‘London’s greatest Church’ said Trevor Flynn and he is correct. 

Founded in 1123, austerely beautiful and hidden in the middle of Smithfield, Great St Bart’s is one of London’s oldest surviving churches. With sumptuous interior decorations and beautifully formed Romanesque columns, arches and vaulted ceilings, it has appeared in Fours Weddings and a Funeral, Shakespeare In Love, Sherlock Holmes, Jude, The Golden Age, Robin Hood, Prince of Thieves and a host of other award winning films and TV specials. A superb location for drawing architectural perspectives.

Trevor gave a very helpful short tutorial on setting up drawings, perspective, using grid lines, diagonals and division to achieve accurate positioning – then bringing in the more emotional side of the brain but keeping the division.

Some of these basic geometric techniques taking me back to my technical drawing classes at college!

I spent an hour or so putting these into practice working in pencil, viewing down the north aisle; it was a challenge but rewarding.  The sketch here will be developed later and possibly get a little watercolour.

Then two 15 minute cameos…ink ready for some ‘wash’.
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p.s. I hesitated to add watercolour but it is my normal style so did the pen drawings; seemed to work ok so also the first, set-up perspective pencil drawing.  It does change that from a drawing to a painted sketch but I think adds more 'reality'.

​Artfuldodgers at the Theatre in Normansfield Hospital.  The hospital was closed under the ‘Care in the Community’ regime and the majority of the buildings now apartments but within it in 1877 founder Dr John Langdon Down included an Entertainment Hall.  A Victorian Theatre in grand style and detail and well looked after.
 
Too much for two hours but stunning and a satisfying morning…..

​A few days in Bosham, West Sussex.  Windy, grey and at times wet.  Chichester Cathedral is home to a range of ‘modern’ art - Sutherland, Piper, Chagall to name just 3 – all set in its dramatic medieval 3 dimensional Norman arched structure. I could look at that for hours.

Pallant House Gallery – Sir Colin St John Wilson’s gift; a courageous juxtaposition of a very modern new wing onto a Queen Anne house is hugely successful.  And work on display mostly likewise.
 
And of course Bosham Creek and Quay.  It was far too windy, a gale, to be able to draw in the open so sat in the car, working in pencil and then watercolour in the week after.