The Old School and Parish Clerk’s House, Yarnton.

March 1, 2024.Reading time 2 minutes.

The village is just to the north of Oxford and about 1/2 mile outside the A34 bypass. It has a Historic Village sign outside the old turnpike and there is some history, though you might not know it from passing by on the main road to or from nearby Woodstock. In a previous post I […]

From a big barn to a ruined barn – sketching outside of Oxford

February 26, 2024.Reading time 2 minutes.

Last week I was out drawing the big ‘Oxford North’ building site with its proposed ‘Big Red barn’, offices, housing and attendant building cranes. This week as a change I decided to draw something a little smaller – a ruinous shed or barn I saw passing by to the nearby village of Yarnton. This was […]

Sketching Oxford North

February 22, 2024.Reading time 4 minutes.

On the northern outskirts of Oxford they are building what is called the Oxford North ‘Innovation district’ . This will be a mixture of offices and laboratories with additional houses with some small park areas. Possibly its main feature is ‘The Big Red barn’ – which is likely to be more offices in something that […]

Two different approaches to sketching the Randolph Hotel rooftops, Oxford

February 8, 2024.Reading time 2 minutes.

During a rainy day going around Oxford, I dropped in to the Ashmolean rooftop cafe – to have a cup of tea and take the opportunity to do some sketching. With the rain coming down outside, I did some more drawing to add to a previously started sketch, so at least I could do this […]

Sketching Blenheim Palace from the formal gardens

January 19, 2024.Reading time 2 minutes.

It has been hovering around freezing here for a while but I suppose that is to be expected in mid January. A good thing about this is we have also had a few crisp sunny days and that is enough to tempt me to go out sketching again. So it was that yesterday I set […]