Here is the second sketch I did of San Augustin done with Urban Sketchers Manila at the Manila Art Sihan event last month. I was surrounded by viewers as I sketched this, which is always fun.
Sat-26-Sep-2026
125-3625 – Shadow on the bell tower
HeritageSketch
125-3624 – San Augustin
After lunch with some Urban Sketchers Manila friends at Mitre (a rather expensive restaurant right next to San Augustin), we sat in front of the church and sketched. I’ve drawn here multiple times before of course – see sketch No.84-2617, when I noted that this is the oldest stone church in the Philippines.
Sat-26-Sep-2026
124-3602 – The Filipino at his finest hour
This is the second sketch I did with Urban Sketchers Manila when we joined the car free Sunday sketch-walk event in Makati, in August. After doing my first sketch we went upstairs to have breakfast at 7-Eleven (the only place open in the building) and I decided to sketch this overhead view of the “Spirit of EDSA” sculpture. The text on the plaque says “at his finest hour”…but I was thinking it should really say at “their” finest hour – especially as the main figure in the sculpture is a woman!
Sun-30-Aug-2026
124-3601 – The spirit of EDSA
Here is the first sketch I did with Urban Sketchers Manila when we joined the car free Sunday sketch-walk event in Makati in August. It was a rainy day so we spent our time in and around the Yuchengco Museum. This sculpture by Eduardo Castrillo (in the courtyard of the RCBC building) was unveiled by President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo in 2001 and is a tribute to the strength and unity of the Filipino people during the non-violent 1986 EDSA People Power Revolution when the father of the current president was kicked out.
Sun-30-Aug-2026
124-3591 – Mausoleum cheese watch cat shit
On this busy day, after dropping our daughter at the airport, we visited the Njegoš Mausoleum – which is in the top part of this sketch. To get there we had to drive up 23 hairpin bends to the plateaux and mountains. Afterwards we went to the village of Njeguši (the birthplace of Petar II Petrović-Njegoš), where we visited the small museum and had a fantastic cheese platter for lunch at the Restaurant Bastadur. After all that went to beach in Kotor – where I unfortunately broke my Apple Watch (it was too old to be waterproof) and then when I started the lower part of this sketch, I found the bench was contaminated with a small amount of smelly cat shit …which kind of spoilt the day!
Sat-15-Aug-2026
123-3574 – Lewes Priory Park
After our long walk over the Downs we walked around Lewes seeing the castle, a church, down the Twittens (a “twitten” is an old Sussex word for a narrow path or alleyway running between walls or buildings and Lewes has a famous network of these Saxon pathways), through Southover Grange Gardens (set next to the 16th-century Southover Grange Manor House) where we had ice creams and then to Priory Park. This is a public park build around the remains of the 11th-century Priory of St. Pancras, mostly demolished in 1537, I believe by Henry VIII.
Wed-29-Jul-2026
123-3567 – The mill house
After visiting my mum and my sister we went out for a walk around Clare Country Park again, before dinner. This building is next to a big old house called the Mill House and has what looks like the remains of a water wheel or sluice next to it.
Sat-25-Jul-2026
123-3564 – Platform one cafe
Our eldest daughter’s birthday started with lunch with my mum, followed by a walk in Clare Castle Country Park. We first looked at the castle remains (mostly crumbly old walls), then hiked through the park and into very dry farmers fields where our daughters stopped every few steps for photograph bugs and weeds….so only after a quarter of our planned route we took a detour (not hacking across a farmers fields as I proposed), sticking to a bridle path and back into the village along a road. We stopped at this cafe which is housed in an old train station for a refreshing drink and then had a take-away Bangladeshi dinner.
Thu-23-Jul-2026
123-3562 – St. Peter and St. Paul’s church, Clare
Still on our first day in Suffolk, after visiting my sister, we went back to Clare so our daughter could spend a few hours working (remotely). With the jet lag hitting I could have easily gone to sleep but to keep myself awake I went out to sketch. This church is just over the road from where we stayed in the “winter cottage”.
Tue-21-Jul-2026