April Sketches

This month, we took a trip to London to see the David Hockney show at the Royal Academy of the Arts. For me, it was a spectacular celebration of spring, nature, and beauty. Each room of paintings was more stunning than the one before and I felt drenched in the color or his huge paintings.

I had hoped to sketch quite a bit on this trip, but London and then Paris, were chilly and rainy, so we weren't out in cafes or parks as much as might have been otherwise.  

Here are a few sketches that I made.

This was done at tea at the The Original Maids of Honour, where we warmed up before visiting Kew Gardens.

In the back garden of our London hotel, I sat in a chair like this,

looked up, and drew this church.

We liked the polite sign: Please respect our shrubbery.

In Paris, I sketched this from a bench in Champs du Mars.

On Rue Cler, I bought a little potted rose for our hotel room. The young woman at the Au Nom de la Rose, wrapped it up like a gift with another rose tied on a rose pedal filled bag---a nice touch.

In April, my sketching group had a few themed sketching parties.

I was pleased to find that we were still having spring when we returned to Portland. Some of our tulips got ridiculously tall in their pots.

                  The backyard is still filled with tulips and azaleas, and Spanish bluebells...

and the David Hockney show still inspires me to try to capture the abundance of spring. Even if I'm way off the mark, it's still such a pleasure to try.