Diary

A few days away

 We have gone down to the Lake district and up to the North Pennines to meet up with my brother and explore the empty bit of England up north and in the middle. Discovered the amazingness of Youth Hostel Windemere, a strange and quirky building with the best view of the Windemere I have ever seen. I got excited about sky over the jagged mountains, so it had to be a pastel. 

 It was on a blue/purple ground that I had brought along. I find it useful to use up any bits of paint on my palette before cleaning it, by spreading it on a primed piece of card. Then I always have something exciting as a base for a pastel or pencil sketch.

Today, moving on to the Pennines, I visited the Bowes Museum. Now, I knew that it housed some extensive collections, but I did not know that Josephine Bowes was a very competant landscape artist. There are some excellent pieces by her. She also seemed to compulsively collected a lot of European art, which I am sure she bought as Job Lots, because some are definatley not by the gifted master painter! Certainly a "B" list or two. I found this terribly reassuring - not all artists achieve perfection, makes my work seem not so bad. The museum is a product of Josephine and her husband John maddly collecting an eccentric set of objects. It is well worth a visit, even to wonder "Why so many chairs?"

Talking of compulsion, I find that I get a bit twitchy if I don't do a sketch or painting each day, and I had to draw SOMETHING - so inspired by all the classicism in the museum, here is a pencil (coloured) sketch of leaves sticking through a balustrade in the formal garden, using Ingres paper, which seemed right somehow.