A crow crows as I walk past.

I step into Pall Mall. Did you know that it gets the name from the 17^th century from when a Frenchman introduced the game Pelemele (an older sort of croquet type game) to be played on the lawns here?

A watery sun tries to break through the wintry cloudiness

Once inside the galleries I join a pop-up life-class workshop with artist tutor Henry Gibbons Guy. The model is good looking and has a beard that reminds me of an 8th century BC Assyrian warrior of King Ashurnasirpal II who might have leapt right out of a great stone frieze that I have seen gracing a couple of walls in the British museum (I make a note to return to have another look at it again sometime).  It has all these wonderful warriors and horses and lions carved on a gigantic scale and is so AMAZING!

I’ve been supplied with good quality paper (which negates the lugging of my sketchbooks in an already too heavy satchel!). I want to experiment using charcoal and graphite sticks and mixing them with some wax. I have brought with me a small pot of Michael Harding’s beeswax paste and a Windsor and Newton colourless Oilbar. I draw a bit then smudge on some wax. Hmm this could be interesting… I look up and become a little distracted (not this time by the model, but by what is hanging on the walls. The workshop is being held in one of the galleries and the walls are exhibiting some smashing works of art and a painting has caught my eye.

It is a stunning landscape painted with a palette knife.

Tim Galton ‘Incombe Hole near Ivinghoe Beacon, Buckinghamshire’

I return my attention back to my artistic endeavours and scribble and smudge and concentrate a bit more on my drawing

At the break, I sip a cup of tea and am idly looking at a painting of a rainy night scene, when the Assyrian Warrior God speaks over my shoulder, ‘That’s one of mine’ he tells me.  I look at him, and back at the label beside the picture; it turns out that the Assyrian Warrior is an artist called David Caldwell, and a good one at that.

David Caldwell ‘Rainy Night’

There is a beautiful oil of Ripley Castle. Gosh! That reminds me of an incredible experience I had whilst visiting this castle in Yorkshire. You wouldn’t believe it! I must tell you all about it in another post when I have more time to tell you about a ghostly ‘occurrence’ from the English civil War. Its a very spooky castle.

Detail of painting

Broken Vessel by Peter Archer

 

Picture Details

The Cowgate by Henry Kondracki

 

Details of The Cowgate

The next painting I come across makes me feel like taking a walk around a garden…and I love the thickness of the paint and brushwork. Painted by Peter Clossick and Runner Up for the Lynn Painter-Stainers Prize.

The Garden

Another Runner Up Prize painted by Benjamin Andreas is of Hoxton Square. I’m often in Hoxton so, who knows, I might pass by this location sometime…

Hoxton Square Daytime

Secret Garden

Details from Secret Garden

My final painting selection just makes me want to do some wild swimming in some unknown remote and secret place..

After spending the morning in distractions of the arts I exit the galleries and out into the afternoon.

Is the sun shining? Nope! The sun has failed in its vain attempt to break through the cloud which now hangs flat and grey overhead. Ah well, Spring is just around the corner, so who knows? We might get to see the sun some time soon.