fingers; carbon; graphite;
Derwent Drawing pencil; dressmaker's chalk)

Bench in ink (Pilot Parallel and Sailor Fude de Mannen fountain pens)

Stranded Mermaid

St Swithun's church in Nately Scures (a very small place just off the A30 near Basingstoke) is tiny and very old, having been built by the Normans. And it has a mermaid.

Now, if you know where Basingstoke is, you'll realise that this mermaid (who lives on the top of the left-hand door pillar shown in the drawing below) is - by UK standards - a long way from home. Noone really knows what she's doing in Nately Scures, but I think that she's really rather charming.

Odiham Castle

Odiham Castle (known locally as King John's Castle) is not actually in Odiham, although it isn't very far away, being nominally in North Wanborough. It isn't really in any village, though; it stands, peacefully, by itself next to the Basingstoke Canal, which - fittingly - does not actually go to Basingstoke.

I was fascinated by the poppies growing on the walls (above).

All sketches A6, executed in fountain pen. 
Top sketch also has Inktense pencil and then more fountain pen ink, both added after leaving the site.

Palisander Recorders at the Newbury Spring Festival

Palisander are a recorder ensemble. They play all types and sizes of recorder, the range of which surprised me. This was an Open Studio / Newbury Spring Festival sketching opportunity, a performance at the Newbury Corn Exchange.

This is a selection from my sketches at the performance.

Moscow State Cellists

I was really excited to be asked, as an Open Studios Artist, to sit in on a number of Newbury Spring Festival events and draw them. My first event was this afternoon's rehearsal of the Moscow State Symphony Orchestra in the church of Saint Nicholas in the town. The music was incredible and the whole expeience was utterly fantastic.

The lead cellist made a special request of me (in excellent English) to draw the cello group. They stood patiently at the front of the stage... and I ran out of page. Fortunately, I had another one.

It's not the best drawing - I think I did not capture some members of the group very well at all - and it's a dreadful photograph and a bodged-up composite. but I did promise to post it, so here it is.

There were a few other drawings of the cellists, in action, that I think were more successful:

The lead cellist

The lead cellist lost in music

Another cellist lost in the music

I'm sure he knew I was drawing him

Concentration

Focus on the hands and instrument - and the cellist's face, not playing

At rest

All of these drawings were executed in fountain pens.

Fair time!

Highlights of sketching-at-the-fair today...

This morning, when the fair was still being set up

Teenagers

My son and his friend spent all their money
and time on the dodgems My daughter had one go.

The lady in charge of this ride wasn't very busy

Welford Park Walk

On Sunday, we walked 6.3 miles on an organised charity walk at Welford Park, near Newbury. I took a camera (the batteries ran out) and my A6 sketchbook...