July sketch outing

We had reasonable weather for our sketch meeting in Faringdon Road Park on Saturday, with eight of us turning up with our art supplies. This fairly small park in the middle of town is mostly laid to grass, but around its perimeter are a few mature trees, a children's play area and a colourful flower border in one corner.  Most of us chose to concentrate on the buildings seen outside the park.

I am getting more attuned to using the Hahnemuhle Grey Book - this time I had previously lightly toned one of my pages with some blue/green acrylic paint, cleaning off my roller after using it for another project.  It worked quite well with my chosen view of a Victorian house, glimpsed above a flower bed of deep yellow lilies, rich red crocosmia and bright blue sea holly.

Park House (built 1876)
Pen and watercolour on acrylic toned background

Sketching in this historic area of Swindon has encouraged me to find out a bit more about its history.  Apparently, this land adjacent to the Railway Village was bought in 1844 by the Great Western Railway to provide a cricket field for the use of the local residents, as well as a general leisure area and the venue for annual fetes.  At one time it boasted a cricket pavilion, an entrance lodge, glasshouses and ornamental borders with fountains - all since disappeared.