Our next sketching outing is on Thursday 11 February

The date for the next Art in the Park outing is Thursday 11 February. Having previously enjoyed a sketching day at the Barbican it was decided to make a return visit. We will meet at 11am in the 'Barbican Kitchen' on the ground floor (level 0). There is plenty of seating and the café sells reasonably priced food, or just a coffee. The Kitchen overlooks the outdoor space, City of London School for Girls, the pond and the Church as well as having all the usual café opportunities for sketching, not to mention the foyer itself or from the stairs.

For those who don't know the Barbican, enter on Silk Street and carry on towards the open space on the far side and the Kitchen is on the left, or ask the Barbican staff. Barbican underground station is on the Circle, District and Hammersmith line and Moorgate is on all these plus the Northern Line (City Branch).

Ice skating at Canary Wharf

photo: ©Margaret Cooter

January's Art in the Park outing was to the ice rink at Canary Wharf. We saw and drew schoolchildren wearing 'high vis' jackets pushing other children on sledges, some rather good office workers skating in their lunch hour and some skating novices who had a few bumps. The Christmas lights still sparkled on the trees against the backdrop of the tall buildings surrounding Canada Square.

Our small group of four artists took refuge from the cold weather in The Tasting Room, the pop-up pub that is on site, which proved to be a quiet and friendly location with good views - in fact we doubled their custom. A good day out for the intrepid Art in the Park sketchers.

New Year's sketching outing Monday 18 January

The first Art in the Park outing in 2016 is to the Canary Wharf Ice Rink for a seasonal winter trip. There is an indoor bar/café attached to the ice rink if it gets too cold to draw outside and also for warming up. Plenty of opportunity to draw the skaters outside, from the heated café patio or to retreat into one of the many cafés nearby.

We will meet at 11am in the café attached to the ice rink called The Tasting Room on Monday 18 January 2016. The address is: Ice Rink, Canary Wharf, Montgomery Street, London E14 5AB. Canary Wharf is on both the DLR (Docklands Light Railway) and the Jubilee Line. The 277 bus also goes to Canary Wharf from Highbury Corner (nearest tube Highbury & Islington). 

Do join us.

Hamilton Hall, Liverpool Street

Art in the Park first visited this Wetherspoon Pub a year ago after we had spent a few hours drawing Liverpool Street station. We'd had such a good time that it was decided this venue was worth an entire visit and we honoured that decision on Tuesday. Hamilton Hall opens around 7am in the morning so by the time we arrived at around 11am the staff were busy serving everything from breakfast to lunch and coffee to beer.

Five artists in total spent time depicting the décor and the pub's patrons. Three artists settled down in the morning at a small table on the balcony overlooking the bar and two more artists arrived later in the afternoon.

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.