With summer and the school holidays upon us, Oxford has gone from a relatively quiet place to being busily with a mixture of tourists, teenagers and language students. I tend to prefer it quieter but do have the option to explore outside the city.

This afternoon I headed out a few miles to do a little sketching at Blenheim Palace. It seems to have been a while since I’ve been here but it was relatively quiet and undisturbed. Finding a grassy spot near the eastern entrance to the palace I settled down to start sketching this side of the palace buildings.

My chosen view…

…and my sketch in progress

Having been away for a while such a complex subject was a little daunting to start, so I began by drawing a small electric transport – a stretched and converted golf buggy – and then extended out from there. That seemed to work pretty well and after a while I had filled a sheet of A3 paper. Then, since the going was good, I extended my drawing out a little further to get the whole side of the building.

Here’s my finished sketch in-situ.

That was about it for today. I think there is enough material there for another Blenheim watercolour landscape – and it was nice to be out in the country in the relative quiet. Here is a view of my finished, scanned, drawing.