South East London sketching and exhibition

On Saturday I went to a sketchcrawl in my local area of New Cross and Deptford. The day started bright and sunny but within ten minutes of meeting, the rain started.
But for those of us who braved the weather, Deptford is an overlooked area in South East London with a fascinating history and plenty of rewarding places to sketch.

On Saturday there's a lot of markets around, from fish in the high street to a sort of jumble sale outside the Albany building.

Market outside the Albany Building, Deptford

interesting characters at the market

The sketchcrawl was organised through Meetup.com group Drawing London on Location, who have regular meetings each month. This one was a little different in that the aim is to put on a showcase of everyone's sketches - so everyone interested in taking part in a "pop-up exhibition" can pay £1 towards covering the cost of hiring space in New Cross. 

These kind of temporary communal exhibitions are a great way of bringing together (in a "real" rather than just online forum) the huge and diverse talent of sketchers the majority of whose work usually stays confined to sketchbooks. Hopefully we'll see more of these kind of showcases in future.

For those of you who were put off by the weather forecast there'll be a second crawl this coming Saturday (22nd Feb), and drawings done from either day will then be displayed March 8th-9th, at Hart's Lane Studios, New Cross.
For more information, see the event details at Drawing London On Location

South East London sketching and exhibition

Posers' paradise

The courtyard of Somerset House has become the regular venue for London Fashion Week.  I’ve drawn there before and find it completely fascinating.  A temporary catwalk fills the central area, whilst a host of fashionistas parade around with photographers clamouring to snap both the stylish classics and the outlandish art college creations.

The Vivienne Westwood show was due to take place at the end of the afternoon so there was a good turnout even though the weather was chilly.  There were a variety of hats, lots of fun fur and, of course, plenty of cool types in shades. 

Posers' paradise