Milky bar in Covent Garden

With an unusually leisurely amount of time to kill I sit in a cafe in Covent Garden on a cold afternoon. The coffee comes with a small glass pitcher of milk which I pour in. As I begin to scan the room for subject matter I realise that I have no water in my special bottle. I eye up the glass pitcher and decide to paint with milk. The texture of the paint drags a little but there are many likely candidates in this small establishment. After quite some time I notice that everybody else in here seems to have just as much time to kill as me. The waiter and the bar man do not leave the bar very much and several small groups of people come in and are led downstairs- this seems to be on some kind of unofficial business as the downstairs is not open to the public. I hope the milky paintings will not begin to smell.

Job interview in Debenhams

Considering the power of a single image to tell a story- the setting is Debenham's Clapham newly remodeled cafe, a location where I have in the past heard many stories and items of news both those related directly to me and those I have overheard. The two characters in the further distance are involved in a job interview, the interviewer is going through the motions and I have the impression that she has many more people to see. The woman with her back to me is young and full of enthusiasm, I find myself rooting for her to get the job even though I have no idea what it is. She genuinely seems to want it and though I have no involvement beyond having captured their likenesses I almost want to intervene and contribute my opinion.
The woman seated closer to me is alone and possibly waiting for someone to join her, I am aware that she is also party to the job interview and wonder what her opinion is regarding the current candidate. 

Life Class....a lesson in life

The model is late for class as she turns up at the wrong site, not to worry it's only 100 metres away. Still it takes her 35 minutes to locate. She  makes clear that she will not be able to do the pose I ask her as she doesn't do "arm in the air" poses. After 10 minutes she is too cold and asks for another heater- I approach a complete stranger sitting in a nearby office and ask him if I can use his heater. He looks bemused but I take it anyway. Model will only sit with her back to the radiator so students have limited view from front and sides.  There is a low rumble of complaints coming from the students.  Model is scowling heavily and now refusing to stand on the floor- it is too cold. She tells me she has no choice but to put her socks on. The radiators and heater blow a fuse due to "the Faraday Effect" I didn't get around to uncoiling the cable on the extension spool.  Model is now wrapped in a blanket with shoes on. She quietly informs me she will not be coming back- I quietly celebrate. Sometimes the life class is more of a life lesson.
This drawing was made during another (more successful) life class.

A visit to the Zoology museum

I took a group of students out drawing to the Grant Museum of Zoology at UCL. We were given a wonderful introduction to the collection by the curator, there are apparently more exhibits packed into this small space than in the Natural History Museum.  On this occasion I am drawn to the spider crab and I spend a good hour looking and drawing. I am reminded of the Cafe California, a restaurant in Marbella renowned for its seafood where I go to enjoy looking at the displays of exotic seafood with many strange looking crustacea arranged on crushed ice.  After the drawing session I walk out into the Bloomsbury sunshine and find myself outside a Spanish cafe on Marchmont street and draw this couple eating calamares. Just for the record I have never eaten seafood in my life but I really like to look at it

New Years Day in Ikea

Ruminating on all of the interesting, glamorous, romantic, breathtaking, spectacular sites where I have been fortunate enough to spend New Years day as I sit in Ikea cafe surrounded by post festive shoppers taking a lunch break as they scour the bargains offered in the sales.

Pearl in Paul

When Paul bakery first opened in the Kings Road I used to buy olive fougasse for Pearl and Sacha to eat on the way home from school. It always smelt very warm, french and comfortable. I now know Paul as the french motorway services favourite, which is very useful for long journeys on French motorways but mars the experience.  Just prior to sitting in here I saw a fox cross Southwark Bridge road at a pedestrian crossing in broad daylight.

Londis

I used to live on the nineteenth floor of a tower block which had a special rubbish room with a chute. Full bags of rubbish were squeezed into a grey metal door which when closed sent the bag down 19 floors to fill huge grey metal containers on the ground. The containers were on wheels and every day the caretaker would move those filled with rubbish outside to be picked up by the bin men. Someone had written on the side of one of the full containers with magic marker in a neat script "Londis Warehouse".  This is my local store which is rather nice but whenever I see a Londis I think of those bins.