ケンブリッジの街の中心から数十分歩いたところにあるグランチェスター・メドウ。カム川沿いに、この牧草地をのんびり突っ切っていくと、グランチェスターの村に出る。村とはいっても、パブとお茶ができる果樹園「オーチャード」があるだけ。とくに目玉となるアトラクションは何もないけれど、ぶらぶら歩いて、牛やコブハクチョウやマガモを眺めて、お茶をして帰ってくるのがイギリスの休日だ。
Whenever I have a visiter in Cambridge, I always take him or her to Grantchester. The walk can really tell you what I love about England.
And this time, I finally visited Hampstead Heath, too. I had been wanting to visit there because of the paintings by Constable, Turner and other famous painters. A Japanese writer, Soseki Natsume, is said to have often walked in the park when he was in London in early 20th century.
I could see the top of the Gherkin from there.
While I was in London, I visited the Ravilious exhibition at Dulwich Picture Gallery with my friends. It was really inspiring! The show was mostly about his watercolour works. But I though I could tell that he was sort of thinking in a printmaker's way. He applies colours as layers. And the use of hatching in watercolour really makes his works unique. I secretly tried watercolour hatching in the sketch above...I need to practice a lot to get neat parallel lines.
These are wonderful! Do you remember showing me your Adder sketches at Minsmere? I thought of our adder encounter when I watched Springwatch on the BBC. Those buttercups with cows are a delight and the cross-hatching is intriguing as a watercolour technique.
ReplyDeleteThanks for visiting here again!
DeleteYes, I watched the adder episode on Springwatch and thought of the day, too. It's incredible to trace the adder movements.