Thursday 15 September 2011

Yorkshire Sculpture Park: SketchCrawl Pics



Once again, we were extraordinarily lucky with the weather on Saturday's SketchCrawl. If we'd been out the following day, we'd have been whirled up, Dorothy-style, into hurricane winds, but instead we had a very hot, often sunny day, with only occasional hints of the blustery weather to come. 


It was the perfect setting too: we strolled through the park as a group, stopping for an hour at a time to paint and draw the sculptures in their beautiful surroundings (spot the slacker, far right...). 




I think sculpture is transformed when it's placed outside in the landscape, don't you? The contrast makes it come alive. 


The two paintings at the top are sketches of the same Henry Moore: I felt the need to draw her from both sides, as her position on a hill meant the effect was so different.


The next two are from the visiting Plensa exhibition. I cannot recommend this highly enough - I loved every aspect of it: these fairy-tale tree-huggers; the steel curtain of hanging letters, whose constant tinkling provided a magical soundscape, totally fitting the show; the interactive room with its circle of massive gongs (oh yes!) and of course the various enormous heads (I especially loved the illuminated, porcelain women: each curiously distorted head several feet high, like a female Easter Island). 



You have until February to get there, before the Plensa show finishes (believe me - you don't want to miss it). I could happily have spent all day just sketching that part of the park, but we had to move on after an hour.


At midday, we ate a picnic lunch together then spent the 2nd half of the SketchCrawl down by the river and lake. 


This Caro piece was so huge, I struggled to tackle the whole thing (although Tom did a great job, capturing it from a different angle). I decided to concentrate on the weird juxtaposition of the stark shapes and the softer, more traditional things captured in the negative space:


Our final stop was deep in the undergrowth, next to a silted-up section of the lake, where there is an old boathouse. It's now entirely imprisoned in land, but still has its own shallow pool, where there were some beautiful (but very tricky) reflections to attempt:


As usual, when we were done we relaxed around a table and shared the sketchbooks. This time, as well as the Sheffield stalwarts, people came from all over the region: Chesterfield, Hull, Leeds, Wakefield, Huddersfield. It was great to meet so many new people and get to nosy into lots of new sketchbooks. I was especially excited that my e-friend Andrea Joseph came. I have been admiring the crazy intricacy of her work for a while.



John and Helen, the curator of the YSP, took photos of as many of the sketches as they could. I am posting them in the gallery. Here are what we've done so far.


Thank you so much to everyone who came along to share the day. I hope all the new recruits 
enjoyed themselves and will come again!

7 comments:

Nana Louise Nielsen said...

Beautiful drawings as always, Lynne.
I am definitely going now that the autumn colours are coming out in full.
Thanks for a great blog.
:o)
Nana Louise

Julie Clay Illustration said...

It was a great day Lynne Thank-you, I've put it on my blog too. Lovely to see all the sketches, I think I must have missed some of them at the end? They are all of a high standard, I love Bryns work, it is very professional. I shall be trying some sketching with colour in the future! X Julie

Liz Steel said...

wow! another great day...AND you met Andrea!!!! How cool!
Wonderful sketches as always!

Tascarini said...

Would appreciate any information on how to "host" a sketch crawl. Do you choose locations prior to the crawl and then allow 1 hour for each place?
I've read several sketch crawl blogs and so far I haven't found exactly how to organize one. I live in Upstate NY and think it would be a great thing to do. Thank you for sharing your art with us.

jill said...

What great sketches, I wish i had known about it i would have loved to have come but was a bit busy. i love these sketches. thanks for sharing them.

Lynne the Pencil said...

Hi Jill,

There are no real rules but I choose a venue for the day where there are a few different, but close, sites to draw in, then work out a schedule with approx an hour at each place.

You need to make sure there is somewhere you can stop for lunch (allowing for appropriate numbers) and somewhere to 'share' sketchbooks at the end, like a cafe or pub. I always visit the places we have planned in advance, to let them know we are coming / ask permission.

Have a Plan B in mind for outdoor sites in case of rain and make sure if it's out of season that folks have indoor warm-up opportunities.

Re publicity - it seems to be a word-of-mouth thing largely, so don't be afraid to start small with a small knot of you and build it up gradually.

Try and keep it as inclusive as possibble, so free or cheap to access venues and, as far as possible, reachable on public transport.

Good luck!

Wakefield Sketch said...

Looks like you had a great day, sorry I wasn't able to join you. We're sketchcrawling at The Hepworth Wakefield on Saturday 15th October. Everyone welcome!
http://wakefieldsketch.blogspot.com/