"Making art in the park"

Some members of the Islington Art Society sketching group met at the ice rink at Canary Wharf, hoping to be drawing skaters. We found school groups having their first skating experience, and later saw some very good skaters swooshing and twirling in the middle of the ice. And everything in between.

It was warm and quiet in the cafe attached to the rink.

 I was attracted to the chairs and tables -

 and to the large blue shape outside, which reflected the lights in the cafe -

Without a "nice object" in a display case in front of me, it was hard to get going! The strings of lights provided a bit of warm-up, which segued into an abstraction of that blue shape -

 The stools and table in the middle of the room were going to be a blind drawing, starting at the left, but by the time I got to the end of the row I was paying close attention -

 My approach to the subject in terms of negative space got hopelessly lost -

 And when it came to taking a "group photo" of our work, I chose the brush sketches of drinkers and skaters -

Of course the materials people were using interested me -