My watercolour above represents a walk I took on New Year’s Day 2020 in the Peak District, with my friend Jill. I am please to say that it is now framed and hangs in Jill’s house, a memory of a happy day. As we all know, 2020 was to become much more difficult as the coronavirus pandemic spread globally, restricting our lives, and worse. Earlier posts on this blog tell how my urban sketching activities had to be cancelled. I managed some watercolours at home from photographs and sketches, but found it hard to be motivated to work at home. In summer 2020, I was able to return to some location sketching and painting:
Above, sketching with my friend Lis at Horniman Gardens, below, a day at Kew Gardens:
My only trip from home this year has been three nights at West Dean College, where I experimented with ‘abstracting the landscape’. Two of these paintings have just been framed for a friend:
A group of my small watercolours done at Kew Gardens also hang in the home of a friend:
Another project I devised during the pandemic, was using my artworks to have greetings cards printed. I would post these in sets to friends who used them to send greetings to people they could not see in person, especially those who were particularly isolated. Winter sketching has to be quick and simple – above, a sketch done in Bethnal Green, and below, another done in December in the grounds of Dulwich Picture Gallery: I have never been really motivated by studio painting; I am interested in combining sketching and painting with exploration of places, whether of London or further afield. I have also been really pleased when pictures make a connection with friends. Through the winter, I will aim to do some quick sketches, like the ones above, to keep up some kind of practice, and hope to be able to go further afield later in the new year.
Lines of enquiry 