Tag: London

A peregrination in De Beauvoir Town

I went for a long walk North.

De Beauvoir Town and De Beauvoir Estate are next to each other.

Here is a quick sketch of the very pretty houses on De Beauvoir Square, De Beauvoir Town. A tower block near Dalston Junction is just visible.

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Just around the corner is the lovely St Peter’s Church, designed by WC Lockner, 1830s. In the basement of the Church, they serve lunch every Friday.

Then I walked back South, along De Beauvoir Road.

Here is a view looking West. The houses in the foreground are on De Beauvoir Road. In the background is Portelet Court, part of the De Beauvoir Estate, 1960s, Hackney Homes.

I drew Portelet Court as reddish. When I went into the estate to find the name of the block, I saw that the cladding is a dark grey. It only looked red because the sun was setting.

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Portelet Court, over the rooves of houses on De Beauvoir Road.

I drew this picture sitting on the pavement on De Beauvoir Road. About an hour. As I was getting up a cyclist stopped. I must have looked a bit awkward. He asked if I was ok. I said yes, puzzled. “I thought you had fallen over” said the cyclist, “you don’t often see people sitting on the pavement.”

I guess you don’t.

The Charterhouse: entrance to Preachers’ Court

Here is the entrance to Preachers’ Court in The Charterhouse. The Admiral Ashmore Building is on the left.

While I was drawing this, Stanley Underhill, a Brother, came to chat. He has catalogued the Charterhouse art collection, he told me. It took him seven years. He wrote a book “Charterhouse Art” which is in the shop.

He told me the dates on the buildings. The Admiral Ashmore Building – 2000. In the background, the building with the castellations, 1840, and the ancient building on the right, 1530.

September 20th 2017

I drew this picture in a new book, which is 10 inches by 11inches.

 

The larger size meant that the picture took longer.

3 hours, drawn and coloured on location.

Towers of North London

I have a project to draw all the towers I can see from my window. These are the towers of Finsbury, Hackney and Camden in North London.

To identify the Towers, I made an etching of the sky line. This is the view from my window. I look North.

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This is an aquatint, made at East London Printmakers. Later I am going to put all the names on.

Here’s an earlier stage of the same picture.  This is the hard ground etching.

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This is Charbonnel Doux printing ink on Fabriano Unica Printing Paper from Great Art. Copper plate etched in Edinburgh etch for 25 minutes.

 

 

The Charterhouse, West Wall

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Here is a sketch looking towards the Main Gate of The Charterhouse. The building with the curved gables is now the Pavior’s House, which is occupied by the Pavior’s Livery Company:

The Worshipful Company of Paviors moved into a new home in 2010. The Company has a long lease on a Grade 1 listed property formerly known as ‘The Master’s Cottage’ at Sutton’s Hospital in the Charterhouse. The property has been refurbished and is now known as Paviors’ House. – From the website of the Worshipful Company of Paviors, 14 Sept 2017.

Pavior means one who lays paving stones, and the modern livery company retains links with the paving industry.

This drawing was a lot more difficult than I expected. I was very pleased to get all the high walls in the background onto the one page. I liked the way they tower above the lower buildings. And all the architecture is different periods. The Tudor buildings of Charterhouse are on the left.

The drawing took 2hours45minutes.

Here is what it looked like before I coloured it:

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Charterhouse have now created notecards using my pictures.

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“Anthology” and Bridport Place N1

From our flat we can see this core against the skyline.

It is Phase 3 of Hackney Council’s redevelopment of the Colville Estate. Two towers, called “Anthology” 16 and 20 floors “solely for private sale, to help cross subsidise the construction cost of the remaining social rent buildings”.

I drew this from Shoreditch Park. It rained. I walked around a bit. The sun came out. I started again. It rained again. I got back on my bike and went home and finished the colouring on my desk at home.
12:10, 1 hour intermittent on location and half an hour at home. I’m quite pleased with the tree.

The Charterhouse in aquatint

Here is an aquatint on copper plate, based on a drawing.
I made it at ELP Studio in Stepney. It took all day! I made 5 prints. This is one on Khadi paper which has a very strong texture.

Master’s Garden, The Charterhouse

20 June 2017 (colour)

This shows the Preacher’s House. The wall on the right is next to the Clerkenwell Road. Behind the fence on the right there were bee-hives with very active bees.

About 3 hours. Drawn and coloured on location.

Here’s what it looked like before the colour went on:

20 June 2017 (pen only)

 

The Charterhouse, Chapel from the Roof Terrace

This is looking South-East from the roof terrace.

13 June 2017

Thank you to the Preacher of Charterhouse, Robin Isherwood, for arranging my access to the roof terrace. This is the view looking across a wide green space in the Queen Mary College campus, towards the Chapel and offices of The Charterhouse.  The building in the foreground is part of Charterhouse, restored in the 1950s. The restoration architects were Seely and Paget, the people behind the restoration of Eltham Palace.

Charterhouse, Pensioners’ Court

This is from a doorway on Pensioners’ Court, which is the court beyond Preacher’s Court. The Building with the four archways is part of the Brothers’ realm: the infirmary above and the coffee room below. I don’t know what the turret is, very intriguing.
The gardens were magnificent. In front of me was that huge magnolia tree. It moved in the wind and contained darkness much darker than I have drawn it.

I enjoyed the two towers: Barbican and Charterhouse, and the way the view was bracketed by the tree on the right and the lamp-post on the left.

One hour 45 minutes, drawn and coloured on location. The day was overcast and threatened rain. Round me, a gardener was watering the borders.
It should be “Pensioners’” court (plural).