Castle Howard in late September 2015. Please dowload and add colour.

Pen and ink sketch approx 14x10 inch.

 

28^th September 2015.

Misty morning weather caused us to abandon our plans to travel as the density of mist made driving hazardous. We returned to Beverley and had breakfast in the Poppy Seed café before returning home. The mist was clearing as I took George on a walk along Willow Lane, past a contemplative Milo, who was standing still, staring, possibly sleeping. Arriving home, a last minute decision to travel to Castle Howard found us motoring over the wolds in bright sunshine. Beautiful manicured fields glowed golden in the sun, with resident bales of straw waiting to be collected and stored. The shapes of bales varies. Some are large and circular whilst others are cuboid. Occasionally huge stacks of the cuboid bales are built in the fields, with challenging slenderness ratios, leaning precariously. Some fields have been ploughed and look darker as the fresh soil is turned. From the high wolds roads the multifaceted tapestry looks wonderful in the bright sun.

We arrived at Castle Howard and after taking George for a walk we strolled into the house grounds. I had decided to take a modest sketchpad and a black pen to produce a simple pen and ink sketch.  In fact I did three sketches, or exercises really. The house was the first sketch and was to be the last, however, we made a slight detour. This took us to the reservoir. We had not been before and what a lovely surprise. The reservoir was at the top of a steep hill. On the way we spotted some speckled wood butterflies amongst the grasses. The reservoir was circular in shape, perhaps 30 metres diameter. The water was beautifully clear. Brilliant bright green pond plants oxygenated the water and diving beetles, waterboatmen, and to my delight lots of newts could be seen. A cock pheasant “barked” as we left the reservoir and entered Ray’s Wood. We descended through the wood passing camellias, one of which was still in flower, through two gates, down to the boathouse café. We took tea on the outside terrace overlooking the lake. Here I did a sketch showing the swans on the lake. After back to the Fitzroy restaurant via the Kelly car where were had a coffee and cake. Another sketch followed as we sat outside and I drew the boar, sketch number three.

Please download these pen and inks and add your own colour.

I will post my own colour version soon.