Our final outing for 2015 is on Tuesday 1 December

Our final sketching outing for 2015 is a visit to Hamilton Hall. This is a Wetherspoons pub and is named after Lord Claud Hamilton, chairman of the Great Eastern Railway Company (1893-1923) which originally built Liverpool Station. The pub is the former ballroom of the old Great Eastern Hotel.

We visited this pub on our sketching outing to Liverpool Street station in November last year and thought it was worth a return visit. We plan to meet at 11am and stay for as long as they let us. There should be a variety of subjects to choose from: groups of people, interesting architecture lavishly decorated and not to mention food and drink.

Please come and join us for our final 2015 fling.

An autumn visit to the Geffrye museum

The Geffrye museum was built as almshouses and is now the Museum of the Home

A view from the herb garden

Seven artists from Art in the Park gathered at the Geffrye Museum for October's sketching outing. We were blessed with glorious weather and we spread ourselves out around the gardens, the café and at the front of the property where we could attempt to do justice to the long, imposing facade of these former 18th century almshouses while, at the same time, enjoying the sun.

We eventually all gravitated to the café where we took the opportunity to chat with each other and look at each others work. The café was full to bursting with parents and young children, this being half-term holiday week.

The galleries were also full of young kids being encouraged to look at how people lived in previous centuries and somewhere in the building they had enjoyed a workshop where they made wreaths from fallen leaves.

The Last Hug by Meital Tzabari

On our way out we observed some artwork in the garden that had been installed while we had been labouring away. There were three figures made from leaves embracing a couple of the trees. Titled 'The Last Hug' they were made by Meital Tzabari 'as a seasonal public sculpture'. While they look as though they have emerged from the fallen leaves on the ground these figures are cleverly held together with wire and their creator, Meital, told me that they could survive for as long as three weeks.

Interior and exterior views

We all seemed to have got a lot from our visit to this fascinating museum and will doubtless return for another visit in the future.

Visit to the Geffrye museum 27 October

Our next Art in the Park sketching outing will be to the Geffrye museum, that explores the home from 1600 to the present day, on Tuesday 27 October which is during half-term week. We have been advised by the museum staff that the museum will be very busy that day so we will have to work around the other visitors. Entrance is free but they welcome a donation of £3.

We are welcome to work in the café and, if the weather is fine, outside in the period gardens at the back plus the garden at the front of the building. The museum is set in a fine grade 1 listed, 18th century almshouse building which is a beautiful subject for sketching. We cannot work in the period galleries inside the museum as there is very little room to spread out and the exhibits are precious.

We plan to meet at 11am and the address is: 136 Kingsland Road, London, E2 8EA. The nearest overground station is Hoxton and bus routes for numbers 67, 149, 242, 243, 394 travel along Kingsland Road.

 

September's sketching outing to Freightliners Farm

Six artists gathered at Freightliners Farm last Friday to try and depict the ducks, goats, sheep and cows that were constantly on the move in this working farm that began life in 1973 on waste land behind Kings Cross station. The animals were originally housed in railway goods vans so hence the name, Freightliners Farm. The farm moved to its present site near Liverpool Road in 1978 and the new purpose-built farm buildings were erected in 1988.

The weather was glorious for our last outside location of the year and we all agreed that we needed plenty of time to adjust to try and sketch the livestock. We made full use of the Strawbale Café at lunch time and later on for tea and cake and this gave us time to chat and exchange news and we agreed that this would be a great location to return to, either individually or as a group, in the future.

Our next outing is on Friday 25 September

Our September sketching outing is to Freightliner's Farm and we plan to meet at 11am. This is a small city farm in Sheringham Road, London N7 8PF. It is just off Liverpool Road and is within walking distance of both Highbury & Islington and Holloway Road stations.

We have been warmly welcomed by the good people who run the place but we have been asked to spread ourselves around the farm and not clump together so that we can avoid disturbing the general running of the farm.

The farm has a café which is very popular and often gets crowded so we may have to stagger our lunchtimes. There are public lavatories on the site and there is some seating but we advise that you bring your own sketching stool to sit on so as to move around the farm.

This may well be the last time this year that we have an outside venue to explore, due to the weather becoming chillier, and the constant movement and sounds of the animals should ensure that we have an interesting and diverting day.

Kingsland Basin, 21 August 2015

Ten artists met at the Proud Archivist for our August Art in the Park sketching outing before dispersing to find interesting locations along the Regent's canal to draw and paint. This was a return visit to this spot as Art in the Park had met here in the summer of 2014 and it was deemed successful enough for a second outing.

The day was very warm for late August and it proved to be quite a challenge at times to keep focussed but the finished results were worth the effort. We were entertained by ducks swimming in the canal, a group of teenagers canoeing towards Hackney and a small group of our artists enjoyed lunch at one of the canal side cafés.

Next Art in the Park sketching date: Friday 21 August

We are going to make a repeat visit to the Kingsland Basin as we had an enjoyable session there on the “Haggerston Riviera” last summer. There will be a selection  of barges and bridges to sketch. The Kingsland Basin is just off  Kingsland Road and very near Haggerston station (overground, accessible from Highbury and Islington station). There are several cafés with views of the canal and the basin which means that we can draw inside if it is cold. They have large windows and there are many tables.

We suggest meeting at The Proud Archivist cafe (close to the entrance to the Kingsland Road) for coffee at 11 o’clock and we look forward to seeing many sketchers. Please bring your sketching stools so that you can sit where the view is best for you.