It was a sketchy week, and by sketchy week, I mean that there were many sketches and only one finished painting.  This past week, I traveled to London.  I had every expectation of being besotted with inspiration there.  I envisioned unbounded opportunities to sketch and doing those things that artists do, but it didn’t quite turn out that way.  First, London was cold. And by cold, I probably mean brisk to all the Americans out there, but I’ve been living in Morocco and this was the coldest I had been in a while.  My poor, exposed fingers weren’t quite up to it.  Secondly, there were throngs of people out and no where to sit.  I found lots of benches in the parks, but I was hoping to sketch urban scenes.  And lastly, I don’t like people watching me when I sketch.  And I forgot my invisibility cloak.  Oh well.  Here are few sketches I was able to get from those travels.

This is St. Paul’s from Tate Modern.  I purchased these fluorescent pencils at Tate Modern and then sat down at the foot of the Millennium bridge and began to use them immediately.

April 9, “South of the Thames,” Fluorescent Pencils

This one was a total bust.  It’s outside the British Museum.  Kids were crawling all around me and bumping me and so I gave up.  As is probably obvious.

April 8, “Dhow,” Charcoal

And the big blue chicken at Trafalgar Square.  I love this guy.  But there was nowhere to sit.  So I tried sketching him standing up and then finally found a vacated seat, but by then, I was mostly finished.

April 10, “Big Blue Chicken,” Charcoal and Ink

I broke out the colored pencils again for a sketch in Regent’s Park.

April 10, “Queen Mary’s Gardens,” Fluorescent Pencils

And then I came home and used the quill pen I bought in London to sketch some of these scenes:

April 11, “Matt and XBOX,” Pen and Ink

Oops, major mistake here.  See if you can spot it:

April 11, “Daily Specials Board,” Pen & Ink

April 12, “Moroccan Chair,” Pen & Ink

And lastly, a scary portrait of some unknown person in my head.

April 14, “Scary Person,” Ink

And then there’s the one finished painting.  If it looks familiar, it’s the same composition as an earlier painting.  Trees again, of course.  I had an idea some time ago of leaving certain areas of the composition blank to allow the sketch below to show through.  At a friends house, she encouraged me to do it, but I lacked the restraint to leave the areas unpainted.  Finally, I tried it.  I think it’s OK.  I love the idea and will probably come back to it, hopefully with improvements.

April 15, “Hilton Forest…4?,” Oil on Canvas Board and India Ink