Drawing people and delaying the cream tea!

Cream Tea at Biddulph Grange
8" x 10" pencil and coloured pencil in Moleskine
copyright Katherine Tyrrell

I did this very fast sketch yesterday of people in the tearoom at Biddulph Grange Garden - a National Trust property in the north west of England. Mother and I visited yesterday, very dull day and the cold weather has held back a lot of the growth but it was great for seeing lots of hellebores and the first shoots of the giant asiatic lillies which they grow there. Mother was very pleased as she got some seeds of the latter!

Sketch is a double page spread in my Moleskine sketchbook. Mechanical pencil and just a smidgen of coloured pencil on top. Took between 5 and 10 minutes. Mother sorted out the cream tea which we were sharing and poured the tea while I sketched!

(This was first posted in "Making a Mark" on 13th April 2006. This post indicates the contrast in weather between the two Aprils - last year the cold lingered long and the bluebells were delayed by about six weeks. This year it almost felt like June in April, closely followed by a May which was one of the most cold, wet and miserable on record. Such are the delights of the English weather and why 'changeable' is a word in much use during weather forecasts.

This is the last of the sketches from the north of England which needed to be transferred to this blog. I've rescanned the sketch as since last April I've found out how to remove the 'greyness' from some of my lighter sketches. I've also added in some useful links. )

Links:

• Biddulph Grange Garden, Grange Road, Biddulph, Staffordshire ST8 7SD
  Telephone: 01782 517999
• National Trust - Biddulph Grange Garden
• Google Maps - location of Biddulph Grange Garden
  
• Metereological Office weather forecast for the West Midlands (which includes Staffordshire)