Staithes Roofs (0.8 fine line marker in 21 x 26 cm sketchbook)
As I do every year, I went off at the beginning of the month for a week's "painting" with some of my mates from the Art Club. I put that in inverted commas, because it's rare for me to get anywhere near some paint. Mostly, it's a couple of sketchbooks and some favourite pencils and pens and maybe a slosh of watercolour and a smudge of coloured Conte.
I honestly thought this year might be different. For one, in
Staithes I'd be amongst buildings, which should mean I'd not be hunting for the odd twisted tree to provide some structure. Buildings, after all, are my
thing. So it did seem as if I might at least get out the tubes of gouache I take along every year.
But I'd reckoned without the wonderful British weather. The north easterlies blew straight in off the North Sea and up the Staithes Beck valley. Although the torrential rain we'd been promised in the forecast didn't materialise, and the sun shone quite a bit, it was
bitterly cold - one night saw temperatures drop to -6C!
But I set off with a good heart the day after we arrived, climbing up the side of the valley to look down on the town. From there I could see
Westgate, the house we were staying in That's it in the centre of the drawing, just across from the former chapel now housing the Captian Cook and Staithes Museum.
Surprisingly, the wind wasn't too bad at the top of the valley, so I was able to spend a couple of hours working on this drawing. I thought about adding colour, but I was coming to the view that I might do without colour or tone in the sketchbook on this trip, so I left it as it is.
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