Trees at Tate Modern

Trees at Tate Modern
pen and sepia ink and coloured pencils on ivory coloured mountboard
copyright Katherine Tyrrell

This is the "postcard from my walk" in March which I posted to Martin Stankewitz in Germany (see A Postcard from my Walk - Trees by the Tate - Greetings from London) at the end of last month.

It's a sketch done from a place where I very often sketch - but not usually this view.  Normally I'm sat facing the Tate Modern Museum and am sketching all the people sitting on the grass - or I'm looking across the River Thames to St Paul's Cathedral.

Except Martin's keen on sketching trees so I kept looking out for some trees and coming back from viewing the RWS show at the Bankside Gallery provided an excellent opportunity to sketch the rather nice silver birches which surround the Tate Modern forecourt.  Plus I got to sketch the Millenium Bridge in the background and people at different distances from me which is always a nice challenge in respect of scale

However it was a bit chilly so late in the day so coloured pencil was added afterwards!  I even tried to make one of the people look a bit like Martin sketching although the profile didn't work out!

I'm finding that mountboard is proving very useful for these postcards.  It allows me to cut the board to the maximum size for a postcard.  Plus I give both sides a double coat of fixative before I post the postcard.