Rutland Water UK

31-08-13b, a photo by Anita Davies on Flickr.

A few quick studies

Normanton Church, Rutland UK

31-08-13a, a photo by Anita Davies on Flickr.

A bit chilly, as I remember, but I managed a sketch of the church which was my only intention for this visit to Rutland Water. It has a wonderful story.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Normanton,_Rutland

Barnsdale Gardens, Rutland, Leicestershire.

Sketchbook entries from Barnsdale Gardens

Barnsdale gardens are situated in beautiful Rutland in Leicestershire. They were built by Television gardener Geoff Hamilton over several years for BBC TV Gardeners' World programme & various other BBC specials.
In 1996 Geoff passed away and the gardens were opened to the public.

During Joannie's recent visit we took our first trip to Barnsdale and it's amazing 39 gardens! We took our sketchbooks and a couple of watercolour blocks with us, one of which I prepared the night before with an acrylic toned background. I sketched the greenhouse onto this block, using white gel pen and then watercolour washes to hint at some of the foliage.



My favourite garden was the town paradise garden, with it's running water and small pond giving it such a tranquil feel. I rested here a while to produce my second watercolour block sketch of the day.
I plan to colour it at some point in the near future.

Barnsdale is a beautiful place, Joannie and I had a wonderful day!