Sunday, 16 February 2025

Visit to The Queens, Crouch End, on Tuesday 11 February 2025

 20 artists, plus some supporters, arrived at The Queens on Tuesday 11 February.   Yet another cold and grey day, but some intrepid souls sketched outside before opening time, and some from comfortable cafes across the road.   The interior is magnificent, as befits its original conception as a smart hotel by its builder and developer, John Cathles Hill (1858-1915).   It has a sister building on Green Lanes, The Salisbury Hotel, which we must investigate in future.  On the ground floor, most of the decor is original, miraculously, as The Queens narrowly avoided bomb damage in the Second World War.  It is now grade II* listed.  The crowning glory is the stained glass, which leans towards the art nouveau, but the wood panelling is also very architectural.   We were able to spread ourselves around the ground floor, and then sampled the very nice menu - and some of us enjoyed sketching the chefs.  We had a great welcome from the staff,  and look forward to going back again in the future.  

Enjoy looking at our artwork.    Our next sketch date will be Tuesday 18 March, details to follow.  


Image above by Gafung Wong
Image above by Vanessa Whinney


Image above by Steve Betts

Image above by Janet Payne

Image above by Alison Gardiner

Image above by Vanessa Whinney
 
Image above by Gill Steiner


Image above by Sue Loder


Image above by Betty Wang

Image above by Diana Marshall


Image above by Peter Colley

Image above by Do Burgess


Image above by Sue Lees


Image above by Janet Perkins

Image above by Gafung Wong

Image above by Janet Payne



Three images above by Audrey Rapier



Two images above by Cathy Burkinshaw

Image above by Ann Kozlowski-Hunt




Three images above by Alison Sandifer

Image above by Ruijun Hu



Two images above by Sue Lees


Sunday, 2 February 2025

Our Visit to the Haydn Orchestra

 On 25 th January a dozen artists arrived at St Michael's Highgate to sketch the Haydn Orchestra in rehearsal.

As usual we throughly enjoyed ourselves. Thank you to the orchestra and the facilitators. The whole atmosphere of the church with the stained glass windows and the fading winter daylight is always amazing. Really exciting and thank you conductor George Jackson and cello soloist Guy Johnston.

People drew quickly and produced a vast quantity of work, so I have had to edit down the number of pictures that I have posted. No more than two per person. Apologies if your favourite picture is not posted here.


From Lindsay Topping














From David Gilbert



 From Do Burgess






















From Sue Lees






















From Janet Payne








































From Cathy Burkinshaw






















From Ruijin Hu





















From Maureen Bocking





















From Christian Cook