Kew Gardens

This exquisite colored pencil and sepia ink painting is from Katherine Tyrrell .  She said this is a sketch of one of her favorite views in Kew Gardens.  It’s the east/west axis from the Palm House looking toward the Chinese Pagoda.  The Pagoda in reality is a deep crimson but Katherine said it always looks blue when viewed from a distance.

It was such a treat to come home from my vacation/working week away to find this wonderful piece of art just sitting there waiting for me.  I can’t even put into words the beauty of each colored pencil stroke combined with another color to magically make shape and depth and glowing contrast.

Postcard from Alison Staite

What a thrill to recieve this, my first card, a beautiful and very delicate watercolour sketch by Alison in London! It came with a handwritten note with information about where it was painted (Kew Gardens), the atmosphere of the day and her thoughts on the process. I'm afraid my scan hasn't done justice to all the greens and how subtly they all blend into each other.

Coincidentally, I was over in England a few days after I received it. I was admiring the English countryside as it whizzed past the coach window lamenting the fact that I had no time to sketch it when I realised that Alison had captured the atmosphere of it perfectly! Thank you Alison!