Sunday, April 23, 2006

Oxford Sketch Crawl




After a really good night's sleep and recuperation from yesterday's long, wildly busy day, my dear husband and I set out to Oxford to do our 'crawl.'

We snapped a ton of photos around Oxford -- rural and town --to use for additional sketches.

We settled at the Old Oxford Cemetry to sketch plein air. We walked around the aging tombstomes and marveled at their ages. I sat before a group of five 1800s tombstones (I sketched four of these) that reminded me of chess pieces.

I sat on the damp ground to capture the greys and light on the stones, did battle with allergies and ants, and Charles practiced his mandolin. Some passerby saw Charles practicing and came up to chat. It seems this fellow used to play mandolin in a jazz band, and he and Charles exchanged phone numbers to try to get together to do a bit of 'jammin''.

Meanwhile, after two hours (I SAID I WAS SLOW!!), my sneezing and running nose was getting to me. We left to get an ice cream cone, and headed home, snapping more photos en route. We ran into a small rain shower, and stopped at the CVS for allergy relief!

Got home, and Charles went to a property owners meeting, and I went to work adding watercolor to my cemetery sketch. I can only say, this looks SO much better in real life than my scanner image shows ... really!

8 comments:

marieJ' said...

Ohhhh how lovely and peacefully this sounds and looks....old cemetery and sweet tunes from mandolin....

Thank you for a look
at your Oxford.

Mindixy said...

They do look like chess pieces! Sounds like you and Charles had a lovely day (apart from the allergies - I can relate to that misery)!

Terri said...

What a great idea for a sketching subject. Some of the old gravestones have such beautiful workmanship, and yet they go ignored much of the time. Shame about your allergies trying to spoil your day, but sounds like you handled it all like a champion. Thanks for sharing your day with us Lin!!

Donn said...

Nicely done, Lin. Looks like your sketch craw was a success. You are way ahead of me in drawing. I just love your work. Maybe one of these days, I can come close to what you do.
Looks like Charles got something out of it too. Good for both of you.

starrgirl's world said...

My goodness, but you've been busy since I last checked in Lin! I love reading about your adventures and how Charles goes with you - it makes smile to picture it. And your drawings are so charming!

Tami said...

Lin,

You did a nice job of rendering the reflective highlights off these grave markers. I like it!
Sound like a wonderful way to spend an afternoon (except of the allergies!)

Anonymous said...

OH, you did such a nice job on those gravestones! Really, really. You are such a trooper to have done your very own, local Oxford sketchcrawl! But we all know what a trooper and a treasure you are ;D.

Kathleen Pequignot said...

Sounds like a fun sketchcrawl. :) Great collection of images! Even if the allergies were ready to try and spoil your fun. ;(