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