Peterborough #benchviews 36-40

In case you’re new here, I’ve sketched my surroundings as postcards when on holidays for the past twenty years, on and off. Over the past three months this changed to sitting on a bench in Peterborough, UK and sketching what passed me by. I’ve now done over fifty views from Peterborough benches and am gradually posting pictures of them here five at a time.

There’s lots of different fundraising activities that happen everywhere. Peterborough has a Zombie walk at the beginning of November. People dressed up in scary costumes scare me and it wouldn’t be my choice of days to go into town, yet here I was sat on a bench for over an hour waiting for some scary characters to pass me by.

Sketching an event as it passes is different from sketching people as they get on with their daily lives. I can’t explain it, I seem to put an expectation on myself as this is a one off, I’d have to wait a year to get this opportunity again. There were so many of them, they interact with me which made my self imposed task that much harder. Choosing the character and pose to capture’s done in an instant and the sketching of it’s almost as quick.

This sketch turned out much different from the last. The shops were boring to me and the zombies were taking more interest, particularly the scarier ones with more blood and sewn up mouths. The thing with having a vivid imagination is that it works.. I couldn’t relax sketching this one and the pressure mounted which, to me, shows and makes for a less accomplished drawing but this is my rapid interpretation of what passed me when I sat on a bench on 1 November 2014.

A chillier wetter day as the leaves, bobble hats and fully covered up waterproof covering on a motorised buggy appeared in my sketch.

I’ve no idea what others see when they look at this one. It’s done from a bench next to a roundabout and a cycle route. I’d been waiting for the right time to sketch from it and when the workmen tore up half of the pavement pushing the passers by to walk right past the bench I got very excited, as you do. The timing was right.

As you view this, imagine the cycle path behind you yet lots of cyclists went past in front of me regardless of how narrow the space was for them, people with pushchairs, people with luggage and my feet. There’s something not quite right at that part of town with the cycle path and with the works everything got bottle necked into one space and I tried to add it all.. More men with pushchairs passed me here than I usually notice. Sketching from this location, at this point in time, was a very different experience than I’ve been used to.

There are some benches which are never free, well rarely free, and since I’ve been prowling Peterborough’s benches for a few months now I’ve started to keep my eyes peeled for those cherished, well used, popular benches being available and grabbing one anytime I have my sketch bag with me. This was one of those times and this was done from a very popular bench outside a chippy.

Yes, I had haddock and chips before I sketched, why wouldn’t I?

Keeeep sketching!

 

 

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Peterborough #benchviews 31-35

I was asked to participate in creating some postcards for a big draw event in Peterborough. Always happy to draw regardless of ability I tried to encourage as many people as I could to also take part. I got a little carried away and probably created about 20 postcards, some of which apparently did get hung up on the washing line.. No, I’m not going to explain here.

Anyhow, I said if they could find me a bench I’d draw on the day. I had expected to capture people pegging up postcards but instead I sat on the benches I could find nearby which were picnic benches and I sketched the comings and goings related to the event, rather than the event itself, though you might be able to see some postcard like items in one of the drawings.

I did love the location though. Sat in between three different train lines was quite a thrill for someone with a passion for rail.

There were many more people in this scene than I captured. The tree and the umbrella caught my attention oh and the train that went by as the speeches were being given. I think I prefer it when there’s lots of people passing me as they all merge into each other and I get more of an essence of who passes. This one’s a bit of an odd one. It was the third one I did this day which turned into a day when I did seven sketches..

This picture is of one of the willow arches in the Green Back Yard.  I think I need to spend more time when drawing foliage than I do when I sketch from a bench. I seem to be able to do buildings and people passing quicker and, in my view, better, than I do when I sketch foliage.

The fifth sketch done on the same day while I was sitting waiting for the Zombie walk to pass. Although there are police and cyclists in this one, it’s by no way a political statement. They both went past me during the thirty mins it usually takes me to pencil sketch. I try to not be too selective but I do make composites. These sketches aren’t one moment in time. They’re part of one day but not one moment.

These were all drawn on 1 November 2014 in and around Peterborough England.  I did enjoy that day.

 

Peterborough #benchviews 26-30

A quick reminder.. all rights reserved, they’re all my own work.. There’s something comforting about posting five of my bench views. It means I’m still enjoying doing them and am slowly heading to my target of sketching from each and every bench I walk past to and from work and those I encounter during my normal shopping routes.

When there’s something different in front of a bench I’m more drawn to sit there and see what the view looks like. On this day there were works taking place. While I was there a van left and another returned parking perfectly to not change my view of the church for which I was grateful. There’s something about the church. I though it would be easy to sketch but it isn’t.  I think, one day, I need to draw it ‘properly’ not just a quick view done in minutes. The thing is, as someone pointed out to me, there’s a lot of sky. Hmm.. There is a lot of sky when you sketch that church.

I wondered what was going on the day I drew this. I was sketching later than I usually do and there was quite a different feel about who was walking or cycling through. Apparently my sketches are ‘controversial’ due to the cycling cyclists I put in them. What can I say, I interpret what I see and I think this was the first time I saw cyclists walking their bikes since I’d started the bench views. Later, I found out that I drew this on World Mental Health Day and what I’d been watching was the Council Leader being photographed signing the ‘stop suicide’ pledge.

I’m not sure what to say about this sketch. There are a number of things I noticed, choosing this day, this location and facing this direction all have their own stories. These buildings used to be overshadowed but now they’ve got benches in front of them and, when faced on a sunny day, give an amazing reflection of the church in the middle of town (in case you weren’t sure what I’d drawn).

Then, just as the leaves on the trees started turning colour the shop windows all went orange and black..

I don’t put too many words with my sketches here and will try not to bore you, other than to say I’ve heard and seen a few fall outs while I sit. The next sketch has three motorised wheelchairs (two are hiding..) and two motorbikes in it and it was another passing motorised wheelchair that got shouted at as they nearly caused a scene. It’s also a good sketch to discuss what an artist leaves out.. as the area’s for motorcycle parking it has large black railings right in front of the bench that the motorbikes park up against.

A friend recently asked me how I manage to make Peterborough look glamorous and exciting. I don’t think I do but will happily take that as a huge compliment and remind you to look around you. What do you see? Why are you there? What’s good in the places you live and the people who live there with you? Once you get used to seeing the good and beauty in everything the negative stuff seems to melt away a little. Afterall, you’re there and you, your family and friends are all good and beautiful, aren’t you?

Maybe I wash things out and the hue I put on my sketches is much paler than the city is to others, lighter where there’s perhaps grime and you can’t tell the cheaper shops from any others betraying the financial and social issues in the city. I notice the circles in the paving which adds to the views and pick out bits of architecture I find interesting. Sketching what I see in the hope that most of the people in my bench views are unattributable, meaning I don’t have any illusions to my ability to sketch people and the sketch look like them!

We all look at the world differently, due to our upbringing, experiences and general views and interests on life. What do you think of when you look at my Bench Views? What do you notice when you sit for a while? Where does your mind wander?

#benchviews was started on 28 August 2014 when, due to increased signs of stress, I grabbed my spare art bag, left work at lunch time, sat on a bench and sketched. My work seems to have captured the imagination of the people of Peterborough who’ve seen them and I’m still enjoying sketching them which is good.

Warning.. benchviews special

If you’re a regular here, you’ll know I’ve been blogging about the sketches I’ve been doing from benches in Peterborough during my walk to and from work and going about my daily business in Peterborough, UK (other Peterborough’s are available, not that I’ve visited any, yet..). If you know me, you might have been surprised by my order of posting these. So far there’s been blogs about bench views 1-5; 6-10; 11-15; 16-29; 21-25.  Sounds logical.. yes and so not me.

This blog is titled random, eclectic, see how my mind works which does not usually involve going in an order expected by many, and so here’s a post about one day. Yesterday. Saturday 1 November 2014. It’s not even about the whole of this day, just a small part of it, the other sketches I did might be posted another time.

My afternoon, yesterday..

I’d woken and written almost 2,000 words for a November writing challenge I do, doesn’t everyone? Then I turned up and sketched from  four benches while three local sites were linked as part of the Big Draw, What? You didn’t do that either?

Finally we get onto my afternoon.. I hadn’t done this before. I wasn’t going to do, it but I was going to watch and hoped to sketch as it passed me by.

I need to explain. I get scared easily, always have always will.. Hated Halloween.  I can just about manage a Halloween party these days but Zombies, that’s another matter.. I didn’t really know what they were till a few years ago, as I don’t read about them or watch those sort of programmes, they look scary so I’ve always given them a wide berth. Why then did I decide to sit for almost an hour and wait for the flash mob that is the Peterborough Zombie walk to arrive?

Since I started sketching from benches I’ve noticed how many there are particularly in Bridge Street. 28 of them I think.. I’ve tried not to be too specific.. Lots, that’s all I need to know. I’ve noticed that I seem to sketch looking up or down the street yet I prefer facing the buildings and sketching people as they pass. There would be lots of interesting characters passing down Bridge street, I thought, what a great idea to sit and watch the world go by.

‘Really, you’re scared of anything scary.. and you thought it would be a good idea to sit on a bench and sketch while a mob of Zombies walked past, what did you think would happen? That they’d walk past obligingly and not notice you?

Ahh, actually, yes, I did think that.

The sketches on this page are one from before and two during the Peterborough Zombie Walk 2014. The third on this page was the hardest to do. By this time the photographers must have gotten all the scary Zombie pictures they could get and were trying for new angles, hey there’s a woman trying to sketch them as they pass… Let’s take a photo of her sketching them.. Even one of the Zombies decided to stop and photograph me sketching them scaring me.. As you can see by my sketch some of them even started levitating as I sketched them.. It must be true, I drew it.. I’ll write a blog one day about what goes in and what gets left out of sketches.

Sketching from benches has it’s moments but yesterday, I had the most experiences in one day that I could cope with. When I look at what I produce the emotion has been memorised and I can see how I felt in the brush strokes. The first image on this page was finished in situ and the other two had to be completed at home because I was either being scared, honed in on by zombies, (why it didn’t occur to me that me sitting sketching wouldn’t attract their attention I have no idea..) or being photographed by professional photographers and zombies..

I had such a wonderful day. It had to be blogged about..