Battersea Art Centre Saturday

A long, tiring day started with an early morning hike to the Tube station in 14° weather. That wasn't as bad as the hour long tube ride in an unheated train. Some trains were "faulty" and some closed for scheduled weekend engineer maintenance, so the trip took longer than it should have, and we had to change trains a couple of times due to the closures. By the time we got to the Battersea Art Centre, my fingers were numb and tingling, and Robin's toes were frozen.

The Battersea Art Centre is a very cool old building that's used for all sorts of events and performances. It was built in the late 1800s as the Battersea Town Hall, to house the offices that governed the Battersea Borough that was growing by leaps and bounds on the south bank of the Thames.

Waiting to change trains at a frigid outdoor train station, Rayners Lane.

After a tube and bus journey of nearly two hours, we arrive at BAC, frozen but in good spirits.

All the drawers gather in the BAC cafe space, waiting for someone from London Drawing to give us the day's agenda. There will be 20 to 25 models posing from 11:00 to 1:00 and from 2:30 - 5:00.

Robin spent the day in the lobby area, reading and studying. We went to lunch together during the lunch break. The Parisienne. A Parisian restaurant, in London, run by Mid-Eastern people. I had the All American breakfast. Just try to imagine how weird that turned out.

After an introduction by a man and woman from London Drawing, everyone heads upstairs to the sketching rooms.

Outside the BAC front entrance, there seems to have been a font accident. Or perhaps the remains of typographic performance art. Or maybe the beginning of the dreaded Helvetica invasion that has been prophesied in ancient texts. 

The model stage. They're taking a break now. 

Sketchers tape their drawings to a wall so everyone can get inspiration from the varied styles and techniques.

A great space for a large group.

Checking out each others drawings. There's a very wide range of styles, techniques, and drawing experience, but almost every drawing has some appeal.

An artist tapes her sketch to the wall.

I'll post more photos tomorrow of the days event, including some of the drawings. The London Drawing people are going to post photos of the sketch sessions and models in a couple of days. I'll link to that when they post it.

Tomorrow morning our flatmates, Wally and Maria, are going into London to audition as extras for the movie Les Miserables. Also the landlord is coming over to see if he can fix the clothes dryer in our flat. The excitement never stops.