St Pauls from Tate Modern on a grey day

St Paul's Cathedral and the City of London from Level 7, Tate Modern
pen and sepia ink and coloured pencils, 11 x 17"
copyright Katherine Tyrrell

One of the great views in London is from the bar/restaurant on Level 7 of Tate Modern across to St Paul's cathedral and the skyline of the City of London.  Lots of Wren churches peeping out inbetween office blocks in varying shades of "blah".

Yesterday, after the press preview of the Gauguin exhibition which opens at Tate Modern tomorrow,  I sat up on Level 7 and draw again a view I've drawn before.  This time I managed to get boats on to the Thames - and they actually look like they're moving.  Plus I discovered that the colour of the Thames is actually a dull pink moving through to a drab grey/green.  Maybe because I was sat looking at it undeneath the red brick of the City of London School 

The thing is when I'm drawing urban landscapes on a very grey day, I always find I'm looking for ANY colour which stop it being an unremitting grey.

The other very entertaining part about sitting in the bar at the Tate is the fantastic variety of foreign tourists who come and sit next to you and talk about all manner of things under the sun. They all seem to love the cream tea though.  I was good and drew a line and contented myself with Jasmine Tea!

Early evening near Richmond Bridge

Richmond Bridge
penc and ink and coloured pencils in small Moleskine sketchbook, 8" x 10"
copyright Katherine Tyrrell

This sketch was done at the end of August.  I'm next to the River Thames at Richmond looking west towards Richmond Bridge.  The early evening rowers and lovers were out and about.  Actually, there were lots more people walking along the Thames Path but I didn't have time to draw them all in so it looks a bit more romantic than it actually was!

I am soooooooo behind with posting sketches!  We spent a couple of days visiting Richmond, Twickenham and Ham this summer and there are a couple more sketches to post of Eel Pie Island and Ham Common Pond.

I've decided I need to visit more often as there are lots of opportunities for sketching combined with exercise - not least from the top of Richmond Hill - plus the autumn colours should be excellent!

Tate People - Get a room!

I'm either getting older or the tourists are getting friskier - but my jaw did drop rather when I sat down to sketch the people sitting on the lawn in front of Tate Modern last week.

Tate People - Get a room!
pen and ink and coloured pencils in Moleskine sketchbook

Some of them weren't sitting!

I was on the Bankside last week there to see the preview of the new exhibition by Frank Kiely at the Bankside Gallery (next to Tate Modern) which is on until 5th September

 Frank does great images of London - mostly screenprints but latterly paintings as well.

He's got a Meet the Artist reception tonight Thursday the 2nd of September at the Bankside Gallery 6 - 8pm. It's a great opportunity for those of you intrigued about the how, when & why behind his London works.

You can read more about him in an interview I did a while back - Frank Kiely - an Irish artist in London