Friday 26 July 2013

Visiting York Minster with Prince Philip



As regular readers will know, my location-sketching group, SketchCrawl North, has visited the Yorkshire Sculpture Park several times in the past couple of years. But my original contact there moved on some time ago and now organises arts and community projects at the Minster in York. Which made me think...


Well, it would be the perfect location for a SketchCrawl, wouldn't it? 

So, on Monday I took the train up to York to meet with her and put together a plan for a day of drawing, which will be part of The Big Draw, but also link in to a local festival, Illuminate York. We walked through the Minster, selecting good locations to focus on and working out timings for the day.


A surreal twist to the day came in the form of Prince Philip, who had decided to pop in that very morning. It was all very hush-hush, so there were no crowds, just a few photographers and people who worked in the Minster. At one point, he stopped to chat to someone and was standing just a few yards away, looking very smart in a rather sharp suit. If I'd had my pencil at the ready, I might have sketched him!


After my meeting, I decided to take advantage of my free access to the Minster, so sat and did a couple of sketches, practising one of the workshop techniques I learnt in Barcelona ('draw buildings as if they were monsters' - big thanks to Inma Serrano). I just dove in: no measuring, no guidelines, a totally feel-as-you-go type of thing. It's far more fun and makes complex architecture, like this vaulted ceiling, a lot less daunting.


The weather was brightening up by then, so I went and did some more sketches of the Minster from the outside. I was having a great time, sitting in the sunshine, drawing away, saying hello to occasional on-lookers. 


I knew John was out until late at home so, with no reason to get back, I carried on into the evening. These geese made me smile: they were grazing a patch of grass between the park and the main road but had also decimated the municipal flower bed:



This last sketch nearly caused me to miss my last train home. All through the afternoon, trains were at 35 and 45 minutes past the hour. I let myself miss the 8.45 so I could finish off, then went into a pub for a half of lager and a packet of crisps, to kill time until the 9.35. It was only when idly checking on my phone, that I realised the last train home was at 9.15! I had to down my lager and run: the cause of much embarrassing burping once I got on board. 



The York Minster SketchCrawl will be on Saturday October 26th and everyone is welcome. It's free and the Minster are even providing some art materials, so just grab a sketchbook and meet us there at 10am. You can check their website for more details nearer the time.

7 comments:

Penny Dolan said...

Now that's a bit closer to home, Lynn. Sounds an ideal site. Date now in diary. Perhaps I shall go to the Crawl.

Lynne the Pencil said...

Lovely! You can write as well as draw - lots of inspiration :-)

martine paquet said...

Love all these beautiful drawing of buildings!Love the funny shapes, the colors and the fact that you imagined them as monsters!!! Very inspiring...
What kind of sketchbook do you use?

theartofpuro said...

Love your bright colors:)

Ethna said...

The 'Monster Minster'! I love it!

Julie Clay Illustration said...

This work is amazing Lynne, I love the Minster, it's all a bit daunting tho as the architecture is wonderful and intricate, you make it look easy! You would think Prince Charles would have liked to see your sketches?!! I may try and make this one, such a fab place! :)

Lynne the Pencil said...

Sorry for the delayed replies - I've been on holiday. Thanks for all your lovely feedback.

My sketchbooks vary - I use all sorts, but most of these were in an A5, Stillman and Birn. It's not watercolour paper, but is good quality cartridge. The geese were in a little, handmade, watercolour book.

Julie - it would be great to see you at the Monster. You're right about it being daunting, but the workshop with Inma Serrano was truly what gave me the courage to go for some of these. I will be posting more details on the blog in a week or so - watch this space!