Saturday 14 May 2011

Rookery Time - Monday 9th May


Jervaulx Pillar (2B mechanical pencil, A4 sketchbook)

The weather forecast looked promising, so rather than work close to the house, we decided a trip to Jervaulx Abbey might prove productive. We collected essential supplies from Dales Meat & Pie in Leyburn (Scotch pie disappointing, tartelette chocolat fantastic) with the intention of getting tea from the teashop at the Abbey. Teashop closed "due to unforeseen circumstances". Tsk.

I was sure the Abbey would be an exciting site, but it turned out otherwise. It's difficult to say why. I've always loved ruins, but perhaps these were too manicured or perhaps my inclination really is towards industrial ruination. Whatever the reason, I found I couldn't make sufficient sense of what I saw there to do a substantial drawing. I took quite a few photographs and as I did so I could see that I might be able to eventually put together a composite view which, while not being accurate in its depiction of the Abbey, would be a decent painting composition.

The rain kept coming and I had to eat my lunch in the shelter of an archway, so eventually I simply sat down on a broken step and drew one of the pillars. It seemed to be sufficient.

Or almost sufficient. I made this little sketch and then the rainclouds became very black again. We ended up running for the cars.


Fragment (2B mechanical pencil, A5 sketchbook)

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