Scenes at the Museum

I don't know how, but I had somehow forgotten what an utterly wonderful place the Victoria and Albert is; it is just awesome room after awesome room.( (And I am using the word awesome here in original 'fills you with awe' sort of way, not in twangy American ubiquitous sort of way). And not only is there an astonishing abundance of subject material, there are many people sitting around drawing this astonishing abundance, so I could just, you  know, sort of blend in. Which worked fine in theory.

I began in one of the cast rooms, where, among so so so many other magnificent items, including some whoppingly enormous pillars, there were casts of some relief sculptures with the cutest little figures ever. The casts are from a Spanish monastery, Santo Domingo de Silos, and these little chaps are below a crucifixion/ tomb scene. I am assuming they are Roman soldiers who are either sleeping or have collapsed, but they are really beautifully stylized and I love the composition.

I drew these in a relatively sheltered spot, but I wasn't happy painting there as haven't figured out the painting while standing bit yet. I moved to the corridor with sculptures and found a very comfy bench where I painted these chaps in.  Then I was tootling away on the sketch below when a (very nice it has to be said) woman told me I shouldn't be painting there! oops! I could see her point actually, at this stage I had my water bottle perched on a heater, and the paints balanced precariously  on my lap - probably not idea museum behavior.

This fine fellow is apparently the 'celebrated quack doctor Joshua Ward', who, if I have to be honesst, is a little finer in real life, I have made him a bit squat.

So my plans for drawing and painting were rather quashed - yes, I could have drawn, but I love to get the watercolours out, so it was a bit disappointing. I did this one in the cafe, I assumed the painting ban wouldn't be in force there, but it was a very hurried job, just in case. I was taken by the way the poor statue had to stand there guarding her modesty all day while gawpers ate all around her. 

After a bit more very enjoyable wandering, I head off across the road to look at the exterior. The plan was to sketch the wonderful door arches, but I started at the top and then sort of ran out of space! 

It was utterly freezing ( note the fingerless gloves) and  I spilled my water, so it was time to pack up and head home. Great day out though. 

In need of some colour

We walk the commons around us every morning, and although I absolutely know we are lucky with our access to the countryside around us, and although I absolutely adore being out there - God but it's dull these days. Bleached-brown dead leaves, rust-brown collapsed bracken, grey-brown scrawny heather, and dun-brown bare trees- brown, brown,brown, brown. I'm heartily sick of it.

I felt a desperate need for some colour!

And lo and behold - colour!  in bramble leaves of all things. They are quite gorgeous once you start keeping an eye out for them - there are some lovely rich tones in there.

I started watching out for some more little touches of colour, but with limited success: the wild rose hips were on their very shriveled last legs;  the crab apples were beginning to rot.

All that concentrated peering means I am noticing little colour shifts in places I haven't before. 

It also means I look like an utter mad woman, wandering about, staring into ditches, filling my pockets with mouldy crabs. If I came across me out there, I'd avoid me.

And so this is Christmas...

I love love love Christmas. Well, actually, I'm a ferocious grump on the run up to it and find myself year by year more scrooge-like in my foul-mooded mutterings about consumerism, crowds, perfume adverts, parking, packaging, and, well everything really. And then the kids come home, and everyone is daftly happy, and they still invade the bedroom at ungodly hours on Christmas morning, shrieking excitedly over the charity shop crap in their stockings, (though they are all in their 20s!) and then we all eat far far too much, all the time, and we crack up over charades, and we read and lounge, and life is good.

 I drew some decorations: 

I drew some desserts: 

I drew some drinks: 

And I drew some pressies:

But mostly I cooked and ate, and then cooked again. 

There was one attempt at a salad, which, while it had the merit of being pretty, it was really only a small island lost in a sea of delicious over-indulgence.