Tag: Hampstead

The Dairy at Kenwood House

Lady Anne Innes-Ker, 1911 by John Singer Sargent

Kenwood House is a mansion at the top of Hampstead Heath, to the North of London. It is managed by English Heritage. At the moment there is an exhibition “Heiress: Sargent’s American Portraits”. Fantastic oil paintings, each woman with a history, echoes of the time of Henry James. Even more than the oil paintings, I enjoyed the charcoal portraits. See the character of the sitter! See the skill of the artist! Recommended: it’s on until 5th October 2025.

After that, we walked out into the late afternoon sun. Kenwood is a large building. It was too much to take on the house as a sketch project at that time of day. So I sketched a small building I’d spotted on the way in. This is “Kenwood Dairy”. I sketched just a part of it.

Kenwood Dairy, south pavilion, sketched 18 August 2025 in Sketchbook 16, approx size 9″ x 9″.

You can see the whole dairy in this oil painting of 1797 by Julius Caesar Ibbetson:1

Ibbetson, Julius Caesar; Three Long-Horned Cattle at Kenwood; English Heritage, Kenwood; http://www.artuk.org/artworks/three-long-horned-cattle-at-kenwood-191767

The pavilion I sketched is the one on the left. There were sadly no cattle, long-horned or otherwise, for me to put in my sketch.

The dairy was built in 1795, just a two years before Ibbotson’s oil painting. It was a working dairy, built to the designs of George Saunders, for Louisa, the wife of David Murray, 2nd Earl of Mansfield. It was fashionable for 18th century upper-class ladies to run dairies.

a dairymaid.. lived in the cottage and produced the fresh butter, cream, puddings and ice-cream enjoyed by the family and their guests.

English Heritage noticeboard near the dairy

These buildings are now used as a base for volunteers at Kenwood and Hampstead Heath.

Here is work in progress on the drawing:

It was quite tricky to follow the line of that roof. I managed to get the ink lines done, then it was time to go home. I added the colour later at my desk.

Kenwood dairy, finished drawing in Sketchbook 16

While I was drawing the dairy, John was drawing me, from a nearby bench.

Picture credit: John Ramsey
  1. https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Julius_Caesar_Ibbetson_(1759-1817)_-_Three_Long-Horned_Cattle_at_Kenwood_-_88029298_-_Kenwood_House.jpg ↩︎

Four sketches while the sun set

Yesterday the rain came with the evening.  I painted indoors.

I had a set of four paper samples from The Vintage Paper Company. Below are my four sketches.

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Each sheet is of “J Green & Sons” paper, in different weights. The one in the top left is “NOT” and the other sheets are “Rough”. Each sample sheet is about 8 inches by 6 inches.

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Here is a view towards Peregrine House, to show the satellite dishes on the roof. I also drew Peregrine House last week, see this link: Peregrine House from the King’s Square Estate

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The hole in the top left corner is where the sheets were fastened together, with a neat little screw fastener.

 

Paper fastener – 1cm in diameter
Paper fastener unfastened

This was the only paper in the same pack with a ‘NOT’ (smoother) surface. Here is a close up view of the satellite dishes. On the NOT surface I can use pen easily. Pen and ink doesn’t work so well on the “Rough” surface. Here’s a close-up, showing Peregrine House and the satellite dishes on the building in front of it.

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Below is a sketch out of the window in the rain: watercolour only, on the “Rough” surface 300gsm paper. Blake Tower is on the right, Post office Tower on the horizon, Barbican terrace block visible behind Blake Tower.

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Forty-five minutes later, the sun was setting. I enjoyed using heavier paper (400gsm) to try to capture the shimmering light on the buildings. Painted directly in watercolour, no pen, no pencil.

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Below is the final sketch, done quickly after the sun has set. This is on the heaviest paper, a magnificent 615gsm. It was stable, like card, so it didn’t curl or misbehave,  and was not soft or absorbent, but took the watercolour brilliantly.  It was very handy for such a quick sketch.

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It’s fun to experiment with papers, and surprising what a difference the paper makes. Thankyou to the Vintage Paper Co for the samples.

 

 

 

 

South End Green, Hampstead

Quick sketch drawn sitting on a chair outside the “Garden Gate” pub.
I was on the way back from a New Year’s Day swim at the Ladies’ Pond.

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It started to rain, very heavily. I tried to keep the book both open and dry, and rushed to a bus shelter. There was a woman calmly reading a book in front of the map. So I had to stare past her to see what buses were available. She grinned and moved aside. I said “I’m looking to see what buses there are.”
An old man said, “There a number 46 coming, if that’s any good to you,” and he rushed for it. I just had time to notice it said “St Bartholomew’s Hospital”. But it went past, and the old man came back, muttering that it hadn’t stopped.

We all got on the next bus, which was a 24 to Pimlico. We went past other buildings worthy of drawing, including St Dominic’s Priory, Southampton Road. I got off at Warren Street, and walked in the pouring rain to Euston Square for the Circle Line.

In the picture is the Royal Free Hospital, NHS Trust. Construction: 1968 – 1974. Architect: Llewllyn-Davies, Weeks, Forestier-Walker and Bar.
On the right are two Heatherwick buses.

About half an hour to sketch, coloured at home.