One Sketch #28) Sculpture - Swansea, Promenade

This one I made this morning.

It's one of a number of fairly prominent public sculptures which stand on the promenade in Swansea. This one, to my untutored eyes, seems to have been inspired by a lighthouse - the main body of it and the lantern on the top certainly put me in mind of a lighthouse, anyway.

Waves roll in
The tides of time grind and pound,
Lap and caress,
And against their surge
No light may avail.

I'll be saying a bit more about this sketch in my next post. Speaking of which. . .

One Sketch #27) Patti Pavilion, Swansea

I like to go out sketching on a Saturday, and to day was no exception. What was an exception was that I was so tired because I've been having trouble sleeping, that I only had the stamina to make a couple of sketches. This is the better of the two: -

I sold a couple of sketch commissions last week, and so I spent some of the proceeds buying myself the sepia toned pens that I used on this sketch.

The Patti Pavilion is named after Dame Adelina Patti, an extremely popular opera singer at the end of the 19th and beginning of the 20th century. It was originally part of her estate in Craig y Nos Castle, and she donated it to Swansea in 1918. It's a venue for the performing arts, though that modern glass extension in the front is an Indian restaurant.

An opera singer called Patti
-Among her own time's glitterati-
Donated this venue
That's generous, but then you
Might have to admit she was batty.

One Sketch #26) Seagulls

Yes, I was looking for inspiration at lunchtime, and these little buggers were standing on my windowsill. I snatched up my biro and a piece of paper.

There's pickings to be found

On the grass, on the ground

Everywhere, all around

It lies.

With my claws and with my beak

I will gather what I seek

I am neither shy, nor meek

No surprise.

So before my verse is through

I should ask, is it not true

- If I'm vicious, aren't you too?

Tell no lies. 

One Sketch #25) Exeter University (Thursday 19th)

Yes, sorry I didn't post yesterday, but I was taking a group of pupils to an event at Exeter University yesterday. 7 hours on a bus, and so although I did make this sketch yesterday, I didn't have the oomph to scan it and post it last night. This is one of the older buildings of the university.

Exeter is a very beautiful university, and I think we saw it to its best advantage yesterday in brilliant warm Spring sunshine. As fort the kids, they were fantastic - we were on the bus 7 hours all told yesterday, and they were a pleasure to be with. 

The Sun is shining

And the world is kind

To give me such pupils

With young and eager minds. 

One Sketch #24) Komodo Dragon

I was stuck for inspiration for today, so I thought about sketching a creature I really like.

It goes back to a children's encyclopaedia I had when I was young, which had a photograph of one in it, and also watching a David Attenborough documentary. What brought it to mind again was a couple of days ago watching Stephen Fry's excellent "Last Chance To See " series.

Not dragon,
Nor dinosaur
Not the stuff of legend
Nor a living fossil.
More than both
I am the stuff of nightmares
Made flesh.

One Sketch #23) Classroom door

As I said in yesterday's post, this is my first week back in work - school - since the Easter break. It's been a hard day. Part of my problem is that the older you get, the less tolerant you get, and the harder it is to put up with the niggling little darlings.

I am too old
A fossil from the chalk age
Too old to do something else
And too young to finish.

Gosh, that's miserable isn't it. Sorry, it's been that kind of day.

One Sketch #22) Abbaye de Hambay in Normandy

No, I haven't been off on a jolly to Normandy. But I did sketch it today, and so it therefore qualifies. I love Normandy, and I love this particular Northern French brand of gothic ecclesiastical architecture.

Pourquoi les batiments Normands
Sont si belles?
It would take a far wiser fellow
Than me to tell.