(Nicky Browne writes) On Saturday 15 February 2020, a large number of London Urban Sketchers descended on the Wallace Collection in Central London. There were at least a dozen new faces joining us who included a visiting Australian Urban Sketcher.
The museum has a significant art collection with many well-known pieces, such as Frans Hals' Laughing Cavalier and Fragonard's Girl on a Swing. Artefacts, armour, furniture and opulent curtains with huge tassels fill this exotic and unusual museum. "Gosh" a visitor said to me, "everyone is really concentrating hard!"
The high winds of Storm Denis limited the number of hardy outdoor toilers. However, there was just sufficient time before the rain for some splendid renderings of the architecturally significant Victorian fire station, now the Chiltern Firehouse Hotel, and of St James Church in Spanish Place. The church also welcomed us to draw inside and quite a number of sketchers challenged themselves with the complex Victorian Gothic interior.
The day was run by Nicky Browne and Sasala Wickramasinghe. Photographs are by Sasala Wickramasinghe and Jo Dungey, and the sketch inside St James Church is by Sasala Wickramasinghe.
