Aptera was a city in Greek and Roman times. The people went to the Theatre.
Remains of the Greek and Roman Theatre at Aptera. The Greek period is something like 300 BC. Then the Romans adopted it when they took over 67 – 395AD. The Theatre was a total ruin when we first visited in 2011, with part of it missing and the stones used to make a limekiln. In 2017 the lime kiln was removed and the auditorium circle has been re-created.
From the small slab in the centre, the acoustics are perfect. John gave a rendition of the speech of Richard III “Now is the winter of our discontent….”. I heard it perfectly, at this distance.
The place where we stayed looks out over the bay.
Military vessels pass by into the NATO base opposite, including submarines. Some of them go past, and into Souda.
We drove into Souda, to find out where they went. We found only a peaceful fishing harbour.
The military harbour is hidden.
I took a new sketchbook on this holiday. It had rough pages which meant I needed to work in a loose style. There were some spectacular sunsets
Watercolour in sketchbook from the Vintage Paper Company.
We shared the house with a gecko.
There is a contrast between the peaceful location…..
Sunset over Souda
John studying Spanish
The old plum tree
View to the East
Sunset after rain
…and the fearsome weapons of the NATO warships in the bay.
611: minesweeper
F576: frigate with missile systems and torpedoes
75: destroyer
F454
340: Frigate with anti-submarine weapon and decoys
F221: Frigate with surface to air missiles
P82: Toralla class patrol boat
A833: Armed multi-function support vessel
The ruins at Aptera have stood for two thousand years. Civilisations have come and gone in their time.
Inside the Roman cisterns at Aptera. The city is mentioned in texts of 13th and 14th century BC. These Roman cisterns supplied water to the city. The city was destroyed by earthquake in 365 AD.
These pictures were done on location in various notebooks, using watercolour, pencil and De Atramentis Document ink.
Small illustrations in a 6″x4″Seawhite sketch book
Pictures of boats and other notes in a “Grids and Guides” notebook from Princetown Architectural Press
Watercolours at Aptera and Souda in the Stillman and Bern Delta Series watercolour sketchbook.
Watercolours at Aptera and Souda in the Stillman and Bern Delta Series watercolour sketchbook.
Small illustrations in a 6″x4″ Seawhite sketch book
Sunsets and loose watercolour sketches in the Katazome Sketchbook from the Vintage Paper Company
Sunsets and loose watercolour sketches in the Katazome Sketchbook from the Vintage Paper Company
Grids and Guides book from Princetown Architectural press. Good for nerds like me.
Agia Traida, view from the entrance, in Stillman and Bern Delta Series watercolour book, using only ink.
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I visited the Hôtel de France, Sainte-Croix in Vaud, Switzerland. Here is the hotel, from the street outside, just after I arrived.
I had to wait in Geneva train station, for the train which goes to Yverdon-les-Bains. The sun came through the windows and people walked through the lighted space.
The Hôtel de France is known for its absinthe.
I sketched the absinthe table. The bottles look like a group of people waiting for something to happen. Like people, the bottles have common basic characteristics, but each has their individual variations.
Glasses, too, have their characters.
I walked down the ancient salt road to the village of Vuitebœuf. Here is the Église de Vuitebœuf from the rue du Culaz, which I afterwards found out is also on the ‘Via Francigena’ pilgrims’ route Canterbury to Rome (1900km).
This church was constructed in 1904 to the design of Charles-François Bonjour.
I travelled back to London late Sunday night, on a crowded ‘plane from Geneva.
From gate B42
Boarding the aircraft
Work in progress on the drawing of the Hôtel de France, 19 April 2018. Jackson’s watercolour sketch book, 7″ x 10″
Here are links to previous drawings in Sainte-Croix.
On a lovely warm day I walked into the gardens of St Luke’s and drew a picture.
The red brick building is the Ironmonger Row Baths designed by AWS Cross, opened in 1931 as public baths (for washing – not swimming!) and laundry. They were needed because:
“The case seemed unarguable given the statistics presented by the new Baths and Washhouses Committee. Of 20,005 families in the borough, 4917 shared a single room and 7253 lived in two rooms. Of 12,000 dwellings, just 500 – only 4 per cent – had private baths.”
This was less than 90 years ago – my parents’ generation. The data is quoted by the wonderful website “Municipal Dreams” on the link below:
The Baths have recently (c. 2013) been refurbished and now have swimming pools and a spa and gym. They are still owned and run by the local authority, Islington.
The tall tower is the 42-storey Carrara Tower of the 250 City Road development, by Foster + Partners, under construction.
The shorter tower at the back on the right is Canaletto, which must be one of the hardest towers in London to draw. Those weird curved structures defeat my sense of perspective. Perhaps that’s the idea.
This architectural masterpiece, created by internationally-acclaimed UNStudio, has set a new standard for residential developments in London. (CanalettoLondon.com)
The building on the left of the picture is Burnhill House, run by Keniston Housing Association. Residents here are running a campaign to try to moderate plans to redevelop Finsbury leisure centre, which is off to the left of my drawing, and in front their building. Their banners adorn their balconies.
Protest banners at Burnhill House. From Camden new Journal, September 2017.
Brunswick Place is a seam in North London, joining the fin-tech offices of Old Street to the social housing estates of the 1950s.
Here is the North side of Brunswick Place, seen from Charles Square.
You see the Prince Arthur pub in the foreground, behind the ‘No Entry’ sign. The pub looks as though it has been there forever. In “pubshistory.com” (an amazing resource) licensees are listed back to 1841.
In the background, The Atlas Building is under construction.
In between, the pinkish building is an old office block with iron-framed windows, called “Jordan House”, occupied by 4 different businesses. Behind this is a brand new brown building, with groovy vertical windows making little triangular prisms.
A man came by with two bulky bags of shopping. He told me about the brown building in the picture. He said it was originally built to house Kings College staff and students. But that didn’t work. Now it is shared office space on the ground floor. “You know,” he said, the type where you just get a cubicle, battery hens!” And on the top, he said “it’s mostly women…”, he paused, “…from Korea”. The brand name on the side of this building is “Scape”, I had been looking at it. I didn’t put the writing in the picture. The man continued, “And you know the Q hotel? On Corsham Street? The Chinese are in there.” He paused again, waiting to see my reaction. I did my best to look interested. I was wondering where he was going with this. “We don’t get Anti-Social Behaviour!” he said. Good international relations in Shoreditch, evidently.
He had been living in the area for 40 years, he said, working for the Health Service. He had watched that brown building going up. The people in the building opposite, Vince Court*, had complained about the noise. “They were pile driving” he said, “Saturday, Sunday.”.
He pointed to a bright silver anti-climb device on Vince Court, all curved spikes. He had no time for the Local Authority, who had apparently sanctioned this device. “It’s awful,” he said, “gives a very bad impression.” It did. Not only did it look awful, it was also ineffective. I had a look on my way home after the picture. The spikes are on top of a wall. But you can easily walk around the wall.
Screen shot from ‘Scape’ website: Is this Korean?
When I was home, I looked up “Scape” on the web. They provide accommodation for students. You rent a room for a year (“51 weeks”). The website is in English and another language.
My drawing is a bit lopsided, with only the right side of the street showing. That is because a white van obscured the left side. While I was drawing, the engine started, and the van stayed there, by the kerb, with the engine running. It was still there, engine running, when I left. I never saw anyone get in or out.
Outside the Prince Arthur pub, there are a collection of bollards. One is shown in the picture. Two of these bollards are cannon. In the background of the middle picture you see the offensive anti-climb spikes on Vince Court.
Cannon, now a bollard
Another cannon
Not a cannon, but an interesting bollard
About 1 hour. Drawn and coloured on location. 6 degrees C.
I drew the Round Church from the low wall outside St John’s College. It seems surprising to me that the road sign is placed right in front of this well-known and much photographed church. But it was there, so I put it in the picture.
Here are two sketches made from the Fitzwilliam museum, sitting on the stone outside.
Fitzwilliam St, G Peck Chemist
Corner of Fitzwilliam Street
The houses are all neatly maintained. The windows have proper wooden frames, the chimneys have new concrete round their bases. The shield-like sign on the left of the road says “G Peck and Sons Dispensing Chemists, Estd 1851”. It is still a dispensing chemists, but not G Peck and son. Why do we now call chemists “pharmacies”? When did that happen?
I enjoyed the opportunity to look closely at these buildings. There’s a lot to sketch in Cambridge.
Sketching spot, 21 March 2018
Work in progress, 21 March 2018
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I set off up Whitecross Street. The market was setting up, and I went round the back of the stalls. Here’s a quick sketch from Whitecross Street, looking up Banner Street, 40 minutes.
At the end of Banner Street you the White Collar Factory, a multi-occupancy office place, and the weird building on the Old Street roundabout. I’ve drawn these buildings before from another angle: Buildings on Cowper St EC2
Amongst the buildings of the St Luke’s estate I rested in Radnor Street Gardens.
This gave me a good view of Gambier House.
Gambier House from Radnor Street Gardens, 1hr
After that I needed a coffee and made my way to Westland Coffee and Wine, in an alley off the City Road.
Westland Coffee and Wine is next to Shoreditch, and people hold interesting business conversations there. I had coffee and warmed up. Refreshed, I set off along Westland Place, and passing Jamie Oliver’s “Fifteen”, and the glass and steel offices of communications companies and a CCTV company.
Then there’s a discontinuity: a sudden change from glass and steel, to a brick-built residential estate, The Provost Estate, including Rhodes House. The Atlas Building is visible along Provost Street, looking South (Number 3 on the map).
Atlas Building from Nile Street, 1 hour 50 minutes.
Italiano Pizza, Nile Street
I drew this in 1 hour 50 minutes, sitting comfortably in a wooden chair kindly provided by the proprietor of “Italiano Pizza” on Nile Street. His shop emitted marvellous smells of baking dough. Customers turned up at regular intervals, placed their orders and then drifted off to walk their dogs or smoke their cigarettes while their pizza was prepared.
“The Atlas Building” construction site includes both the 52-storey building and the dark cube.
“Atlas epitomises luxury-living in an exciting and vibrant urban landscape. Atlas stands tall with 38 residential floors of exquisite apartments stretching across London’s prominent skyline.”
I can’t find out what the dark cube is. It doesn’t look residential.
The brick buildings are on Vestry Street. They look like former warehouses. On the left is “FindersUK.com international probate geneologists”. The buildings next to it in the centre of the drawing are unoccupied.
Work in progress: Seawhite travel journal from Artesaver.
Here’s another picture of the Atlas building, which I did on the 17th February, from Canalside Square, Packington Street N1.
The Atlas Building, Montcalm, Eagle Point, from Canalside Square 17th Feb 2018, 40 minutes.
When I came home, I saw a rainbow from my window.
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It was designed by Powell and Moya, and constructed in 1972-76, as part of a 1947 grand plan* for development of the area north of Bank.
In my sketch I wanted to show the great mass of this huge rectangular building, so confident, and the way it shelters the activity below.
This sketch took about 1hour 30mins.
Then I walked into the picture, and found a stunning view across the old buildings in the Barber-Surgeons garden. This is a 5 minute sketch, coloured later.
*Grand plan: the 1947 Town Planning Committee publication, “The City of London; A Record of Destruction and Survival” by C. Holden and W.G. Holford.
For previous sketches of 140 London Wall (aka Bastion House) see
Helen went off to take a conference call, and I drew the Cathedral.
This was a quick sketch, pen and wash, about 40 minutes.
While I drew this, a brass band was practising in the nearby boys’ school. They were playing “Annie Laurie”.
This cathedral is impressively enormous. The Tower is Norman: built 1077 – 1093. The nave is hugely long, but inside it is divided by screens, so you can’t see all the way along, which is what I wanted to do.
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It has been snowing now for several days. Robin invited me to sketch The Charterhouse in the snow, and suggested a viewpoint from the second floor of the Infirmary.
From here I could see all three of the Barbican Towers. Someone was clearing snow in the foreground, but they moved on before I could get them in the picture.
It was a good place to sketch, warm and quiet. I could hear the muffled sounds of the nurses moving about below, and of the Brothers who were in the infirmary. Sometimes they called out.
Here is what the picture looked like before the colour went on.
This picture took about 2 hours: One hour for the pencil outline, half an hour for the pen, and half an hour for the colour – roughly. It took ages to get the proportions right. Especially in the snow, the eye sees detail in far-away objects, so the temptation is to draw them too big.
After I handed in my visitor’s badge at the gate, I went out into Charterhouse Square. I looked back at the Chapel. And did a quick pen sketch, standing in the snow.
This took about 10 minutes, coloured later on my desk at home.
Thank you to Robin, and to the Brothers, Master and staff at the Charterhouse for their hospitality.
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The shorter tower at the back on the right is Canaletto, which must be one of the hardest towers in London to draw. Those weird curved structures defeat my sense of perspective. Perhaps that’s the idea.
Jane Sketching 