Garden View - Explorations With Media

One of my new themes for this year is gardens and allotments ranging from the more beautifully manicured to the wilder and neglected .  I live in a row of old Terraced houses which have a row of back gardens separated by a path that leads to our back gates. Behind all the gardens is an allotment that some of my neighbours have had for over 30 years. There is major new housing development taking place in the area and the allotments are still vulnerable even after a fight to keep them by local people. As its been very cold I have started to make experimental explorations with a range of media of the view of my neighbours garden from my back window. These are some of the outcomes from the past few weeks . I started of tight and then loosed up as time went on.I plan to keep going even venturing into paint,collage and printmaking. 

Series One - water based marker pens, colour pencil, fine liner and brush pens

No.1

No.2

No.3

Series 2 - Expressive Ink Experiments  

No.1

No.2

No.3

Series 3 - Experiments with Kuretake Japanese watercolours

No.1

No.2

no.3

No.4

Drawing with Urban Sketchers London - Wellcome Collection Euston Road

I had a great time sketching at the Welcome collection museum last Saturday and catching up with Urban Sketching friends I hadn’t seen for a while. It was my first time to experience this fantastic collection of medical curios on display and in the Ayurvedic Man: Encounters with Indian Medicine exhibition.  I spent the morning sketching and appreciating the aesthetics of a wide range of medical instruments like obstetrical forceps and amputation saws.

My favourite sketch of the day though was the one below of a human body with all its internal organs beautifully carved from wood. It reminded me of the game Operation I used to play as a child.

USK Norwich - First sketches of 2018 Marzano's Cafe and Bar Norwich

Urban sketchers met at Mazzano's cafe and Bar at the Forum in Norwich yesterday. Some people braved the bitter wind to sketch outside. I decided to keep warm and capture life in the cafe which is used as a meeting place for business people and groups,  people seeking warmth from shopping or a place of thought. I used a panoramic format which has worked well to capture the atmosphere,  I think this is something I will continue over the year documenting stories from different cafes I visit throughout the year. I would like to incorporate text in the form of overheard conversations or my own narratives that I pick up from the characters I depict.