It can be tiring and frustrating being tied to the computer, picking up emails, replying to emails, picking up more emails, replying to more emails… Last Friday I decided to ‘bunk off’ for a few hours and flex the drawing muscles in Port Sunlight. I’d been waiting for a decent weather forecast for a few days and Friday seemed a safe bet. Fortunately, the forecasters got it right on this occasion.

The first sketch depicts the Lady Lever Art Gallery, a neo-classical building originally commissioned by William Hesketh Lever in memory of his wife Elizabeth. The gallery houses a fine collection of Pre-Raphaelite paintings, though my personal favourites here would be pieces by Brangwyn, Sargent and von Herkomer. I particularly enjoyed making this sketch. The sun shone and it was a wonderful feeling to be away from technology, sketching outdoors. Like the other sketches made later in the day, this was made in fine line pens on paper, at around A5 size.


From the Lady Lever I moved on to the Lyceum, which (according to the Port Sunlight museum & garden village website) used to be a school and church, and is one of Port Sunlight’s oldest buildings. My hands were starting to feel the cold a little by now, the warmth of the sun failing to negate a bite in the air. As a result this sketch was a little more rushed. It suffered a little from my efforts to complete it quickly in order to find some warmth and a Rosy Lee. I added a little coloured pencil to this pen drawing.


Pathetically, once emboldened by tea and a sandwich I decided to make any further sketches from the warmth of the car. This drawing depicts afternoon sunshine hitting Christ Church, final resting place of Lord and Lady Lever. A van parked in front of the lych gate at one point, which made depicting it troublesome for a time, but otherwise this drawing didn’t cause too many problems. And with that it was back to technology and emails.