The kitchen garden at Chartwell, Churchill's former home

Chartwell Kitchen Garden
pencil and coloured pencil in Moleskine sketchbook
copyright Katherine Tyrrell

"A day away from Chartwell is a day wasted" (Winston Churchill)

Yesterday the sun shone - and we went to Chartwell in Kent, former home of Winston Churchill and now a National Trust property. I went armed with camera and sketchbook and my partner went with the intention of doing one of the things he enjoys doing best - sitting in the sunshine with a marvellous view of the Weald of Kent.

After a quick visit to the house (again - we go every year at least once, partner is a big history buff) and some negotiation as to which bench in the garden meant he got the best dose of sunshine on his face and gave me the best view(!), I settled down to sketch the kitchen garden from a terrace just above it. Churchill himself built the brick walls in the background of this kitchen garden. There's more information about the recent restoration of the kitchen garden here.

The sketch was completed using a mechanical pencil in a double page spread of my Moleskine sketchbook and I used coloured pencil on top to give a sense of the main colours. I think I'd like to have a go at doing a landscape painting from the terrace we sat on as the bit you can't see is the stunning view of the Weald of Kent which is just above the top margin of my sketchbook.

I've included some photos - the first is of the view I had (except the photo was taken standing up).

One of Churchill's recreations was oil painting. The next is a shot looking down to the studio where Churchill painted and the Weald beyond. The studio is the brick building to the left of centre. The kitchen garden wall is top right.

Finally, one taken from the studio area looking back up at the house. This last view is one which I'm doing in pastel for my partner. He's very patient, as it was started on a sunny day a long time ago and has stayed 'nearly' finished for simply ages! It's quite a busy traffic area and I didn't find it easy to paint from there so I'll probably try and finish using this photo as a reference. There's not a lot to do to it.

You can see more photos on the National Trust website.

[First posted 6th April 2006 on 'Making a Mark'. New links and quotation added with this post.]

Links:

• Chartwell Mapleton Road, Westerham, Kent TN16 1PS
  Telephone: 01732 868381
• National Trust - Chartwell
• BBC - Historic Figures - Winston Churchill (1874-1965)
• The Churchill Centre, Washington DC - Life at Chartwell
  
• Wikipedia - Churchill
• Wikipedia - Chartwell
  

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