Here are some tiny sketches I made as a result of local walks. I have a small sketchbook, about 3½ inches by 5½ inches, the size of a big mobile phone. On my walks, I pause for a minute or so to notice a view, a detail. I make a few marks in the sketchbook, to remind me. Then when I get home, I make the sketch in watercolour, using the marks, and memory. I am trying to train my memory.
Monument on the South East corner of Finsbury Square.
Royal Exchange
“Shop lease available” – many “To Let” signs…
St Joseph, Catholic Church
Quaker meeting house.
So many instructions…
The pub is closed.
COLPAI building under construction, Central St
Near St Luke’s
Old doorway, modern windows.
Here is the sketchbook:
It is from The Vintage Paper Company of Orkney. It was bound by Heather Dewick, @heatherthebookbinder on instagram. The paper is Saunders Waterford 200gsm Cold Pressed.
A nice small size for all occasions:
St Barts Hospital, “Welcome to the Vaccine Hub”
Colours are all Daniel Smith Watercolours. Pen is Sailor Reglus fountain pen with De Atramentis Black document ink (waterproof).
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From the Tower of London on the North bank of the Thames, you can see the Shard on the South Bank.
The Shard from The Tower, 3rd Jan 2021, 12″ x 10″
Pre-lockdown, I sketched this sitting on a stone bench on the slope to the West of the Tower of London. There were seagulls in the air. Children hurtled down the slope on bicycles, with parents jogging awkwardly behind. Young people threw their arms around each other and photographed themselves.
I worked on my drawing.
The view
Preliminary sketch
Pen and ink
Work in progress
It started to rain. Then it really poured with rain. The children scuttled under the overhanging roof of the visitor centre. The young people laughed and rushed off. I had to pack up very quickly. The seagulls remained.
I had finished the pen and ink. I added the colour at home. I tried out some experimental techniques.
For the cobbles I used the wrapping of a pack of mandarin oranges.
Paint over the netting
When dry, lift off the netting to get an interesting effect
To get the sharp edges of the Shard, I used masking tape.
Lift the tape off
A clean edge
I made this picture on a sheet of Jackson’s 300gsm cold-pressed watercolour paper, 12″ x 10″, using Daniel Smith and Winsor and Newton watercolours. The colours are Phthalo Turquoise (W&N), Fired Gold Ochre (DS), Perylene Maroon (DS) and Mars Yellow (DS). The cobblestones also have some Iridescent Moonstone (DS), which makes them sparkle. I made the tree with a marvellous new Tree Brush, also from Jackson’s.
Brushes: Jackson’s “Badger” tree brush series 602, and Jackson’s “Raven” brush series 528.
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It was getting dark but I’d been indoors all day. I set off into the gloom with my drawing things.
Looking towards the Barbican from Golden Lane, 5th January 2021, 4:15pm (detail)
It also started raining. Or maybe it was sleet.
I continued my peregrination through the dim streets. I like this time of day. In this weather, it’s not the “violet hour” of Mediterranean sunsets, but more like an Indigo hour, as the colours fade and go into dark smudges. I enjoyed the squares of light, each a little theatre of activity.
Here’s the picture I drew. It was sketched quickly on my walk, with the colour completed at home.
Looking towards the Barbican from Golden Lane, 5th January 2021, 4:15pm
Here are the buildings:
In Wyvern sketchbook, on Arches paper, using Hansa Yellow mid (DS), and Transparent Pyrrol Orange (DS), with Perylene Maroon (DS) and Phthalo Blue Turquoise (W&N) for the sky and the darker greys. Fired Gold Ochre (DS) is in the mix for the Peabody Building.
I have drawn in and around the Barbican before. Here is a collection:
On Golden Lane Estate there is a Leisure Centre in the Modernist style. Its roof floats on slender columns, and there are huge windows so you can see the activity inside.
Here’s a view of the south end. The tree is in the garden in front of Basterfield House.
Golden Lane Leisure Centre (left), Basterfield House (with orange balconies), Atlas Building (in distance) and Great Arthur House (on the right)
I drew this picture sitting on the paving stones outside Cullum Welch House. This was the location I’d chosen, because from that precise spot I could see the Atlas Building in the gap between Basterfield House and Great Arthur House. It’s a huge empty space. A woman walked past me, intrigued by my equipment spread around. She looked critically at the plastic carrier bag I was using to insulate myself from the concrete. “I’m glad to see you are sitting on something,” she told me. “My mother used to say you should not sit on cold concrete or you would get…now what was it you would get?” Since this woman was herself somewhat elderly, I was guessing that the advice from her mother dated way back into the previous century. We smiled at each other, thinking of mothers. She walked away, puzzling over what it was that her mother had been concerned about. I continued my drawing, thinking about advice from mothers, and how it endured.
Work in progress
Art materials on the concrete.
The low view.
A day or so later, I made a sketch in the evening, looking the other way.
Great Arthur House on the left, Golden Lane Leisure Centre, in the background Blake House and Crescent House.
It was evening, and very cold. This time I was standing up, looking West, as the sky dimmed.
Here is a collection of my sketches in the Golden Lane Estate.
I drew Bayer House from a quiet spot above the Leisure Centre. Bayer House is the brick building on the right. The white building in the centre is Peabody Tower, on the Peabody Estate, the other side of Golden Lane.
In the background, you see the “HYLO” tower on Bunhill Row, under construction.
Bayer House (right), Golden Lane Estate.
Bayer House is three rows of 2 storey maisonettes: like three terraced streets, stacked. The brick walls are pink brinks with pink mortar: very pink. The architects are Chamberlain, Powell and Bon.
I drew this picture from the podium level, one storey up. In the sunken playground area, children played. I could hear their voices below me, and caught an occasional glimpse as they dashed into my field of view. Then I heard another noise, a rhythmic beat or clunk. I thought the children must have some kind of percussive instrument that they were playing with, like two large rocks. May be they were slapping two boxing gloves together. Then their voices opened into greetings. Just at that moment, two enormous police horses came into view, walking at my level. The police officers had paused their mounts, and were waving to the children below. I called out a hello, and then the police officers saw me too. “Hey look, there’s someone drawing!” They moved their horses on, hoofs clip-clopping on the concrete, very loud, and now, of course, utterly distinctive.
Many of the blocks on the Golden Lane Estate are named for councillors or other officials of the City of London who were in post at the time the Estate was under construction. But I could not find a “Bayer”. “Hatfield”, of “Hatfield House” which I drew previously, was also not to be found in the lists. After a long search, the marvellous London Metropolitan Archives turned up the answer. Hatfield St, and parts of Basterfield St, were subject of a compulsory purchase order in 1954. Bayer St, Great and Little Arthur Street, and the intriguing “Hot Water Court” were compulsorily purchased in 1951. So these houses are named after streets. More searching revealed the maps, see below. You see the former Bayer St in approximately the position of Bayer House, and Great Arthur St where Great Arthur House is now. Hatfield House and Basterfield House are also in the position of their corresponding streets. There is still a vestige of Basterfield St north of Basterfield House. Click to enlarge the maps below.
My sketch map of the former street layout, from the maps.
Historical A-Z Map of London about 1935
“Maps-of-London.com” Finsbury, about 1940
Golden Lane Estate, blue arrow shows sightline of my drawing.
Historical maps showing the street layout before the Golden Lane Estate was built.
The colours in this picture are Fired Gold Ochre (DS), Phthalo Turquoise (W&N), Mars Yellow(DS), Buff Titanium (DS), and Perylene Maroon (DS). There a bit of Transparent Pyrrol Orange (DS) in the tree and the balconies of Bayer House. It was very cold and the colours did not dry which is why they are a bit blurry.
The collection of my Golden Lane Estate drawings is here:
This is Hatfield House, at the North side of the Golden Lane Estate, EC1.
Hatfield House, Golden Lane Estate, 12″x9″ watercolour [SOLD]
The arches in the middle of the picture are above the Golden Lane Leisure Centre, which is closed at the moment. You can just see the blue vending display, which has goggles and other items for use in the swimming pool.
While I was drawing the picture, I caught movement in the side of my vision. A man appeared below me, indoors, by the side of the swimming pool. I looked at him through the window. He was fully dressed, with covers over his shoes, stirring a bucket with a long pole. After a long period of patient stirring, he poured the contents of the bucket into the swimming pool. Then he refilled the bucket, set it on the edge of the pool, and started stirring again. At that point I stopped watching and resumed my drawing. When I looked back again, he had gone.
This picture was drawn for a commission. I made a preliminary drawing, and various sketches. Here is work in progress. The big challenge was to get the perspective lines right, to show the depth and distance.
Quick sketch, working on perspective
Preliminary sketch in sketchbook
Sketchbook on the window of the swimming pool
Pen.
Specification for the commission
This drawing was done on 29th September 2020.
Here are more sketches in the Golden Lane Estate:
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A resident of Crescent House commissioned me to draw his block.
Crescent House – 12″x9″ original watercolour (SOLD)
This is a view from the podium level, above the Golden Lane Leisure centre. The block on the left is Cullum Welch House. The yellow colour in the centre is a reflection of Great Arthur House in the windows of Crescent House.
Map showing the view of Crescent House in the drawing (North is on the right)
The pavement by the wall was being re-laid. Just off the picture, to the right, people who were laying the paving stones sang merry tunes, and insulted each other. “Dean, I don’t believe how long that’s taken you. It’s a five minute job!”
Dean was moving the metal fencing around, making a sound like a drum roll. They needed to reconfigure their enclosure as they finished one section of paving and moved onto the next. I didn’t catch Dean’s repost, but the answer was, “No…no.. it’s just because you are lazy….”
Here is work in progress on this final drawing. It is made on a block of Saunders Waterford Hot Press 300gsm paper.
Finished drawing, 12″ by 9″ (SOLD)
Work in progress
The tapes round the edge are to give me something to hold, also they make a nice border to the picture.
Pen and ink
On the concrete
Work in progress with pen and ink
Work in progress. You can see the enclosure of the pavers in the background.
Pencil under-drawing
Work in progress on the final sketch, 9th October 2020
I made some preliminary drawings a few days previously, to get my head around the composition and the perspective challenges.
Sketchbook and perspective study
Sketchbook and palette
Pen
Pen sketch in progress
Pen
Working on perspective
Sketch in sketchbook – 5th October 2020
Sketch in sketchbook, 5th October 2020, and work in progress.
At the bottom left of the sketch is that strange sloping block. It is pointed. I didn’t get the whole of it in the sketch as it is so fascinating that it would have distracted from the main object of the drawing which is Crescent House. But it is worthy of examination. It looks like a tank trap. But what is it doing there? There are two of them.
As you see they are wonderful sculptural objects, worthy of a drawing in their own right.
Probably they are to stop people from sitting on that convenient ledge.
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I found a good viewpoint at Podium level, underneath Crescent House. At ground level a woman ran circuits of the tennis courts. After a while she started doing interval training: running up and down the stairs near where I was standing. Then she came and asked if she could see the picture.
Great Arthur House and Cullum Welch House, Golden Lane Estate, from Crescent House.
Cullum Welch House is named for Sir George James Cullum Welch O.B.E., M.C. He was Sheriff of London, then knighted, then Lord Mayor of London in 1956, which was when the Golden Lane Estate was being built. He was knighted in the 1952 New Year Honours. He served in the army in 1914-18 and 1939-45 conflicts, and gained the rank of Lieutenant-Colonel.
Cullum Welch House and Great Arthur House, together with other buildings in the Golden Lane Estate are listed Grade II. The listing was in December 1997. Here is an extract from the listing on the Historic England site.
REASONS FOR DESIGNATION: Cullum Welch House, part of the Golden Lane Estate, is designated at Grade II for the following principal reasons:
* Architectural interest: as a self-sufficient ‘urban village’, in which every element of space is accounted for and every detail carefully considered, the Golden Lane Estate has claim to be the most successful of England’s housing developments from the early 1950s.
* Planning interest: the estate reflects the formality, mixed with picturesque attention to landscape, which was emerging in British architecture in the early 1950s, this saw the spaces between the buildings being almost as important as the buildings themselves.
The strong formality of the estate became a key characteristic of the work of Chamberlin, Powell and Bon, as did the provision of a wide range of facilities on the site other than just housing. These are features that can also be seen at their Barbican development.
Here’s the description of Great Arthur House from the Historic England website:
Great Arthur House was built in 1953-7 from reinforced concrete. The 17 floor building was the first to break the London County Council’s 100 ft height restriction and was briefly the tallest inhabited building in England. The flats were designed for single people and couples such as nurses and policemen who had to live near their work. The architects for the estate were Chamberlin, Powell and Bon.
It was cold when I drew the picture, 10 degrees C. I wore a hat and gloves. Here are photos of work in progress, and a map.
Preliminary Sketch: working on the perspective lines
Pencil
This picture took about two hours overall, plus 15 minutes for the preliminary sketch.
The colours are Perylene Maroon and Prussian Blue, which make the grey tones, plus Hansa Yellow Mid which is the exact colour of the yellow cladding on Great Arthur House.
Here is a collection of my recent drawings of the Golden Lane Estate. Click on the picture to read more about the picture.
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On a glorious sunny Sunday, the sun lit up the roof of the Welsh Church.
Eglwys Jewin, the Welsh Church, from Golden Lane Estate.
This is the view from the Golden Lane Estate. Here is a map, and an annotated image to show which building is which. The arrow on the map shows the direction I was looking.
I was sitting next to a beech tree, Fagus Sylvatica Dawyck. A small notice at the base of the tree informed me that it has been planted on the 9th December 1989, to commemorate 800 years of the Lord Mayoralty. By co-incidence, this is the same anniversary that was commemorated by the bollard in my previous post. Here is a picture of the planting ceremony, kindly provided by Billy Mann from his Golden Lane Archive.
Fagus Sylvatica Dawyck, Beech Tree on the Golden Lane Estate, being planted. Photo courtesy of Patsy Cox and used with permission. The photographer was standing almost exactly where I sat to draw my picture.
The tree has grown strongly in the last 30 years. It surges out of its metal hoops, and pushes the notice aside.
Fagus Sylvatica Dawyk, planted in 1989
The Golden Lane Estate is a busy place. Many people passed by on the nearby paths. The tree and I were on a raised area, above parked cars. Some people were on foot, one was in a wheelchair, and there were several groups of cyclists. One person had a dog. This was a small dog, the same size as my sketchbook. I can say that with certainty, because, while the person was occupied on their mobile phone, the dog dashed onto my dais and plonked itself foursquare on my sketchbook. What to do?
I must have shouted out, because the person looked up briefly from their phone. I glared at the person, and shooed the dog away. The person uttered a perfunctory ‘sorry’ and continued their conversation. “No, no, it’s alright,” they said into the phone, “it’s just that Tabatha…”. They didn’t ask me if it was alright. I looked down at my drawing. It was alright.
I have drawn this church before. It was built in the 1960s. More information about this interesting building is on my previous posts:
The building which was Bernard Morgan House has now been pulled down. This is sad. It had a calm 1960s look, and ceramic tiles on the side. I looked across the gap and could see the Welsh Church: Eglwys Jewin. The church is the building with the green roofed turret and the long windows. It…
Here is the Welsh Jewin Church seen from Brackley Street. This is one of those ephemeral views: a huge new building is about to go up behind the hoarding, and this view will be completely obscured. The church is Eglwys Jewin, the Welsh Church. I have drawn it before, from Fortune Park. Here’s the link…
This drawing took two hours. It is 25cm by 16cm, 10 inches by 6½ inches on Arches 300gsm watercolour paper. The main colours are Fired Gold Ochre, Mars Yellow, Phthalo Turquoise, and Perylene Maroon, with some Prussian Blue for the shadows.
This is the wonderful three dimensional map of the Golden Lane Estate, which is on the South end of Stanley Cohen House on Golden Lane. It has West at the top because that’s the direction you are facing when you are looking at the map.
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Here is a view of the pub “The Old Red Cow”, seen from Cloth Fair.
The Old Red Cow from Cloth Fair
I drew the picture from outside “The Hand and Shears”
The front of the pub is on Long Lane. When CrossRail opens, it will be very well placed to serve the people flooding out of the new “Farringdon East” station. At the moment, however, it’s closed due to the COVID pandemic.
In Cloth Fair in this area there is a particularly varied collection of bollards. One celebrates 800 years of the Lord Mayor: 1189-1989.
Here are some photos of work in progress and a picture of the bollard.
One hour and 20 minutes, drawn and coloured outside the “Hand and Shears”.
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Jane Sketching 