Saturday 30 March 2024

Visit to St James' Piccadilly on Tuesday 26 March 2024

14 artists came to St James' Piccadilly, a new location for Art in the Park.  We were very taken with Wren's church, and by the unexpected (to many of us) garden at one side, with its wildflower areas and various statues.   We were pleased to see primroses in flower attended by wild bees and a bee-fly, in central London, and various garden birds who somehow make their home in this small patch beset with buildings and roads.  

We have since discovered that the authorities at the church are planning big renovations to the two non-Wren buildings on the site and much reconstructing of the garden, including the insertion of a pavilion in the middle of it.  If anyone wishes to see what is planned, the planning document is  here:     The new garden design is to go first to the Chelsea Flower Show, and a sketch can be seen here:    it is not clear how this will be rearranged into the actual church garden.

It is good to have seen the church and garden before building work starts, and maybe we can go back in a few years' time and find that some of the infelicities of the site have been ironed out.  

On the art side, we focussed most of our attention inside on the altar and its gorgeous Grinling Gibbons carvings and wider surroundings, and outside, we drew some of the buildings as a whole, and painted the rather nice statues which were scattered around.  We were astonished by the busyness of the hot food stalls in the front courtyard and despite the cooking smells, it was good to see such a bustle of activity at a church.  We also had rather nice lunches bought from the stalls.  It will be interesting to see if they survive the reconstructions.   After lunch it started raining, so we felt that we were very lucky with the morning. 

The next Art in the Park outing will be on Tuesday 16 April, venue to be announced shortly.

Enjoy our artwork from St James'! 

Image above by Priscilla Worley

Image above by Janet Payne

Image above by Diane Umemoto

Three images above by Audrey Rapier





Image above by Avis Dennis  


Image above by Vanessa Whinney


Two images above by Tricia Sharpe  
Image above by Ruijun Hu

Image above by Gill Steiner  
Image above by Diana Marshall

Two images above by Vanessa Whinney

Image above by Chris Baker 
Image above by Peter Colley  
Image above by Janet Perkins     
Image above by Sue Lees 



Friday 8 March 2024

St James's Piccadilly Tuesday 26th March

 Our next outing is to St James's Church, 197 Piccadilly, W1J 9LL on Tuesday 26th March. Meet at 11 am.

This is a Christopher Wren designed church with a font and reredos by Grinling Gibbons. So lots of architectural history. The church also has a history of community outreach and social activism.

Their website is sjp.org.uk and it includes a virtual tour of the church.

There is a food market outside in front of the church on Tuesdays, so lots of choice for lunch. Loos in the church.

They are expecting us and we can stay until 4pm if we want.

Please no easels but water colours are fine, but be careful.

26th March is in Holy Week, so please respect the Church and only talk in low voices. We are generally a quiet group any way, so this shouldn't be a challenge!

Monday 4 March 2024

Our visit to 'The Place'

Thirteen artists made their way to The Place, which is the home of the London School of Contemporary Dance to sketch a second year contemporary dance class. 

As anticipated this was hard work due to the constant movement of the subjects. However we rose to the occasion and produced a great body of work. Great work from the dancers, the artists were very impressed.

Some artists responded to the request to limit the number of pics sent in for publishing on the blog to two, so a special thank you, as it is hard for your organisers to collate a large number of pics. However there are some great pics, so thank you artists and thank you dancers, for your inspiration. 

The next outing will be on Tuesday 26th March, but the venue is yet to be confirmed. Watch this space.

Pictures below from:

Deborah van der Beek






Diana Marshall



Alison Gardiner















Do Burgess









Janet Payne


Patricia Walters












Peter Colley












Ruijan Hu











Sinead O'Reilly





Sue Lees













Tricia Sharpe








Sue Loder