Author: Jane

Urban sketcher, coastal artist, swimmer.

YMCA site, Errol St EC1

This site is a few minutes walk from where I live. There will be a “new home for young homeless Londoners”. “146 beds, 10 000 lives, 60 years”, says the text on the hoarding.

There will be 146 en-suite rooms, an “affordable gym for the whole community” and a “social enterprise unit”. You can see none of this in the picture. It is a building site. The old YMCA building has come down, revealing a temporary skyline.  I hastened out to draw this skyline before it is obscured by the new building.

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In this view the huge diversity of London life is visible. On the left, Finsbury Tower houses the Cass Business School. The grey sloping roof below it is the Royal Statistical Society, whose main entrance is on Errol Street. This is an old Victorian building, clearly previously ecclesiastical. IMG_2445The three foundation stones are all dated 29th October 1889. They were laid, from left to right by Rev WF Moulton, Mrs ES Whelpton, and Mrs EA Holman. The names of the architects and builders are written on the left hand stone: WH Boney Esq, Architect, and Holloway Bros, Builders.

The building with the pitched roof, in the centre, is part of St Joseph’s Catholic Church. The Church itself is mostly underground. Right now they have a crib which you can visit.

On the right, the tall building with the wire netting on top, looks like an old school. It is in poor repair: the paint on the window frames is flaking, and the rooms look dark. But it is occupied. There was a light on in one of the windows, and Christmas decorations visible in the gloom behind the dusty window panes. Part of the building is “St Josephs Parish Hall”, accessible from the other side, with a modern lift. A notice by the door said “National Association for People Abused in Childhood”, but the notice looked very old, and I can’t find any reference to it on the web.

At the base of this building is a lovely garden, open during certain hours in the summer. It is in memory of Basil Hume “Monk and Shepherd”.

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In the centre background is the huge residential tower that is being built in Shoreditch: the “Principal Tower” 50 stories.

This picture took an hour and a half, drawn and coloured on location.

 

 

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Suffolk sketches

Here is a view of the lighthouse at Southwold. While I was drawing it, standing on the path by the sea, a woman came up and told me I was very gifted. I said thank you. Her husband said he’d told her to say that, because she’d seen me on the way down, and not said anything. He said she should express her feelings.

He had a pit bull dog. Because his mother was pure Romany. I was not sure of the connection. He said this was Kensington-and-Chelsea-on-Sea. He said that people here told him “you don’t have a London accent”. That’s because he’s not from Kensington and Chelsea, but from a different part of London.

This is the picture:

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Here’s a drawing from Southwold pier:

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This is a sketch from a bird hide in Minsmere. The two ducks on the right are Shovellers.

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This is the sunset at Walberswick:

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It was misty. I drew the Church, St Andrews. There is a ruined part, from 1493, on the right. And a more modern 18th Century part on the left.

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I drew the view up the river. Here it is in the mist.

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Here it is in the dark.

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We went home by train. I sketched the people waiting.

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Fourteen Chimneys

In the bright sun, fourteen chimneys stand in a line at the corner of Garrett Street and Whitecross Street.

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I drew them, standing up in the cold. I could hear a blackbird, from the garden outside St Luke’s.

40 minutes, drawn and coloured on location.

The Cuttlefish

I made a collage postcard inspired by “the Blue Planet” series on BBC2.

This is the cuttlefish. The sea bed is made of breakfast cereal, and the seaweed is strands of unraveled rope.A fish-like being at the top is made of a speckled feather I found.

The post card went off on its journey to Switzerland on 1st Dec. I hope it gets there.

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Martin Hicklin’s work inspires these collage postcards.

Tiara in the Garden

Here is a woodcut of my sister’s greyhound, Tiara.

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Tiara in the Garden

This is a reduction woodcut. That means I cut the woodblock, and made a number of prints in the yellow colour, then I cut it further, and printed the grey/brown colour.

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Printing the first colour

 

Prints from the first colour
First colour

Here is work in progress on the second colour.

 

Prints drying
Woodblock on the Albion Press
Prints drying

These are printed on the Albion press at East London Printmakers:

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Albion Press, at East London Printmakers

I mixed the colours.
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Here is the finished card:
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Charterhouse: North-East Corner of Preachers Court

It was a very cold day. The sun threw sharp shadows of the tree on the wall. Then the sun went in and the shadows disappeared.

A Brother was smoking in the cloister, under cover. Gardeners came by.

November 28th 2017 (Preachers Court NE Colour)

Here is the sketch before the colour went on:

November 28th 2017 (Preachers Court NE BW)

The Chapel at the Charterhouse

Here are three sketches done inside the Chapel at the Charterhouse.

Pencil sketch of the columns in the chapel. 22 Nov 2017, 1:45 (1hr 15)
From the Organ loft 22 Nov 2017 14:40, pen and coloured ink. 40min
Chapel pews, pen and wash, 28th November 2017 15:14

There is a quiet recording of religious songs in there. The sound makes the place calm. People speak softly.

The Charterhouse: Gate to Stable Court

Here is a drawing from the first floor windows of manasian&co, who are based in Pensioners Court,

Thank you to the people at manasian who gracefully accepted a stranger into their studio, and brought me cups of tea while I looked out of their window. They were all working hard at their screens.

November 22nd 2017 (Pensioners Court)

Two hours 15minutes.

Bristol Skyline from Mud Dock

I did this directly in pen, no pencil, and it took just over half an hour. Outdoors it was raining.

Mud Dock Deli (@muddockdeli) is directly above a bike shop, all wooden and modern. On another table, a coach was advising a man on how to conduct himself in a forthcoming interview. Make your career relevant. Smile. Be serious but not too serious. Be keen but not desperate. I couldn’t work out what the job was, and both men were out of my line of sight. Their conversation was a sound track to this drawing..

Cromwell Tower from Peabody Court

On a beautiful autumn day I went out to do a local sketch. I only had an hour, before I was due at the gym.

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