Friday 17th- Saturday 18th June

Friday 17th June: drawing at Medelhavsmuseet- the Mediterranean Museum. These figures are part of an astonishing collection of clay figures which were dug up from a temple in Cyprus. There are hundreds of them,  displayed beside a mirror so the crowd looks even bigger, and each one has a different expression so they just cry out to be drawn! The weather is so nice at the moment that I don't want to miss it by being in a darkened gallery, but I think this is a project for the winter.

Saturday 18th June: by contrast, a classic 'it's 10.30 pm I'd better do a drawing'...

Stormsteg at Kafé Klaver- Wednesday 15th June

I couldn't resist sneaking  out my sketchbook at Stormsteg's very lovely gig at the Kafé Klaver theatre- maybe more of a mini theatre. It was the first time I'd drawn at a concert but I was quite pleased with the results- especially when I realised that of the two coloured pens that I had with me, one exactly matched the band's background- and theme- colour. Magic.

Saturday 11th- Wednesday 14th June (catch-up!)

Saturday 11th June

Sunday 12th June: Scaffolding on the building opposite- how many times have I drawn this over the last few months?

Monday 13th June: Sitting on the waterfront waiting to go and look at a flat.

Tuesday 14th June: Looking up Hornsgatan- it had just started raining for the first time in weeks.

Friday 10th June: River swimming, teenage seagulls and learning swedish body parts

One of the reasons I wanted to come to Sweden was to be able to swim in rivers and lakes...(there aren't really any accessible outdoor swimming spots in Bristol- and certainly not in the centre of town like this one is...). I sat on the bank for a bit afterwards and drew the scene- and the young seagull sitting in the tree in front of me, until a big gang of human (!) teenagers arrived and it was time to go.

I'm finding that drawing and labelling helps with learning new words, so if you want to learn a bit of swedish, here you are! (with apologies to any real swedes who find this hilarious!)

Tuesday 7th- Thursday 9th June

Thursday 9th June

Wednesday 8th June

Tuesday 7th June

The far, far north... (2nd- 5thJune)

Sunday 5th June. Short and very, very tough birch trees.

Sunday 5th June

Saturday 4th June. Antlers that Nick found while I was drawing- the benefits of going walking with a sketcher!

Friday 3rd June

 

Thursday 2nd June- three Porters sitting on a log.

If you get on a train in Stockholm and go north for 17 hours you end up in Abisko, a truly wild and beautiful national park. This is what we did over the bank holiday weekend- and these are some of my drawings. It's about as far north as you can go in Sweden, and if you stayed on the train longer you'd soon be in Norway. It's inside the arctic circle, and so light constantly at this time of year, though I'm afraid I was too exhausted from all the walking to want to get up and take a photo! When we left Stockholm it was blazingly hot, when we got off the train the next morning there was ice on the lake and snow on the mountains.

Monday 30th- Tuesday 31st May

Tuesday 31st May- a sort of blind contour drawing- without looking anyway...

Monday 30th May- looking down as usual!

Friday 27th- Sunday 29th May

Sunday 29th May

Saturday 28th May

Friday 27th May- this is from a photo of a puppet/ live actor production by Marionetteatern- I liked the idea that conflicting parts of a single character could be shown like this.

24th- 25th May

Wednesday 25th May. Some complicated radar-type stuff on a boat that's part of Stockholms Maritime Museum.

Wednesday 25th- a lightship in the harbour. I think it's a museum piece now, happily moored in the docks- there doesn't seem to be much there for a lightship to warn boats away from where it is, anyway!

Tuesday 24th May. Enjoying new pens...