Sir Peter Scott's Lighthouse

On a recent trip to St Matthews art exhibit, my good friend Joan and I took a detour over to Sir Peter Scott's lighthouse, just a few minutes drive up the road. We were thrilled to find that our visit had coincided with the recent exhibition of Sir Peter's art works inside the lighthouse. We paid our £1 donation and went inside.

David Joel and his wife currently own the lighthouse and have done for the past 25 years. David has written two books, both of which were present at the exhibit.
"Monet at Vetheuil 1878-1883" (ISBN 1-85149-423-5) is a detailed account of Monet's life during that period, David was granted access to the Monet/Hoschede family archives and photographs, as a result the book contains detailed accounts, exhibition details and palette notes.
My dear friend Joannie purchased a copy for me, had David Joel sign it and wrap it discreetly in a Tesco carrier bag. Being a nosey, attentive type I noticed the bag immediately and begged to know what she had purchased...Me and my big mouth!!!
Still, the gift was cherished as much than if it had been passed to me on our return home (Thank you Joannie)

After looking through some of David's own paintings, displayed in the garage, Joan and I walked around to the side of the lighthouse to grab a quick record in our journals and a few snapshots.

St Matthews and Springfields

This is the double spread I created while dropping off my paintings to the annual art exhibition at St Matthew's Church, Sutton Bridge in Lincolnshire last week. St Matthew's, the only remaining flintstone church in Lincolnshire, is stunning and I only wish I'd had more time to sketch it during my visit. However, I did get a very quick doodle before driving home and enhanced my spread by sticking part of the promotional poster next to it which includes a lovely sketch of the church by an unknown artist.

Before delivering the art work I visited Springfields, an outlet shopping centre in Spalding, where my eldest managed to pick up some bargains and my Mum managed to lose her gold watch! Luckily some kind woman found it and handed it to the shop assistant making our panicked search short and sweet. Again, not much time to sketch but managed just enough to record our trip in my journal.

Snapshot Sketching

Early hours of this morning found me flicking through the photo files on my computer, stirring memories. This particular photo had me thinking about my good friend Joannie and it wasn't long before my fingers were twitching and my sketchbook was in my hand.
I tried to sketch from the image on my computer just as I would when I sketch on location, loosely, carefree and lead-free, concentrating on emotion and atmosphere.

A most enjoyable exercise that left me longing to do more and perhaps even dabble into the old paper photographs in my sideboard taken before I had the luxury of a digital camera.