DailySketching

92-2810 – Scott Monument

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On our second day in Edinburgh, our friends gave us a tour round the older parts of Edinburgh and we stopped for a coffee in Princes Street Gardens, sitting on the grass with this view of the Scott Monument (I’ve delayed posting this because I wanted to do some more work on the sketch). The monument is to Scottish author Sir Walter Scott (famous for historical novels like Ivanhoe and Rob Roy). When he died in 1832 a competition was held to design a monument and a draughtsman and self-taught architect won, using the pseudonym of “John Morvo”. We were very lucky to have beautiful weather that day, and also visited the Scottish National Portrait Gallery.

Fri-19-Aug-2024

92-2816 – Porter’s residence at Park Güell

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On our first day in Barcelona we visited Park Güell. This was sketched after our walk through the park. At the main entrance there are two buildings that form the porter’s lodge – the one I sketched (to the right as you face the entrance from outside the park) was used as the porter’s residence. The roof was built with traditional Catalan clay tiles covered with “trencadís”, a mosaic made of tile shards. To me it looks like a giant iced cake!

Wed-14-Aug-2024

92-2815 – Edinburgh Airport

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On Tuesday 13 August we left Scotland and headed to Spain – taking the tram to the airport (very easy to get there). We didn’t have a great experience arriving in Barcelona though – we had a mad rush through Schiphol airport (which is absolutely massive) to make our connecting flight (thanks KLM) and then our bags got left behind so we had to wait for them in Barcelona. In the end we arrived pretty tired at the apartment we had rented.

Tue-13-Aug-2024

92-2814 – Birnam Hotel

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Our second day in Dunkeld and Birnam started with a big thunderstorm – luckily it stopped just before we headed out on a long hike up Birnam hill. I sketched this when we made it back to the village and sat in a park for something to eat before going back to Edinburgh (slight trouble on the trains). This is a view of the hotel where we stayed from the Beatrix Potter garden. The hotel was built in 1850 and was visited by the King of Spain and the French Empress…though these days it seems a bit timeworn.

Mon-12-Aug-2024

92-2813 – River Tay nap

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On our first day in Dunkeld (before checking in to our hotel and after our lunch) we visited Dunkeld Cathedral and then sat by the river with this glorious view of the bridge over the river Tay. This bridge was built between 1805 and 1809 by Thomas Telford – a Scottish engineer most famous for a cast iron arch bridge that crosses the River Severn in Shropshire. After checking into to our hotel we went on the Hermitage and Braan Walk, through beautiful wooded glens and fantastic countryside.

Sun-11-Aug-2024

92-2812 – May’s of Dunkeld

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After spending a few days in Edinburgh we took the train up to Dunkeld and Birnam. This sketch was done while we had lunch in a little cafe in Dunkeld on the day we arrived. I ate vegetarian Stovies (basically smashed potatoes) served with oatcakes. I added the colour to this sketch later, using watercolour pencils.

Sun-11-Aug-2024

92-2811 – Death was not punishment enough

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On our third day in Edinburgh (I have skipped some unfinished sketches) we visited a friend from our Cambodia days and started with a trip to the Rosslyn Chapel. Rosslyn Chapel was founded in 1446 by Sir William St Clair. Relatively recently its role in the Da Vinci Code movie and book has attracted more visitors and raised more funds for restoration. This sketch was done while we listened to a guide giving a little talk about the history of the chapel including a famous story about the murder of an apprentice mason (the title is from the guides comment about what happened to the murdering master mason). Later that day we hiked up to Braid Hill near our friends house.

Sat-10-Aug-2024

92-2802 – Scared by cows near Lantern Pike

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On Saturday 3 August day we took a train up to Stockport from Manchester to meet with a friend and then did a hike from Hayfield to Lantern Pike. This of course included a stop at the pub on the way and we ended up having an excellent simple dinner at “The Village Chippy” in Hayfield before heading back to Manchester. I started this sketch when we stopped for a rest (but didn’t finish, hence the delay in posting it)…there were some scary looking cows in the field behind us (actually bulls I think), with huge horns.

Sat-3-Aug-2024