We drew Highgate Cemetery 9 September 2017

The day started at Lauderdale House, where the excellent café did a roaring trade with the arrival of our band of Urban Sketchers. We all walked downhill through the lovely wooded Waterlow Park until we arrived at Highgate Cemetery East, where more sketchers were waiting for us -- in all, an excellent turnout of about 70 people.

This was my second visit to the cemetery.  I found it to be far more enjoyable than my first visit, when I was rather overwhelmed with the number of tombstones. 

Sangeeta Bhagawati

There were many subjects to chose from -- it was interesting how the sketchers spread themselves right round the cemetery.

Midday throw-down in the cemetery

After our first throw-down, some of us climbed the rather steep Swains Lane to Highgate village.

Mike Whalley

I can recommend lunch in The Angel, with Cathryn Worrell & Mike Whalley. Pond Square in the centre of Highgate (the pond is long gone!) was a good venue for sketching -- several of us positioned ourselves there.

Paul Gadenne

We returned to the Lauderdale House café for the final meet. Fortunately, the large veranda protected us from heavy passing showers.

Many thanks to all the sketchers who attended -- and thank you for sharing your wonderful sketches online.

Sarah Minty

Cynthia Barlow Marrs

Daniel Lloyd-Morgan

Katy Evans

By Dougie Simpson.
The day was organised by Dougie Simpson and Jo Dungey

We drew Highgate Cemetery 9 September 2017

Top Marx All Round!

Today is apparently Karl Marx's birthday (born 1818), so I thought I would post some sketches from my recent visit to Highgate Cemetery, where he is famously interred.

Above is his monument, normally where all the visitors flock to, although only a few came to take photos while I was sat here drawing, probably due to it being a very cold and blustery day despite the sun. He, of course, isn't buried here, but rather somewhere more discreet, further down the hill, beneath a very modest and plain headstone, beside his wife, amongst hundreds of identical headstones, as befits a man who preached equality - he in fact specifically requested that there be no monuments erected to him upon his death. As you can see, his wishes were ignored.

Actually, I hadn't gone to see Marx myself, but Douglas Adams, author of "A Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy" which I'd just finished reading. I was reading it because several months previously I'd visited Highgate Cemetery for the first time and saw his grave and thought "Ah, I have his book on my shelf at home, I must re-read it!". I'd been a big fan of his books when I was a teenager but couldn't remember much about them, so reacquainting myself with his unique and hilarious style of writing was a real pleasure. 

I've since moved into the Highgate area, and it's now just a short walk for me across the beautiful Waterlow Park to reach the cemetery, so upon finishing the book, I decided to pay him a return visit to thank him for his literary gifts to the world. He characteristically said nothing, of course, owing to the fact that he's dead, but I took his silence to mean that he understood my reasons for being there, that he was pleased and humbled, and that really he had a much better spot than the Karl Marx bust anyway, so he was quite alright, thank you very much.
But then again, it might just've been the wind.

Top Marx All Round!