Sketching in the RI Exhibition at the Mall Galleries

I went to the Private View of the Annual Exhibition of the Royal Institute of Painters in Water Colours this week at the Mall Galleries. Looking back at past blog posts about their exhibitions reminded me to look back in my London sketch folder at sketches done IN their exhibitions in the past - and you can find some of these below.

See my blog review of this year - 205th Annual Exhibition of the Royal Institute of Painters in Watercolour and you'll find lots of subject matter for sketching while the exhibition is on!

As usual, all sketches below start in pen and ink in a Moleskine sketchbook and then have coloured pencils added - except for the ones at the end which are in pencil.

See RI Exhibition at the Mall Galleries (2010)
This sketch appears on page 103 of my book Sketching 365 
available via a link in the side column or from all good art bookshops
(which includes the Mall Galleries!)

Some marvellous and colourful paintings by Bob Rudd of Iona and various other islands in the Hebrides feature on the end wall.

see The Private View (199th RI Exhibition) (in 2011)

My method of sketching is simple - find a seat and start drawing! The composition evolves as I draw. People come and go and the trick is to get good at spotting the ones who look like they're going to stick around in the same spot for a little bit!

See RI 2015 Private View - and sketchbooks on show

There's a lot of RI member artists bringing in their sketchbooks to the exhibition as part of the events programme (see the list below) and as you can imagine a lot of them will be sketching using watercolour.

and finally....

Below are two sketches from this review of the exhibition Royal Institute of Painters in Water Colours Annual Exhibition 2008 and the sketch is of Bill Toop RI (who sadly died last year) demonstrating how to paint in watercolours and a little boy called Thomas who was watching him intently.

NOTE: This blog has been on a hiatus for various reasons - not least being the very serious problems I had in mobilising last year due to the onset of arthritis and a torn meniscus in my knee. This has meant I now cut out carrying anything unnecessary. I had trouble getting my coat on and off at one point never mind a back pack!! I'll be trying to get back to sketching and blogging again in the future and in the meantime may well post more sketches from the past that haven't seen the light of day on this blog before!

Sketching at the exhibition for the Sunday Times Watercolour Competition 2015

My book has a section on sketching in Art Galleries and Museums (pages 102-103 of my book Sketching 365) - and that's because this is an activity I love to do!

6 Tips about sketching in Art Galleries and Museums
from Sketching 365

This is a photograph of the sketch I did on Monday of the people visiting the Sunday Times Watercolour Exhibition on its first day open to the public at the Mall Galleries.

Sketch of visitors to exhibition for the Sunday Times Watercolour Competition
at the Mall Galleries 14-19 September 2015

I did it very fast - while I drank my cup of tea! It was done in my usual Moleskine sketchbook using a Pilot G-Tec-C 0.25 Hyper Fine Gel Rollerball Pen which delivers a 0.13mm line - which you can also see in the photograph.  

This one had brown ink which gives a much less 'in your face" line when compared to black ink. Turner liked brown ink as well! (see Review of Ruskin's Turners at the Fitzwilliam Museum).

I'm not using watercolour because the ordinary Moleskine sketchbook absolutely detests watercolour!

You can read my review of the exhibition for the Sunday Times Watercolour Competition 2015 in Review: Sunday Times Watercolour Competition 2015 on Making A Mark 

Sketches from Victoria and Albert Museum Sketchcrawl

Only a week late this time - here are the sketches from the London Urban Sketchers Sketchcrawl at the Victoria and Albert Museum last Saturday.

It was so sunny that I say in The John Madejski Garden - the courtyard with a pool in the centre of the Museum - all afternoon drawing people sat in the sun.

Sitting in the sun, The John Madejski Garden, Victoria and Albert Museum 7th March 2015
pen and sepia ink in Moleskine Sketchbook (11" x 16")

I started with the chap sat next to the external corner of the building (top left) and then worked my way across the page relating one person to another. Of course they were never all present at the same time as people came and went as I drew - and some of them moved rather a lot while I was drawing! Which accounts for why some are half finished!

I also drew some London Urban Sketchers. On the left is Jean Edwards (a drawing a day) and on the right is Pavel Miller. You can see what Jean and Pavel were sketching in the Tweets below my sketch - they were both sketching the architecture of the V&A at the time.

London Urban Sketchers hard at work
Pen and sepia ink in Moleskine sketchbook

@UrbSketchLondon @makingamark2 #thedailysketch an enjoyable and productive day at the V and A https://t.co/Vq97fkNXOi pic.twitter.com/9itVWhuRD9
— jean edwards (@JeanEd70) March 7, 2015

Awesome day sketching in the sun with @UrbSketchLondon at the @V_and_A can't wait for the next one! pic.twitter.com/aGBwIQ3eOv
— Pavel Miller (@PVMill) March 7, 2015

Sketchcrawl at the British Museum (February 2015)

I always seem to be late posting sketches from Sketchcrawls! These are three from last month's Urban Sketchers London visit to the British Museum.

I avoided the architecture and stuck with the artifacts in the cases and a rather splendid sculpture above one door.  Some of them are very difficult to draw - but I'm not showing you my failures!

Painted Statue of a Woman 2000-1600BC (Old Babylonian)

British Museum 7 February 2015

Not quite sure what the name is for a statue above a door This is Indugud (c.2,500BC) - it looked like an eagle and stags to me but it was about 25 feet up in the air!
British Museum 7 February 2015

These are African Masks made from all sorts of things - but wood is very popular
The masks at the top are of Women and the ones at the bottom are of wild animals
British Museum 7 February 2015

Today there's another sketchcrawl at the V&A Museum in South Kensington which I'm leaving to join now.  It finishes at 3.30pm so still time to get along and join in!

Meet me and get 'Sketching 365' signed at the Mall Galleries TODAY!

I've only just realised I have completely forgotten to highlight on this blog that I've got my "meet the author and get your book signed" event at the bookshop in the Mall Galleries this afternoon (5th March)

Meet @jameshobbsart & me & our sketchbooks at the bookshop in the @mallgalleries @ 3pm TODAY we're signing our books! pic.twitter.com/lqsw4HMT3U
— Katherine Tyrrell (@sketching365) March 5, 2015

You've got a few hours to get up to the Mall in London and catch James Hobbs and me, see our sketchbooks and get your copies of Sketching 365 and Sketch Your World signed by us!

There is even a reduced price deal for anyone buying both books before 4pm today.
We're also very happy to answer any questions you may have about sketching and how you are getting on with your own sketches.

We'll be around until 7pm after which I think we might be joining the Pastel Society's Art Event evening.

Lunch for one at the National Dining Rooms

This the lunch I had recently after I visited the new exhibition at the National Gallery - see Review: Facing the Modern - The Portrait in Vienna 1900.  I came out of the exhibition - in the basement of the Sainsbury Wing - found the lift and went up two floors to the National Dining Rooms

I sorted out my notes from the press preview and started my sketches of my Table d'Hote lunch. See National Dining Rooms menu [External website].  It came with a very nice glass of red wine.

Each is sketched fast in en and ink, then I colour fast using coloured pencils and finally I do a bit of finishing off at home - but it's not a lot.  The bulk is sketched in situ. For some reason I can't get the colour quite right on the first course and the background page colour is off.

Sweet Cured Devon Trout, Summer Beets, Wild watercress, Elderberry Vinegar
copyright Katherine Tyrrell

Borders Grouse, Scottish Girolles, Stornaway Black Pudding, (Straw Fries and Liver Toast)
copyright Katherine Tyrrell

Kentish Plums, Lavender Cream, Cobnuts and Wissey Honey
copyright Katherine Tyrrell

My tip for sketching meals

Don't try to include all of the plate.  There's no rule that says you can't crop plates out of the picture plane!

Sea Bream at the Portrait Restaurant

Lunch at Portrait Restaurant at the National Portrait Gallery - Main Course - July 2013
pen and ink and coloured pencils, 8" x 10"
copyright Katherine Tyrrell

These are a couple of sketches from a recent visit to the Portrait Restaurant at the National Portrait Gallery for lunch.  Sketching was VERY rapid!  Food was very good.  Exhibition was very good - see my Review: Laura Knight Portraits

• Starter (below): Air dried ham, figs, goats cheese, rocket salad and balsamic dressing
• Main Course (above): Sea Bream, Creamy Mash, Chorizo, Spinach, Confit Tomatoes

Lunch at Portrait Restaurant at the National Portrait Gallery
Starter - July 2013
pen and ink and coloured pencils, 8" x 10"
copyright Katherine Tyrrell

The Portrait Restaurant is open for lunch and dinner (2 courses £25) - and breakfast and afternoon tea - and has a fabulous view across the top of the National Gallery to the London Eye, Whitehall, the Houses of Parliament and Big Ben!

ROI Art Event Evening at the Mall Galleries

Sketch of The Royal Institute of Oil Painters' Art Event Evening
at the Mall Galleries 17th December 2012
pen and ink and coloured pencils in Moleskine Sketchbook, 11" x 16"
© Katherine Tyrrell

I drew this sketch last night during the annual Art Event Evening while the Royal Institute of Oil Painters hold during the Annual Exhibition at the Mall Galleries. It was done from my vantage point sat at the bottom of the stairs on the way into the West Gallery.  You can just see the lower legs and feet of the model on the left

Status of sketch at the third break.
Still got the floor and background to do!

The Gallery was absolutely full of easels and painters - most painting in oils but some painting in watercolours and some of us were just drawing.  I get bored drawing one person so I decided to do my view of the event! :)  We had a couple of hours with breaks to get something down.  All in all it was a very pleasurable event and much enjoyed by all I spoke to.  I can highly recommend it if you'd like to attend next year.

In the middle of the sketch are a couple of oil painters and art bloggers that I know.

• Sat in the middle in black is Adebanji Adeola Alade (Adebanji Alade) who is a Provisional member of the ROI and has a portrait painting in the exhibition.
• Standing next to him in the apron is Haidee-Jo Summers (Haidee-Jo Summers Artist) who won the First Prize of £200 worth of art materials donated by Winsor & Newton for the "best portrait".  She also has a landscape painting in the exhibition.

Haidee-Jo Summers, portrait painting and model.
Haidee is using an Open Box M.
That apron looked green in the more subdued light!

You can see (and buy) the paintings in the Exhibition online.  The exhibition continues at the Mall Galleries on The Mall, London until 23rd December.

A conversation

Sometimes I'm riveted and intrigued by the people I see in art galleries and museums when I'm sketching.  This was a very fast sketch - and it made me want to try and work out who they are and what they were talking about.

A conversation - August 2012
pen and sepia ink in Moleskine Sketchbook, 8" x 10"
copyright Katherine Tyrrell

Of course they could just be discussing which train to catch!

A Veduta Sketch of London on a sunny day

We're having a novelty week this week - hot sunny weather, blue skies and very little cloud.  It makes a change.

It is of course all due to end on Friday in time for the Olympics Opening Ceremony!

In the meanwhile, here's the view over the rooftops of the National Portrait Gallery and National Gallery last Sunday afternoon from the Portrait Restaurant on the Third Floor of the National Portrait Gallery.  I'd just attended a "Next Generation" session with teenagers and was in need of a cup of Earl Grey!

View from Portrait Restaurant 22 July 2012 3.30pm
pen and ink and coloured pencils in Moleskine Sketchbook

In this "veduta" sketch you can see - from the left:

• the clock tower housing Big Ben - now renamed the Elizabeth Tower (to celebrate the Diamond Jubilee of Queen Elizabeth II)
• Portcullis House with the very prominent chimneys (which houses the offices of members of Parliament)
• Whitehall - the centre of government in the UK
• the Victoria Tower - at the other end of the Houses of Parliament
• Westminster Abbey where Kings and Queens are crowned and future monarchs are often married
• Nelson's Column in Trafalgar Square - which also houses the Countdown Clock for the Olympics
• Millbank Tower near to Tate Britain
• the central dome of the National Gallery

Note:  A veduta is a view painting which were popularised by Canaletto and others.  I'm particularly partial to drawing views and vistas and hence I'm going to use "veduta sketch" to indicate a sketch of a complex view.

Lunch in the Portrait Restaurant

If I'm at the National Portrait Gallery for events in the morning and afternoon I try and have lunch in the Portrait Restaurant at the top of the building.  It has a fabulous view which I never get bored of and the food's not bad either (you can review the menus online - see links below) although not cheap!

Lunch at the Portrait Restaurant - June 2012
11" x 16" pen and sepia ink in Moleskine sketchbook

It's much used by people to meet up with friends, do interviews, do work etc.  On this occasion I got very distracted when I realised one of the people I was sketching was Jon Snow (look no face!)

I was making notes of the interviews I'd just done the award-winning artists and about the portraits I'd just seen in the BP Portrait Exhibition so on this occasions did not sketch lunch!

See my posts on Making A Mark

• Aleah Chapin wins £25,000 BP Portrait Award 2012
• Review: BP Portrait Award Exhibition 2012 (Part 1)
• Review: BP Portrait Award Exhibition 2012 (Part 2)
• Video of BP Portrait Award Exhibition 2012 - a walk around the exhibition with a handheld camcorder.
• A Profile of Aleah Chapin - includes a link to my video film of edited highlights from my interview with Aleah.

The opening hours are a bit odd - but then it is in a Gallery! I've quoted the current hours below

• Breakfast & Afternoon Tea
• Breakfast - Monday-Sunday, 10:00-11:00 (last orders to the kitchen by 11:30)
• Afternoon Tea: Monday-Sunday, 15:30-17:00 (last orders for the kitchen 17:00)
• Lunch & Dinner
• Lunch - Monday-Friday, 12:00-14:45 (last orders for the kitchen 15:00)
• Dinner: Thursday, Friday & Saturday 17:30 - 22:00 (last food orders for the kitchen 20:30)
• Pre-Theatre Dinner: Thursday,Friday & Saturday evenings, 17:30-18:30 (last orders for the kitchen 18:45)

Sir Joshua Reynolds gets a garland - again!

When the Summer Exhibition is open at the Royal Academy of Arts, the statue of Sir Joshua Reynolds which stands in the courtyard of Burlington House is adorned with a garland.

Sir Joshua Reynolds (1723 - 1792) was one of the founders of the Royal Academy of Arts and its first President.  Garlands were apparently a feature of many of his portraits and I guess there's probably a connection. He's also holding a palette and brush in his hand.  You can see his works of art in the RA's permanent collection.

Sir Joshua Reynolds - and garland
from Burlington House Terrace
Pen and sepia ink in Moleskine Sketchbook
copyright Katherine Tyrrell

This is what he looked like from the other side two years ago when I took a photo of him.

Sir Joshua Reynolds plus garland, brush and palette
Courtyard of Burlington House, Piccadilly
copyright Katherine Tyrrell

I was sat looking out at him under the very nice tent which is erected at the front of Burlington House so people visiting the exhibitions can drink tea - as I was - and not get wet in the summer showers.  Or even enjoy some shade should the sun ever come out!

You can read my review of this year's Summer Exhibition over on Making A Mark - see Review: 244th Summer Exhibition at the Royal Academy.

What is a well-chosen collection of pictures, but walls hung round with thoughts?Sir Joshua Reynolds

The gardens at the Geffreye Museum

Yesterday I visited the Geffreye Museum with the Drawing London Group.  This is a museum of the home and garden between 1600 and the present day.  It's situated in Hoxton - inbetween Kingsland Road and the new Hoxton London Overground Station (opened July 2010).

The weather wasn't brilliant (constant showers) but the view of the period gardens at the rear of the museum from the cafe was - so I stayed inside during the morning and was able to sit comfortably, spead by pencils on a table and drink cups of tea!  Bliss!

After a very satisfactory lunch, I then visited the exhibition and then sketched in the garden in afternoon - with a few false starts due to the rain.

Both the sketches of gardens at the rear of the Geffreye Museum in this post are straight off the page - and, although drawn, they are not quite finished in terms of the colouration of the trees and vegetation which still needs to be completed.  Basically the edges are a lacking a bit of colour.

The Edwardian Garden

Geffreye Museum Gardens - April 2012
20th Century Period Garden (Edwardian 1900 -1914) in foreground
pen and sepia ink and coloured pencils on Arches HP, 9" x 12"
copyright Katherine Tyrrell - all rights reserved

From the cafe I could see all the way down the gardens at the rear - but the one which was closest to me was the 20th century - Edwardian Garden.  I can see from the photos that I'll have to go back next month when the roses over the pergola should be in flower and the wisteria better developed.  I discovered that wisteria is very difficult to capture in coloured pencils - and the watercolourists were having the same problem

Click the next link (at the end of the quote) to see the list of plants in the garden.

This garden depicts a scheme featuring mixed borders full of herbaceous and traditional cottage garden plants, showing the influence of both Gertrude Jekyll and the garden designers and architects working with Arts and Crafts motifs. A pergola covered with wisteria and roses marks the entrance to this space.
Geffreye Museum: 20th century - Edwardian Garden

That funny dark pyramid structure in the middle is a Pelargonium Pyramid which is completely bare at the moment.  I spotted all the pelargoniums in the Victorian Greenhouse ready to plant into the structure.

The Herb Garden

Geffreye Museum Herb Garden - April 2012
pen and sepia ink and coloured pencils in Large Moleskine Sketchbook
copyright Katherine Tyrrell - all rights reserved

The Herb Garden is a walled Garden with a beds devoted to different aspects of a Herb Garden.

There are beds for cosmetic, medicinal, culinary, household, aromatic and dye plants.Geffreye Museum - Herb Garden

Hoxton used to be an area of market gardens and nurseries at the time the almshouses were built.

Hoxton, just across Kingsland Road in the parish of Shoreditch, was home to a group of extremely influential nurseries in the 17th and 18th centuries.Geffreye Museum

About the Geffreye Museum

Geffreye Museum - April 2012

The Geffreye Museum is located in almshouses which were in built in 1714 by The Worshipful Company of Ironmongers with a bequest from Sir Robert Geffrye, twice Master of the Company and former Lord Mayor of London.  The almshouses provided a home for c.50 pensioners for almost two hundred years.

Over time Hoxton became one of the most overcrowded and deprived areas of London and the Company decided to move the almshouses to better location.  The premises and the open space were initially sold to the Peabody Trust and afterwards to the London County Council - with a view to both preserving the buildings but also access to one of the few open areas of green space in the area.

The almshouses became a furniture museum - the local area being a centre for furniture-making.

The buildings are now Grade 1 Listed and the furniture museum has become a museum of the domestic home and garden.

Visiting the Geffreye Museum

Although I've visited the Geffreye Museum before it's always been by car at times when the Hackney parking wardens aren't stalking the streets!

I'd not realised before how easy and quick it now is to reach the Museum via public transport from where I live.  The opening of the new Hoxton Station and the connection of the East London Line to the rest of the London Overground network now makes it much easier to visit from places across London.  This is a map (pdf file) of the London Overground Network and all the stations across London which can now be used to reach Hoxton.

I shall certainly now visit more often - because of the plants in the gardens at the rear and the scope for peaceful sketching of gardens!

Links

The Ironmongers Company and the Almshouses

• The History of the Ironmongers
• British History Online - The Geffreye Museum (formerly Geffreye Almshouses) 
• Spitalfields Life - At the Geffrye Almhouses
• Sir Robert Geffery's Almshouse Trust : Geffery's Fields - the present day "almshouses" which relocated to Hampshire

The Geffreye Museum

• Visiting the Geffreye Museum Kingsland Road, London, E2 8EA
• Geffreye Museum - Period Rooms and Gardens

Sketching people at the Picasso exhibition at Tate Britain

The Draw London Group visited the environment around Tate Britain recently. I was suffering from sun dazzle and no visor - after lots of sketching on very sunny days - and decided to opt for the Picasso and Modern British Art exhibition at Tate Britain.

These are sketches of people viewing the exhibition.  As always they are composites of people coming and going in the exhibition and I assemble the drawing one person at a time.

Visitors to the Picasso and Modern British Art exhibition at Tate Britain #1
pen and sepia ink and coloured pencils in Moleskine Sketchbook, 11" x 16"
© Katherine Tyrrell - all rights reserved

I've just noticed that the perspective lines are not all in alignment in the sketch above.  But that's what happen's when you're focused on the people rather than the perspective!

The one below involved sitting the other side of a door with glass panels and looking through at the people in the next gallery.  It's an excellent way to sketch without being "in your face".

Visitors to the Picasso and Modern British Art exhibition at Tate Britain #1
pen and sepia ink and coloured pencils in Moleskine Sketchbook, 11" x 16"
© Katherine Tyrrell - all rights reserved

Plus a sketch of one of Picasso's paintings which I've always liked a lot.

As always I learned a tremendous amount just trying to get a sense of the forum and the colour using pen and sepia ink and coloured pencils.

Sketch of " Child with a Dove" (1901) by Pablo Ruiz Picasso (1881-1973)
 oil on canvas, 73cm by 54cm
pen and sepia ink and coloured pencils in Moleskine sketchbook
sketch and photograph © Katherine Tyrrell - all rights reserved

The painting is one of Picasso's earliest works.

It was painted when he was just 19 and sold to Mrs. R. A. Workman, 1924. Samuel Courtauld purchased it from her in 1928 and then it was bequeathed by him to Christabel McLaren, Lady Aberconway on his death in 1947. It remains in the Aberconwy family and has been loaned out to different galleries in London.  When it's not in the current exhibition it can normally be seen at the The Courtauld Gallery.

However I gather there is an inheritance tax bill and the Arts Council has been notified of an Intention to Sell this work which it's thought might be valued at around £50 million.

It's unlikely that any UK gallery can afford this sum and it was announced last month that the painting may leave the UK.  So if you want to see it before it disappears make a point of visiting the Picasso exhibition soon!

Wallace Collection: Sketching Venice by Canaletto

After limbering up with Mr Bonington (see Wallace Collection: Sketching Venice by Bonington), I moved to the next gallery at the Wallace Collection and got to grips with a big painting of Venice by Giovanni Antonio Canal, better known as Canaletto, (1697 - 1768).

I had a lot to choose from!

Sketch of Venice: the Bacino di San Marco from San Giorgio Maggiore by Canaletto
11" x 16", pen and ink and coloured pencils in Moleskine Sketchbook

Canaletto is one of those painters who I find is liable to induce blind panic due to the sheer size of some of his paintings and the amount of perspective involved.  I picked one of the less complicated ones!  The sketch is of Canaletto's painting Venice: the Bacino di San Marco from San Giorgio Maggiore and it can be found in the West Gallery on the first floor.

These are some of the other paintings in the West Gallery.  Besides works by Canaletto, it also includes a few paintings by Francesco Guardi (1712 - 1793) and some imitators of Canaletto.

Why sketch paintings in art galleries

One of the reasons I like sketching paintings in art museums and galleries is that it's one of the best ways I know of learning how a composition works, the real colours involved in the palette and the real tonal values of seemingly light or dark parts of a painting.

So with this one:

• the horizon includes all the iconic buildings on that side of the basin and is below the centre line - although interestingly NOT on a third
• the apex of the triangular quayside in the foreground is however on "a third"
• the masts on the vessel in the centre of painting (and those of other ships) echo the strong vertical of the campanile on the right and are also echoed by the even taller mast on the left side (not included in my sketch - I ran out of time) which acts as a block and stops the eye straying out of the picture
• the water and sky are both a lot darker than first appears.  The darker tonal values sit either side of sunlit buildings on the horizon
• the boat coming in from the right persuades my eye to return to the centre of the painting
• there's a few little touches of red around the painting which enliven and energise the green/blue of the water and the ochre/sienna of the ground
• there's a lot more cream in the sky than I first realised - which warms the painting up.
• the figures in the foreground represent different aspects of Venetian life

This is what the Wallace Collection website has to say about this painting.

One of a pair of unusually large views, depicting the Bacino di San Marco from opposing vantage points. Here the viewer is placed on the steps of the church of San Giorgio Maggiore looking across the Bacino di San Marco towards the Canale della Giudecca on the left, with the opening of the Grand Canal in the centre of the canvas, and the Campanile (bell-tower), the Piazzetta and the Doge’s palace on the right. It is an attractive, clearly identifiable view of a type calculated to appeal to the Grand Tourist, with picturesque elements of local colour reinforcing the idea of Venice as an exciting cosmopolitan centre.

Paintings from the past are also a jolly good way of finding "views" of a place or what I call places to paint in The Art of the Landscape.  This particular one is a classic and quite possibly overdone view of Venice - but it's certainly one which presents a challenge.

This is the location of the view in Venice.  The painting is of the view from the island of San Giorgio Maggiore - looking northwest to the buildings either side of the Grand Canal - from Santa Maria della Salute in the west to the waterfront buildings of the SanMarco Sestieri in the middle and the east.


Wallace Collection:

• address - Hertford House, Manchester Square, London W1U 3BN (nearest tube: Bond Street; more info about visiting)
• website - http://www.wallacecollection.org/

Wallace Collection: Sketching Venice by Bonington

This is the first sketch I did before the Cornish Cream Tea. It's a sketch of the painting of Venice: the Piazza San Marco by Richard Parkes Bonington(1802 - 1828) in one of the galleries of the Wallace Collection

Sketch of Venice: the Piazza San Marco (1828)
an oil painting by Richard Parkes Bonington
11" x 8", pen and ink and coloured pencil in Moleskine Sketchbook

I chose it because I turned a corner and this painting just grabbed me and insisted I sketch it. I never demur when this happens.

Maybe it was something to do with the fact that it looked unfinished.  Maybe it was the composition.  It's usually about the colour when this happens and I suspect it was in this case. The web version on the Wallace Collection website definitely does not do it justice.

The context of the complementary colours of purple walls against old gold certainly got my retinal receptors zinging.

I learned that the Wallace Collection has one of the best collections of oil paintings and watercolours by Richard Parkes Bonington who died age 26 from consumption.  This painting was started in the year he died.

The Wallace Collection is fortunate to own probably the finest collection in the world of paintings by Richard Parkes Bonington (1802-1828) - ten oils and twenty-five watercolours. They represent most of his major areas of interest, ranging from richly costumed historical scenes to views in France and northern Italy, particularly Venice.

Everything I've ever seen of Bonington's work suggests he's an artist who's worth studying.  Below are some links to biographies of and work by Bonington

Wallace Collection:

• address - Hertford House, Manchester Square, London W1U 3BN (nearest tube: Bond Street; more info about visiting)
• website - http://www.wallacecollection.org/

Links:

• Handprint - Richard Parkes Bonington
• Tate - Richard Parkes Bonington
• biography
• works
• Wikipedia - Richard Parkes Bonington
• Wikimedia - Richard Parkes Bonington

Cornish Cream Tea at the Wallace Restaurant

Cornish Cream Tea at the Wallace Restaurant, Wallace Collection
11" x 16", pen and sepia ink and coloured pencils in Moleskine Sketchbook
copyright Katherine Tyrrell

Last Friday I was totally clueless. I trotted off to meet up with the Drawing London Group without checking the location, taking the print-out of the email or taking my mobile with me!

Which is how come I came to draw paintings of Venice by Bonington and Canaletto in the Wallace Collection (to follow in the next post) - while everybody else was sketching at the Museum of London.

Duh!

Anyway, I had a great time followed by a visit to the Wallace Restaurant (run by the omnipresent Peyton & Byrne) for a very late lunch which turned into a Cornish Cream Tea instead as they'd run out of the dish I wanted for lunch.

I'll get verbally shot if "he who must not be bored while I sketch" sees this!  Cream teas are banned - we're both on a diet!

The details are:

• on the left finger sandwiches with the crusts cut off (naturally!) - egg mayonnaise, tomato and cucumber, ham and smoked salmon
• a very nice scone and Cornish clotted cream and preserves (very nice!)
• Jasmine tea

As always I got some funny looks from the waiters while drawing this before eating.  I then progressively ate my way through it very slowly while getting the colours right.

It's a very pleasant way to spend an afternoon sketching........

National Gallery - drawing children drawing art

Constable and the National Gallery Children - Room 34
8" x 10", pen and ink and coloured pencils in Moleskine Sketchbook
copyright Katherine Tyrrell

Yesterday I met up with Jackie Simmonds (Jackie Simmonds Artyfacts) at the National Gallery.  We were going to have a chat about a few things over lunch at the National Dining Rooms so I suggested we meet up in the morning to sketch in the galleries.

Room 34 is always a favourite - because it has the best British paintings with the most comfy seats!  (see floorplan of the National Gallery / Level 2).  I've sketched there before more than once

Just after 10am when the Gallery opens, the rooms are more or less deserted - with a few art fans wandering around.  Then the small children arrive!

It seems to be a requirement that they must all have a very bright sweater on unless they are incredibly well behaved.  They split into small groups and then learn about a painting and/or draw it.

At the top of this post a teacher is explaining to her group about Constable's painting of Salisbury Cathedral from the Meadows

Below a group of children are deep in concentration drawing a painting by Turner.  They are, of course, all moving all the time as well.........

Can you guess what the painting by Turner is before you click the link?  I've only given you a little clue........

Now draw this Turner painting....
8" x 10", pen and ink and coloured pencils in Moleskine Sketchbook
copyright Katherine Tyrrell

The Fighting Temeraire Class
8" x 10", pen and ink and coloured pencils in Moleskine Sketchbook
copyright Katherine Tyrrell

These were a group of very behaved young ladies in school uniform - who were all great at putting up their hands in response to questions related to The Fighting Temeraire by Turner. (Teacher's Notes)

I can highly recommend art galleries for practising quickie sketches of people.  Nobody stays still for too long and you haven't got a chance of ever catching a likeness.  However it does make you look at what makes a good group composition.

Other blog posts about sketching - paintings and people - in the National Gallery include:

• Drawing Monet
• Drawings from the National Gallery
• Drawing Heads - Velaquez and the Prince's Drawing School
• Activities in London Galleries and Museums
• A 'Day to Draw' at the National Gallery
• Sketching at the National Gallery: "Manet to Picasso"
• Renaissance Faces - in my sketchbook
• Looking at the Turners in the National Gallery
• Canaletto & His Rivals at the National Gallery

Links:

• Room 34, National Gallery
• J.M.W. Turner - Resources for Art Lovers
• Top 10 Art Galleries and Museums
• The Top Ten Museums in London

More from the Friends Room at the RA

RA Friends Room 13th September 2011
pen and ink and coloured pencils in Moleskine Sketchbook, 8" x 11"
copyright Katherine Tyrrell

I have a very long series of sketches of people (Friends of the RA and their guests to be specific) in the Friends Room at the Royal Academy of Arts.  You can see them in my Interior Landscapes Gallery on Pastels and Pencils my portfolio website

This is the latest and was sketched after I'd finished making my notes about the Degas exhibition which I saw last week. (see MAKING A MARK: REVIEW: Degas and the Ballet: Picturing Movement and MAKING A MARK: The Degas Exhibition - notes for pastellists)

Sketching visitors to BP Portrait Exhibition 2011

These are two sketches made while visiting the BP Portrait Award Exhibition 2011 at the National Portrait Gallery.  The gallery was packed and I sat on the end of a bench and sketched the visitors.  They moved constantly and the ones that weren't being sketched frequently obscured the ones that were!

I'd say I was lucky to get 10-15 seconds per outline.  As you can see many of the outlines started - and then I was unable to continue

But that's the way it is in a very popular and busy exhibition!

See if you can find the girl with the large bow in her hair who sat next to me and watched me sketch.

Sketching the visitors to the BP Portrait Exhibition 2011 (1)
11" x 16", pen and sepia ink in double page spread of A4 size Moleskine Sketchbook
copyright Katherine Tyrrell

Sketching the visitors to the BP Portrait Exhibition 2011 (2)
11" x 16", pen and sepia ink in double page spread of A4 size Moleskine Sketchbook
copyright Katherine Tyrrell

The National Portrait Gallery has announced that the 2011 BP Portrait Award Exhibition has been the most popular exhibition in the Gallery’s history.  You have until 18 September to see it in London.