My trip so far has been fairly busy but the last few days are been even more so… and the symposium is just around the corner. I am not sure how much I will be able to blog now that I’m in Manchester and sketchers are arriving for next week’s big event, but if I can I will.

So quickly to bring you up to date with the last few days…

At the end of my huge day at Castle Howard I spent the evening in York. This involved walking into town at 6pm and doing the above sketch of York Minister.

Plus this one of the city wall.

And this one of The Shambles. Oh! there is a lot in this town to sketch.

The next morning I went back into town early for a quick visit inside (I had about one hour only) and did these sketches, quickly adding some paint in a coffee shop on my way back to my car.

Then I headed cross country into the heart of the Yorkshire countryside to visit the workshop of Rosemary & Co brushes. They made my go-to brush – a sable blend 1/2 ” dagger brush. I had the most wonderful time with Rosemary and Symi, talking about brushes and having a tour through their workshop – I am the second person to have had that privilege as it isn’t open to the public… yet!

Oh ah! a brush being made!

Symi then took me to Haworth for lunch. I had no idea we were so close to this beautiful village.

Its claim to fame is that it’s where the Brontes grew up (I am a big fan of Jane Eyre and Shirley by Charlotte Bronte), but it’s even more special for me since I greatly admire a preacher from the era of the Great Awakening – William Grimshaw. Haworth has been a place I’ve wanted to go to for a long time so it was a real unexpected bonus to visit it this trip.

I quickly sketched the church in under 10 minutes and Symi filmed me (I hope that we can release this publicly soon).

I then drove to Sheffield (a closed motorway added 1.5 hours to a 2 hour trip) and spent two nights with Lynne Chapman – one of my great sketching friends. It was wonderful to have a really good catch up before the craziness of the symposium and to bounce ideas off each other about sketching and work.

We went out sketching on the streets of Ashford on the Water in the Peak District.

More sketching using our Rosemary dagger brushes (I gave Lynne one) over a leisurely cream tea in a fancy hotel.

Do I need to tell you that Lynne and I have a lot of fun when we hang out together? In fact it is impossible not to have fun when around Lynne!

And then we went to the spa town of Buxton…

where we met up with Andrea Joseph who I have known since the good old Flickr days! It is a bit surreal to meet someone for the first time and feel like you are old friends.

Oh! so special to meet Andrea after all the years we have been online friends.

We then went to Tideswell another gorgeous Derbyshire village for dinner (walking through the streets checking out the options!)

Today I arrived in Manchester and as I couldn’t check in to my hotel room straight away, I went and sketched the Town Hall within the first 30 minutes of my time in the city.

I then had a quiet lunch and got some time to sketch a coffee.

Aside: I still have some Scottish money with me and hope that they will accept Robert The Bruce notes this far south of the border!

By mid afternoon Paul Wang had arrived and we’ just so happened’ to visit an art store!

And then we sketched a very English scene.

It seems I was the first sketcher to arrive in Manchester and I know from previous years how exciting it is to be there when the city starts coming alive with Urban Sketchers. I can’t wait!

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