17th Worldwide Sketchcrawl

The date has been set for the 17th Worldwide sketch crawl

Saturday 19th january 2008

To find others taking part in your area visit Sketchcrawl.com

COLTISHALL, Norwich. UK - Norfolk Broads

Saturday 25th August was the official date for the 15th Worldwide sketchcrawl and I spent it sketching through Coltishall with my dear friend Joan Sandford-Cook. Joan has recently moved to Coltishall in the Norfolk Broads and it was my first visit to see her and her new home.
I started the day with a sketch of her new lounge, open planned, looking through to her dining room, with it's raised fireplace and neutral palette.


We then headed left out of her road to Coltishall Common along the river Bure where we indulged in a latte at The Rising Sun before seating ourselves under the oak tree on the common to sketch the thatched boathouses.



Still under the oak tree I created a quick watercolour sketch of the landscape along the river, a most beautiful backdrop. I went straight in with paint in this landscape, no pencil sketch, and while it is very basic in skill I feel it captures the memory well. I shall practice this technique more.


From the same position under the oak I turned to my left to see this beautiful, historical house through the trees.



Back at The Rising Sun, we made full use of the many customers to create a few quick figure studies.

Back at Joan's we threw some cushions onto her garden furniture and 'Mmmmmmm'd' our way through a delicious bowl of local strawberries with cream. Before packing up to head home after my stay I captured a corner of the garden that has a small rockery waterfall dividing the lawn from a seated area entered through a trellis archway.

A wonderful place and a memorable trip spent in fantastic company made this my most favourite sketch crawl to date. A huge thanks to both Joan and her husband Clive for their hospitality and friendship!

GONE SKETCHCRAWLING

Saturday 25th August is the 15th worldwide SketchCrawl.

To participate simply wander out with your sketchbook in tow and make a pictorial account of your day.

To see other artists who will be taking part in your area and to upload your sketches into the worldwide forum, visit SketchCrawl.com

I am visiting my dear friend Joan Sandford-Cook tomorrow in her new home in the Norfolk Broads and we will be sketching together on Saturday.

I will, of course, upload my sketches on my return....See you then!

14th WW Sketchcrawl - Ely

Saturday the 19th marked the date for the 14th worldwide sketchcrawl.
Diane and I decided to take part and chose Ely, Cambridgeshire as our location, we were met by Emma-Jane on our arrival.

After a browse in Tindalls at the delicious art materials where I purchased a bottle of black ink, our first stop was a chair opposite Starbucks.

We then moved onto the green outside the cathedral where The Chantry caught my eye.

From the same spot on the grass I turned to sketch the entrance to the cathedral while E-J finished her sketch of the yummy chocolate cake I had purchased in the market.

It was a most enjoyable day spent in great company, I'm so pleased Emma-Jane managed to come along. As always, I wish I had sketched more but the afternoon wind, good conversation and hot coffee shared our day.

I hope to go back to Ely with my sketchbooks in the not too distant future, such a fabulous town scattered with fantastic architecture and then of course there is the cathedral itself, I visited last year, such brilliant workmanship surely deserves another entry in my sketchbooks!

Gone Sketchcrawling

The 14th Worldwide Sketchcrawl takes place tomorrow and I will be once again taking part.

This time I am going to Ely, in Cambridgeshire UK. If anyone would like to join me, I will be outside Tindalls & Superdrug on Market Street at 11am.

Thankfully the weather report has improved as the week has gone on, albeit a tad windy! If it does deteriorate I shall seek shelter in Ely Cathedral - The sketch opposite was created on a trip I made to the Cathedral last year.

You can take a virtual tour of Ely Cathedral HERE!

*The rain let up and the sun shone brightly here in the Fens today and I actually managed to get out with my sketchbooks at last. I visited Ramsey but haven't yet had time to scan the images, I will try to fit it in after my sketchcrawl tomorrow.

13th WW Sketchcrawl - Chatteris Museum

Saturday the 17th marked the date for the 13th Worldwide Sketchcrawl when Artists from all over the world meet up and sketch for the day.

I met up with some members of the Fenland Visual Arts Collective in Chatteris where, thanks to Jenny Furlong, we spent the day sketching in Chatteris Museum. We were also joined by Emma-Jane Rosenberg (E-J from Wet Canvas) Emma-Jane is a warm, friendly woman who fitted right in from the start, we all had a wonderful day together.

Rob Morris kindly supplied hot drinks at his home and a place to lunch (Thankyou Rob!). We stopped by The Old Bakery Cafe on the way there to purchase some delicious cakes.

I decided to use a Hahnemuhle Travel Booklet 9x14cm Portrait. I purchased this from the SAA where, as a member, I paid a mere £1.75 and to my surprise discovered it was a duo pack...That's under 90p each! Each booklet contains 20 pages of unlined 140gsm sketch paper and there is a pocket at the rear of the booklet. The cover is soft and natural in appearance allowing you to write/sketch on it. I thought it would be fun to title the cover and then try to fill half the booklet for this sketchcrawl then turn the booklet over and do the same for the 14th Worldwide sketchcrawl. This meant I had 20, 3.5x 5.5" pages to fill...Quite the challenge but one I am happy to say I achieved!

The booklet performed well with the various media I used throughout the day: Derwent watercolour pencils, Derwent drawing pencils, Lyra portrait coloured pencils, W&N watercolour, Verithin coloured pencils, sepia pitt pen and staedtler pigment liner....although I must stress minimal amounts of water were used, modestly applied with a brush pen.

Here are the results, my day from beginning to end, in sketch:

Click on the pictures to enlarge.

Some of the worldwide results can be viewed HERE