Watercolour – Page 38 – Jane Sketching

Museum of the Order of St John – garden

I drew this in the Cloister Garden of the Museum of the Order of St John, Clerkenwell, a beautiful tranquil place on a hot day.

It was a very hot day, and I’d left the flat in some irritation, after a series of frustrations, mostly computer-related. Then one of my favourite cafés charged me far too much for a coffee, and added service charge without telling me. So I went to the garden.

Because I’d left the flat in such haste, I’d forgotten to bring my water pot, which was going to be a problem. However by the time I’d done the pen sketch, the woman on the bench opposite had finished her lunch, and I was able to ask her for her empty drinks bottle. This she graciously gave me, commenting on how pleased she was that it was going to be re-used. If you are reading this, thank you.

Screen Shot 2019-09-16 at 18.07.26.png — The logo of the Order of St John

The modern Order of St John is a charitable foundation. They are behind the St John Ambulance. This latter organisation has the commendably clear strapline: “We Save Lives”. They do this by educating people in first aid, and providing highly trained volunteers at events and disasters.

The Cloister Garden is by the Priory Church.

Screen Shot 2019-09-16 at 18.05.55 — Map credit: website of the Museum of the Order of St John.

From the Barbican Lakeside Terrace

This is a drawing on one of those hot days last week.

I sat at one of the tables on the Barbican Lakeside Terrace and drew what I saw. The massive building is 125 London Wall, a multi-occupancy monolith. Behind, to the right is 88 Wood Street, designed by Richard Rogers (“Rogers Stirk Harbour + Partners”). It’s a bit like the Lloyds Building, with transparent walls and lifts you can see going up and down. On the left is the new building at One London Wall Place.

In front of all that is the side of St Giles’ church, with its castellations. There was a celebration going on: Barbican@50.

The banner you can see fastened to the railings says “SOSBarbican.com”. It is placed by objectors to the proposed extension of the Girls School.

1 hour 20.

Guildhall School of Music and Drama

Here is the Guildhall School of Music and Drama, seen from across the Barbican Lake. I drew this sitting on a ventilator grille in an alcove of the residential flats in Andrewes House.

The Tower in the distance is Cromwell Tower. The sloping glass roof is the Barbican Conservatory. Gilbert House is the residential block on the left. In the foreground is the magical sunken garden, a planted area whose walkways are below the level of the lake.

As I drew, I was watched with interest by mallard ducks. One settled at my feet, in a proprietorial way.

I had not noticed before that the Guildhall School is built as a series of blocks, rather like a container park. The top row and the bottom row don’t quite match. The second row has a series of upright concrete beams, which I’ve shown, between the blocks.

I saw that the windows are angled. The inhabitants of one block must be able to see, in a sideways sort of way, into the next block. I’ve never been inside the School, so I don’t know how this works out in practice. But after all, this is a school of performing arts, so it’s rather good if you can see your fellow students through a window: every window a stage.

However the angling of the windows meant that from outside I couldn’t see inside. I have to wait until the performers are ready to present their pieces on a public stage. Still, from time to time I heard a flight of notes on a saxophone. Perhaps they had opened the window of one of the practice rooms.

About 2 hours, including a chat to a fellow resident who stopped by.

Predominantly just two colours: Perinone Orange and Prussian Blue, with a tiny bit of Mars Yellow in the rushes.

St Mary Abchurch

Here is St Mary Abchurch, a view from Cannon Street, London EC4. There was a church here from about 1198. It was destroyed by the Great Fire in 1666. The current church was built to the design of Christopher Wren in 1681-86. It is the headquarters of the “Friends of City Churches” who make the City Churches accessible.

This is one of those ephemeral views. There is a huge building site in front of the church, and so when the building is done, this view will disappear.

The notices on the hoardings say:

“DANGER! No climbing. Fall behind”

“Dragados SA (UK) Considerate Contractor Scheme, 30th Anniversary Winner 2018”

“No Pedestrian Access or Egress Apart From Plant Movements or in an Emergency”

I enjoyed the use of “Egress”, and puzzled over the phrase “Fall behind”. It must mean “There is a big drop behind this notice”, but it sounds like “We are delayed, and falling behind schedule.” There is also a huge Health and Safety notice, mandating in detail the protective clothing you must wear, including, rather ominously:

“Flame retardant clothing must be worn near buried services”

What’s this building? Well, according to the notice:

” We’re transforming Bank Station to improve your journey. Completion 2022. Search TFL Bank”

I searched “TfL Bank” as instructed, and found a vast amount of information. TfL (Transport for London) is making Bank Station bigger – a “capacity upgrade” as they term it. The building site I’ve spent this afternoon looking at is described thus:

“The Cannon Street worksite consists of the area bounded by King William Street, Nicholas Lane, Cannon Street and Abchurch Lane. The proposed new station entrance and infrastructure such as new escalators will be constructed on this site, which is currently occupied by six buildings. Demolition will be required to allow the worksite to be established before the start of any ground treatment, piling or work on the station entrance. The façade of 20 Abchurch Lane will be retained and will partially screen Abchurch Yard from the works. The worksite is over the proposed new Northern line platform tunnel. The site provides access to the work below ground through the new station entrance box and escalator barrel. During the works there will be site office and welfare facilities within 20 Abchurch Lane. The proposed worksite provides a minimum of space for storage of some materials and equipment for construction operations. It will also be used to store excavated material, before it is transported off site.”

They provide wonderful maps. Here’s an extract:

Screen Shot 2019-09-08 at 19.39.40.png — From “Bank Station Capacity Upgrade – fact sheet 2”

It’s somewhat reassuring to know they have such detailed maps, as the area round St Mary Abchurch looks medieval. I walked through there, down “Sherbourne Lane” and back home though the alleyways of the City.

Here’s my map, and some work-in-progress photos.

My map

Pencil

Pen

About to add the colour

Pen, close up

Watercolour in progress

Just finished it

Drawing on location

About two hours, drawn from the steps of 108 Cannon Street.

Barbican Lakeside Terrace from St Giles’

Here is a picture of someone looking across the Barbican Lake. Their mobile phone is telling them that the Barbican Arts Centre, the Lakeside Restaurant, the Art Gallery and the Cinemas are all over there in the sunlight. Such delights! But how do I get there? In between here and there is some murky water, and a big drop down.
What they need to do is to turn their back on where they want to go, walk, go up an obscure staircase that looks private, and then proceed across Gilbert Bridge which is high up to their right and invisible from where they are standing. I would have told them all this, but they obviously worked it all out for themselves before I could put my paintbrush down and descend from the tiled stone monument where I was sitting. Perhaps the mobile phone app is, by now, educated on the Barbican geography.

The tower in the picture is Cromwell Tower, and the glass building is part of the Barbican Conservatory.

“SOSBarbican.com” banner on Mountjoy House

Today there are banners outside some of the flats in Mountjoy House in the Barbican. They are there to draw attention to the proposal by the City of London School for Girls to build an extension, including kitchens, right underneath these flats. I have drawn pictures to illustrate the proposal, and to show why many of us object. See this link: Under Mountjoy House, Barbican

Information about the campaign is here: Objection to CLSG expansion. If you appreciate the Barbican architecture, please consider signing the petition.

Here is a map:

Map showing the direction of the view in the picture, and the location of the banners.

Sunday stroll in the City

From Fenchurch St Station there is a stunning architectural view. I sketched it, standing outside the station. This was not a great place to stand. I put the colour on later, sitting down in the wooden seats nearby. A woman with a bike came by and told me someone had let down both her tyres. Why would they do that, she asked me. Why indeed. She went off, pushing her bike on its flat tyres. Her dog followed on its lead, disgruntled, catching the mood of its mistress, deprived of a ride in the special dog-basket on the back of the bike.

From Fenchurch St Station, looking West, along London Road

Shown in the picture on the left is “Minster Court” a pinkish coloured Neo-gothic building built in 1991. It contains, amongst other things, the “London Underwriting Centre” and “Proud Cabaret City”, and a branch of “Balls Brothers”, a pub.

Sketch map, showing the direction of the view from Fenchurch St Station.

The glass building is “Plantation Place” built 2004, by Arup Group. Accenture is in there.

Behind I hope you recognise the “Walkie Talkie” skyscraper. In front and centre is the Clothworkers Guild. The little building at the bottom is St Olave’s Church Hall. St Olave’s Church itself is a lovely tower, which I would have seen if I’d moved slightly to the left. It’s behind the ponderous dark building on the right. I’ll go back and sketch it another time. This is the church where Samuel Pepys worshipped.

I walked towards the river and sketched in St Katharine’s Dock.

This is the view looking West, from the East side of the dock.

St Katharine’s Docks, looking West (IMG3517)

In the background on the left is “Guoman Hotels The Tower”, which is right next to the Tower of London. This hotel was built in 1973, one of the first buildings of the dockland re-furbishment. The Shard is in the background, centre.

The main building in the picture, former warehouses, is now called “The Ivory Building”. It appears to be residential. There were lots of bells to push, but I didn’t. I envy the person who has that turret. The clock was showing the correct time.

On the lower left is a restaurant with a sun umbrella. Its name was so tangled up in the fancy script of its logo that I couldn’t read it, something like “docole”.

Off the picture to the right a large rectangular stone was embedded at eye height. People rushed past, to the cafés and restaurants. The writing on the stone said:

“The foundation stone of Commodity Quay World Trade Centre London, laid on St Katharine’s Day 1985”

St Katharine’s Day is 25th November, in case you were wondering. Also spelt with a C.

Here is my favourite picture of the walk, done on the way back.

This is an astonishing construction, left over from an earlier epoch, and now surrounded by new-build and glass and steel office buildings. It is a corridor of shops, like the famous passages in Paris. But actually, not like them. Since it was Sunday, the Arcade was not trading. It was looking rather dilapidated. As I sketched, I saw tourists make their way in there uncertainly, in a characteristic pose of staring at the mobile phone and glancing about. Evidently Google was telling them that Liverpool Street Station could be accessed was down there. It cannot, not on a Sunday. As they entered the Arcade, they looked about. Then they really looked about, rather than comparing the world to the mobile phone map. They suddenly saw the broken glass, dusty shop fronts and cardboard, and the feet and legs of someone lying on the ground. They abruptly turned around and came out again into the sunlight, staring accusingly at the phone.

The script which says “The Arcade” is beautiful.

I particularly like the curved foot of the R, as though the letter is about to dance.

Here is work in progress, and a map:

Homelessness is a problem in London, even right in the centre of the financial district.

Shetland: Towards Vaila

There’s a beach near Burrastow that looks towards the Island of Vaila.

Here’s a sketch I made from the cliffs above the beach.

Those cliffs look steep and dark. The tower is a “watch tower”, I’m told, built by the Laird back in the day (1700s) to watch over his fishing operations. The story I was told was that the Laird’s tenants were selling their catch to Icelandic vessels out there in the bay. Then they returned with a meagre stock for the Laird. Or at least he suspected them of doing this. After all, he gave them very little, if anything for their catch. And the Icelanders would pay.

So he made the watchtower for surveillance. I was told this story in the Germattwatt café in Walls. The people made it sound as though it was living memory. But it was many generations ago, even if true. They also pointed out to me the place on the nearby hill where the miscreants were hanged, and left hanging, as an example.

The tower is listed as a project on the website of “Groves Raines Architects” as “Mucklaberry Tower, C19th 2-storey square plan Baronial reconstruction” . Their project was to refurbish it as a retreat, along with renovation of Vaila Hall.

On another day, from the beach, I determined to draw the rocks.

Drawing the rocks. Muckleberry Tower is just visible, on the right in the distance.

Drawing the rocks.

On the beach.

It was a very windy day, the wind blowing over the top of me.

My rule for drawing rocks is this: everything that’s drawn is there, but not everything that’s there is drawn.

Shetland landscapes

Here is a collection of landscapes all done directly in watercolour with no pen and ink. I am using Daniel Smith Watercolours, and trying different mixing combinations. All of these pictures are done with three or fewer colours, alone or mixed together. It seems to me that the fewer the better. The picture hangs together better if I don’t use many colours. And it’s faster.

Click the picture to expand it.

The Loch of Quinnigeo, drawn from the hill in a Force 5 wind. The dark lines round the edge are the peat.

The young guillemot, by the rocks off Burrastow.

This is the Seal Lagoon, seen from the East, looking across to the Seal Beach where they lounge.

The Standing Stone marks where the road divides. I climbed up there and looked back to Burrastow.

The island of Vaila and the land beyond.

The view across the bay from Burrastow, on a misty day.

Shetland, Skerries of Easter Paill

The rocks off the ward of Mucklure are almost geometrical in their formations. They make abrupt right angles.

Here are the Skerries of Easter Paill, small rocks in the sea off Dounawall and The Hamar.

Here is another drawing of the same location. It’s hard to get an idea of the scale.

Here’s a map showing the location. I drew the picture sitting on a rock that was not pointed but smooth and rounded, at a convenient height. In fact, I saw the convenient rock first, and then thought, what can I draw from here?

I had spotted a few items of plastic waste on the beach at the Seal Lagoon and intended to put them in my rucksack. But there was more and more, until they didn’t fit in my rucksack and I had a whole dustbin bag full. Then I realised I didn’t know what I was going to do with the bag. I carried it for the next hour, until I reached civilisation again, and found a bin. Moral of the story: don’t start collecting plastic waste until you have worked out a forward plan for the next step. This is a general life lesson, I think.