It has been a while since I’ve posted, mostly down to it being a long dull and damp winter. Not many of those bright and frosty days this year.
Instead, I’ve tended to make more local trips. Over the years I’ve drawn quite a few of Oxford’s landmarks but sometimes as a contrast it is often fun to do some more ‘urban sketching’. That tends to mean less obvious scenes – like local shops, shopping centres and building sites.
And for me the east of the city is generally more interesting – St Clements and out along the Cowley Road towards the old Cowley works. Here there are a constantly changing array of colourful local shops including a mixture of ‘continental’ supermarkets and groceries, fast food places, charity shops, coffee shops and the like. The people are generally friendly enough too – and here I guess I’m lucky that I don’t mind occasional people saying hello and wanting to take a look at whichever current sketch I’m doing at the time.
So on a Sunday I choose to try a drawing of a local record store and cafe: The Truck Store. I tend to find that on a Sunday that the area is busy. Busier than I’d expect- with people shopping, taking their bicycles into the local cycle shop, or just hanging out at The Truck Store or other local cafes. One thing I do like about The Truck Store is that they also have benches outside for overflow but they don’t seem to mind people just sitting, shooting the breeze, waiting for a bus or just taking in the ebb and flow outside.
Here is my view…
My sketch in-situ…
And my sketch.
OxfordArtist 