Chelsea and Battersea

I enjoyed a lot the sketch meet last Saturday. It was good to see loads of sketchers along the north bank from Battersea to the Albert Bridge as I approached the meet point.
My first sketches were of the Albert bridge from the north bank and from the bridge itself looking to the east. I liked the connections of the bridge and the careful ribetting.

In the afternoon, after our lunchtime meet at the Battersea Pagoda - see group photo - I had time for a sketch of the back of the Fosters Albion building, curvaceous, on the approach to the grungely urban Doodle Bar.

The afternoon meet was lively and expontaneous and everybody mingled and chatted whilst looking at each others work. Fantastic!

Chelsea and Battersea

By Albert Bridge

16 and 17 Cheyne Walk, London

It was good to see so many people at yesterday's sketchcrawl around Battersea – including new faces as well as the familiar ones. It was a good mix of subjects, too: as well as a great expanse of the river and Albert Bridge, there was historic and modern architecture. Above is Dante Gabriel Rossetti's house in Cheyne Walk. (It's actually the house to the right of the tree – the visible blue plaque is on the house once lived in by Thomas Attwood, a pupil of Mozart and St Paul's organist. There must be more blue plaques in this row than anywhere in London. Brunel lived in a house here, Turner died in one, and George Eliot lived further along. And there are many more besides.)

Across the river on the Battersea side are the offices of the architects Foster and Partners. They designed Albion Riverside, the neighbouring development with curvy-lined balconies overlooking the Thames and Cheyne Walk opposite. It was a good day's drawing, although I seemed to spend more time talking than drawing. We all met up at the end of the day at Doodle Bar on Parkgate Road to look at what we'd all done. There was some great work. Well done to Isabel for organising the day.

Albion Riverside, Battersea

By Albert Bridge