Five miles from anywhere

Sat in the garden, I painted the approaching storm and river.

Yesterday, I met Anita and Joan at the Five Miles Inn, which is in the Fens. They are both talented artists and I've add links for their work at the end of this post, so please check them out after reading this.

My warm-up drawing sat riverside.

Arriving early, I sat by the river and did an ink sketch whilst waiting  (above). When Anita & Joan arrived, as it was very grey and quite cool outside we started off sketching inside over coffee  and we continued there through lunch. It is amazing to sit with 2 other artists, at the same table, and see how we all chose different subjects. I painted the narrow boat below, Anita a teapot, and Joan started with a man sat outside with his pint.

Narrow boat, painted from inside the pub.

After lunch, we went outside just as the sun came out. The photo shows Anita with her fan-club on the left, whilst Joan on the right continued on drawing.

Anita hated that I only use right-hand pages of my sketchbooks, unless doing a single large spread. I think this is left over from when I used to sketch in pencil and the opposite page was left for the inevitable smudges. Also, I've occasionally taken a sketch out for framing, which I couldn't do if there was something else on the other side. As it was such a lovely day and I didn't want to offend, I did my two paintings in a double page spread (below).

Anita Davies' work is here.
Joan Sandford-Cook is here.
The Five Miles Inn is here.

A rare double page spread.

Update 23rd August: Anita just posted about the day here.