Bank Holiday weekend strolls - with art consequences

Rain was predicted for mid-morning, so I got out early and prowled the back streets of Holloway/Archway on the way to Hampstead Heath.

A tale of two gates

1907

"Do not block the fire exit"

OMG is that what it all costs these days! 

Found in an alleyway

Closed. Down.

"Archway Tower 1963 - 195 feet (59m)" - 19 storeys? - refurbished (when)
 a few years ago. But the surroundings haven't changed much

Dartmouth Hill Pottery - it was there in the late 80s.

Eventually, the Heath - with its ponds...

... and trees -

St George has slain the dragon

especially these two near Kenwood -

sweet chestnut (Castanea sativa)
with its lopped branches and twisted bark

handkerchief  tree (Davidae involucrata)

... and views from the northern heights -

... and explanatory viewpoint, which used to be a lovely little gazebo-like affair -

I picked up some fallen seed pods from the handkerchief tree, and tried to cut one open; the bottom row comes from West Dean, and they are intriguingly different, but very solid -

... these leaves had been blown off  -

... and rubbed up well on tracing paper -

Under the sweet chestnut tree - a large, old one - were these "fuzzy sticks", which I made into a double-ended brush

and used it, with ink, to depict the tree's bulbous whorls and twisted bark

once I got home - after coffee and croissant, and the start of the rain, and a bus ride.

Today's stroll was in Dulwich, to see the Edward Bawden exhibition (finishes 9 Sept), and was continued along Bankside to see watercolours and prints, then via Upper Ground across Hungerford Bridge to Embankment tube station, and home. Time is running out to see the Picasso 1932 exhibition at Tate Modern (finishes 9 Sept) but I didn't go... I was still in Bawden-mode.

As I used to do with my son when he was a toddler, I'd looked for all the dogs in the pictures. Bawden could bring them to life in a few lines, of which mine are a trembly attempt to copy -

Two things struck me in the second half of the exhibition - firstly, the portraits he did as a war artist in the Middle East. The wall label explained that "As an art student [1920s] he had avoided life drawing, but on arrival at Cairo [1940] he was ordered to draw military personnel, and he did just that, beginning with simple pen drawings of the new recruits." See some here.

Secondly, the watercolour of Menelik's palace, with the study of former emperor Haile Selassie -

(via)

I've been reading about depiction of space in paintings (in "Looking at pictures" by David Hockney and Martin Gayford) and this is such a good example. Love the view through the doors into and through the dark room, and the rainy sky.