Cambridge – Jane Sketching

Sketching in Cambridge

Here’s the view from a café in King Street, Cambridge.

All Saints Church Jesus Lane. Drawn in Jackson’s Watercolour Sketchbook.

This café used to be called “Clowns”. There were two Italian sisters downstairs. Now it is called “The Locker”, and the staff are different. Much to my relief, they have not messed it up. It is still a tranquil place. The coffee is excellent. There is no intrusive background music. People read books upstairs. I drew this picture looking out of the upstairs window. Behind me, on a low sofa, a man was reading two books alternately and monitoring his laptop screen. Both books were by Jorge Luis Borges.

At an adjacent table three women were making design decisions for the website of a charitable organisation. This sub-page, that on the main menu, shall we include video? They discussed titles, and the placing of punctuation marks. I was concentrating on my drawing and only heard the odd word. Then one of the women described a conversation she’d had on a previous job, for a college. A fragment drifted over to me. She had quite a loud voice. “I told them it was “Porters’ Lodge”, and not “Porter’s” apostrophe “s”, because there was more than one porter. But they told me I was American and didn’t know anything. “

Here is a drawing of a chimney on the houses on Mill Road, drawn from a café called “Tom’s Cakes”

C61914F3-0D24-4AAD-8E71-D94EB42B56A0 — Chimney in Mill Road. Drawn in Jackson’s Watercolour Sketchbook.

On the bench by the window, a man was completing the cross word, or engaged in some other puzzle that required his total concentration. This made him a good subject for a quick sketch.

Quick sketch in Vintage Paper Company Katazome Sketchbook, on vintage watercolour paper.

Three sketches in Cambridge

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

Tiara in the Garden

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

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.

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:

I mixed the colours.

Here is the finished card:

St Edwards Passage Cambridge

A quick sketch on a cold day. 45 minutes, standing outside the “Indigo Coffee House”. Nearby, bicycles were parked on the fence surrounding the church of St Edward, King and Martyr.

I wanted to catch the bright sunlight in Kings Parade, seen from the relative darkness of St Edwards Passage.