Sutton St James, Lincolnshire UK

 

Spent a lovely weekend visiting family and watching the Mayweather fight

Belton House

 

Belton House is beautiful!

You get fantastic value from Belton in that you are to view more rooms in this house than any other I have visited on the NT. The staff are so friendly and informative and extremely passionate about the house and the history behind it.

The café is reasonably priced and there is even a cart driven by a friendly guy called 'Robin' that will escort you from the car park to the house and pick you up on demand to take you where ever you wish to go. An invaluable service for someone with disabilities.

 

Wendy and I did the 'Downstairs Tour' which is free and runs 2/3 times a day. It takes you through the basement, the staffs quarters and we saw where they stored wine, beer and food, how it was loaded into the house and was given a brief history of what it would have been like to work at Belton House in days gone by. It was excellent!

 

We left Belton at around 5pm homeward bound and completely knackered!

 

 

The Butterfly park

31-08-10
Originally uploaded by Anita Davies

Harry and I took a trip to the Butterfly park. We spent a lovely afternoon there in the sunshine!

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.

Burghley House

On Saturday, Joan and I decided to drive into Stamford and visit Burghley House.
Burghley is one of my favourite stately homes, filled with frescos, history, paintings and carvings...a real treasure trove! The building itself is magnificent and the landscape, designed by 'Capability' Brown, frames it perfectly.
We started our time at Burghley with a light snack in the orangery where we managed to secure a table with a wonderful view. We sketched between nibbles and tried not to let our lattes go cold.


Sketching inside the house is difficult, mostly because there is just so much to feast your eyes upon that you become lost in the magic and forget the stagnant sketchbook hanging limp in your fingertips.


We did manage a couple of quick sketches in the Great Hall but the rest of my work from the day came from either coffee breaks or standing outside sneaking a cigarette.


Our visit was over far too quickly, we had not the time or the weather for a trip into the sculpture garden but this was not my first visit to Burghley and I am sure it will not be my last.

Burghley Sculpture sketch 2007