Saturday, 23 November 2024

Tuesday 19 November: Visit to the Museum of the Home, Hoxton

16 sketchers presented themselves at the Museum of the Home on a very grey and damp day, and we were relieved that we had not decided to take a chance on the weather being good and inflict an outdoor venue on everybody.  Despite this, several people took the outdoors as their theme, mostly through windows or frequently opening glass doors.  (One person came the following day and had better weather.) The great majority went for the warmth and sketched the many set-ups of home life through the ages in the Museum.

We then went out and had a very good Vietnamese lunch at the Song Que restaurant round the corner, and some of us went back to the Museum of the Home for further work.

We are most grateful to the Museum of the Home staff for kindly allowing us to go in and draw and paint in their fascinating building.

We won't be organising a December sketching day as everyone has so much else on at this time of year,  but we will be back with cheering trips out in January and February, with hopefully some extra sessions slotted in.

Meanwhile, enjoy our latest images below, and your later Christmas experiences.

Image above by Gill Steiner   

Image above by Diana Marshall   

Image above by Evgenia Osmani

Image above by Daniel Lloyd-Morgan  

Image above by Ruijun Hu 

Image above  by Peter Colley


Image above by Diane Umemoto





Image above by Janet Perkins



Images above by Janet Payne


Three images above by Audrey Rapier  


Two images above by Priscilla Worley



Three images above by Diana Butement



Two images above by Sue Lees

Images above and below by Gafung Wong





                                                Image above by Sinead O'Reilly



Thursday, 7 November 2024

Tuesday 19th October our visit to the Museum of the Home

Our next outing is to the Museum of the Home on Kingsland Road. This was previously known as the Geffrye Museum. It started as a collection of almshouses which were repurposed to become a series of rooms reflecting the historical furnishings of the ages. It has had two major refurbishments and extensions. One was more than twenty years ago when the architect Branson Coates introduced a new cafe in a central atrium and revamped one of the almshouse wings to include some more recent rooms, as well as a spiral stair down to some new community rooms. The next refurbishment was by Wright and Wright when the Museum was extended by creating and refurbishing the basement, again with extra rooms.

There is also a lovely historic garden at the back of the Museum. The Museum is free and they are expecting us and even have stools. Their website is www.museumofthehome.org.uk and their address is 136 Kingsland Road, E2 8EA. Hoxton Overground Station (trains from Highbury and Dalston) is almost adjacent to the museum, Old Street Station is not far away and Liverpool Street is a short bus ride or walk away.

The Museum has some quite tight spaces as the rooms and corridors in the old almshouses are very small and they have asked that we spread out to avoid blocking through routes for other visitors. No easels. 

There is a Museum cafe but we thought we should visit Song Que at 134 Kingsland Road, which is a popular and reasonably priced local Vietnamese restaurant, very close to the Museum on Kingsland Road. I will reserve a table, but at lunch time they should be able to accommodate us.

Meet in the entrance to the Museum at 11 am


And finally a late image from St Mary le Strand from Audrey Rapier


 

Monday, 21 October 2024

Our outing to St Mary le Strand

It was a rather cold and overcast October day when a dozen sketchers made their way to the newly pedestrianised area of the Strand outside Somerset House, from whence there is good view of St Mary le Strand. This church is no longer isolated on a traffic island and so it is easy for artists to find a good view to sketch from. There are picnic tables and benches on the now traffic free section of the Strand. The benches are much frequented by the students from nearby Kings College, which makes it a very lively venue. Unfortunately the church of St Clement Danes just a bit further away was encased in scaffolding, so this church awaits another IAS outing when the scaffold is down.

One sketcher arrived later, and sketched a Degas statue inside Somerset House. We had lunch in the Somerset House courtyard cafe and braved the outside seating.

David Gilbert, whose garden we drew in September, has asked that he forward our pictures to the National Garden Scheme, which will then link back to the IAS Art in the Park website. If you don't want your picture to be included please let me (janetat48ock@hotmail.com) know by 27 October, otherwise consent will be assumed.

The next outing will be on Tuesday 19th November, venue to be confirmed.

So pictures below:


Chris Baker




Betty Wang


David Gilbert





Diana Marshall





Diane Umemoto




Do Burgess




Gill Steiner




Phoenix Wong









Janet Payne













Sue Lees












Sue Loder





Monday, 30 September 2024

Tuesday 15 October: Visit to St Mary le Strand, Aldwych, WC2R 1ES

 On Tuesday 15 October we will sketch around St Mary le Strand in the Aldwych.   This eighteenth century baroque  church is now sitting in one of London's newest pedestrianised streets, so it should be possible to get some good views of both St Mary's and its companion church St Clement Danes a little further down the Strand. 

We will assemble at 11 o'clock outside the western end and front door of St Mary's.  We are hoping for a golden October day, with light and shadows passing through the trees and the pillars, but if it is wet people can go into both churches and sketch discreetly.   We may be lucky enough to find that there is a Tuesday lunchtime concert going on in the church.  The Courtauld Gallery is close by, and the Law Courts (sketchable from St Clement Danes, plenty of gothic towers and arches).  There are loos in the Courtauld, and various cafes.  

For more info please click here

For a map and travel details please click here

There are apparently lots of new benches around, but it is always worth bringing your own sketching stool.   

Sue's mobile number for the day is: 07975 864 142.

We look forward to another enjoyable day out with the art kit.

  

Sunday, 29 September 2024

Our outing to David Gilbert's Garden

So very many thanks to David Gilbert for allowing us to sketch in his wonderful garden in Finchley which has been very thoughtfully laid out with wonderful plants, not to mention sculptures some of which are by David.

Fortunately the rain held off so we were able to enjoy the garden and the sketching. It was very Zen.

Some 10 people (including David) turned up and we had packed lunch at a table in the garden. What a good day.

People made a contribution to the National Garden Scheme Charities, which donates to the NHS Charities. David has collected over £1,400 so far this year for NGS charities, which is really excellent.


Below are our pictures:

Ann Funston












Chris Baker









Diane Umemoto










Do Burgess












Gill Steiner









Priscilla Worley










Sue Lees










Janet Payne.                                  



Lindsay Topping







David Gilbert