November/ December 2019
November is charity art auction time with Article 25. I sold one in the auction and bought one too.
In Leiria with Eva and her family.
Making paper by hand in a mill refurbished by Alvaro Siza.
Grandad’s house….
Jose, from the Leiria urban sketchers.
In Lisbon, and on the beach in Estoril. The water is three degrees cooler than off the Hebrides.
Our flat, and a lady on a train. she came and sat next to me so I hid the drawing.
Isla on the train.
Fraser on the train.
Lunching
Dunfallandy House in Pitlochry, with the family.
Andreas on the piano stool.
Steven building a rocket, Gran doing the crossword.
Pitlochry dam. It’s the fifth time we use get power from the same water and the least effective, but it’s impressive to look at.
In London, in Caroline’s garden.
In Edinburgh, in Matt & Mina’s garden.
On the train
Ronni & Lewis at the Edinburgh Festival
Sketching St Philip’s Church, recovering from the office summer social
The theme is maybe years, or numbers. Seven kids in the rain in a hot tub at Tom Bent’s birthday bash.
At the Macallan distillery. Twelve year old for me.
We cycled round Loch an Eilean with the three kids and stopped to hear the echo from the island castle.
Sketch One from the excellent Highland Folk Museum in Kingussie.
Isla racing up the Landmark climbing rock.
Peabody talking about numbers, huge financial ones, and how you reconcile them with a social purpose.
Three Crabs in Henry’s Cellar Bar.
Helping at the 30th Craigalmond Scout Coffee Morning.
On the DLR. I think it’s far harder to sketch on the DLR than it was six months ago. We have thousands of new passengers from Londons new housing developments, and there’s no longer any space.
Two memorials commemorating the 36,000 who died in the First and Second World Wars with no grave but the sea.
Four blocks nicely composed into a West Edinburgh housing development.
Julie sorting our summer holiday.
Three judges and one of our team at the AJ100 Awards judging.
In York Station waiting for the last train home.
At Silverknowes with about eighty Scouts, Cubs and Beavers.
Soderberg in Soho. The first outside Edinburgh I think. Very nice too.
That’s a sketchbook, minus a bunch of drawings of what we might do the house, and I’m not putting them up here.
The sketches are (pretty much) all on Instagram now at @sandysdrawingroom so I’m not posting them here so much. I like the immediacy of Instagram: draw them, photograph them post them. Quick. Here are some of the drawings from my 54th concertina sketchbook. Music at a fundraising dinner in the Grange Cricket Club.
Members of the Royal High Pipe Band.
Discussing design at a Planning Appeal Hearing.
Discussing design with partners and staff at HTA. We review our projects in every Monday afternoon. Over the course of a few weeks we try to get round them all.The other guy is on a train. I love drawing people on trains now.
The passengers are captivated by their phones and don’t seem to notice. I miss out everything except the person to try and draw them more accurately.
Ali Germain on his way to the HTA Christmas party in London.
Some training with the Scouts.
And a great night watching Deacon Blue’s 30th Anniversary Tour, 31 years after I last saw them. Loved it.
On the tube, I sat opposite this chap with his one legged glasses. He was reading Oliver Twist and making hurried notes. In his black tie and black suit I imagined he was off to a funeral, to give an address.
Eugene has told me a story or two. He’s on the streets and he’s had what I think you a call a chequered past.
It was a summer of performances and this was the highlight: CirColumbia at the Edinburgh Festival. Great fun to draw.
The festival closing fireworks from Ramboll’s fifth floor Princes Street office were spectacular.
A table topping performance from Hearts.
Watching food being prepared; a bit of a show.
It’s the end of the summer, so there’s quite a high turnover in the office. The students go back to uni and the next lot arrive.
Some sketches, in chronological order (unusually).Dragging the boys round the shops in the car, making last minute preparations for a holiday on the beautiful west coast of Scotland.
On the beach at Camusdarach making the first of many sand castles.
Over the sea to Skye. Skye is home to a disproportionate number of beautiful, subtle, architect designed homes.
These two are by the inspiring Dualchas.
An uplifting community centre with a nice cafe, a cracking view and great hall. By Will Tunell. I love what a community development trust can achieve: remove the profit motive and make something great.
The train journey from Mallaig to Fort William is amongst the most scenic in the world. And very popular with Harry Potter enthusiasts. We took the (cheaper) local service.
The highlight of the trip is the Glenfinan viaduct. It looks out towards the memorial to Bonnie Prince Charlie. Arrived 22nd June 1745. Made it to Derby. Routed 16th April 1746. Back to Europe 20th September 1746.
Eigg, Rhum and Isla in the same picture.
There’s some cracking domestic architecture on the mainland too.
I do work too (though sometimes this all looks like holiday). Back home and waiting my turn to talk at a Scottish Government seminar on Build to Rent.
My sister’s brilliant fundraising book sale in aid of Alzheimer’s Research UK. With excellent help she raised £1,700.
Back to the cold. Fraser and Isla sheltering from the elements at our local community football academy, Spartans.
I rode to Cannes in aid of children’s charity Coram. Our team of 4 raised £20,000 through very generous donations from friends and colleagues. Many thanks to everyone who donated. It’s a good cause: you can still donate here.
I rode the whole 900 miles, as I expected to do. I also expected to sketch the whole journey but I didn’t really get close. This is my bike in the hotel the night before.
This is the rider briefing on the morning we left. After that I hardly managed anything. Everything moves too fast and actually requires a fair bit of concentration; there’s no time left to think about sketching.
Some people eating snacks on the bus inside the train that transfers you through the tunnel. Cycle to MIPIM is a bit like I imagine the army might be: you have a job to do and people shout at you when you don’t do it, and even when you do (though there was less of that this year).
And some ride captains.
I even managed one lunch stop (but there were six).
After six days and nine hundred miles I arrived in Cannes for a good round of interesting lunches and meetings, and some parties. I enjoyed the chat and learned a fair bit, but at the back of my mind was the feeling that I need to go back, concentrate harder, cycle less, and draw the whole route.
Maybe next year.
I do go outside, you just wouldn’t know it from the drawings. New Year’s Day with the family.
Drawing in the sketching friendly Design Museum. Looking at beautiful Ferraris. Enzo Ferrari was neither a great driver or a great designer but he created the world’s most desirable brand.
Beautiful old cars…
…and the process by which they make them. And some racing cars, Ferrari’s only form of advertising.
Fraser missing football, because it’s January and the pitch is frozen.
Isla waiting for gymnastics to start, and me waiting for Isla.
Listening to a planning committee.
I like the trend towards open kitchens and seats where you can watch someone make your dinner. They provide some entertainment for travelers eating alone. These friendly folk were in Paso.
Travelling, by tube and plane.
Sketching is quite popular these days and the nice guys from Meinhardt invited me along to their thriving sketch club at the British Library. It was great,, but I’m looking forward to drawing outdoors again.
Fiona and Paulina sleeping on the way to the HTA Design London party
Recovering the next day on the long trip home.
Earlier in the month I’d gone to Islay with the guys I began studying architecture with 30 years ago who are still architects.
We got thrown out of the pub and the police were called.
This sort of thing didn’t happen 30 years ago. That’s middle age for you.
By the time we flew home we knew just about everyone.
Recovering in London, trying to understand the detail of our new office. You don’t learn that much in 30 years.
It’s the time of year for shows: Fraser in his school Scots Night.
Brother in law and nephew excelling in panto.
A Christmas lunch or two, though this is the only one that made me cry. It raised money for charities So Precious and CHAS. Click on the links for more information on these excellent organisations.
It’s time for some time at home…
…chatting to friends…
…recovering…
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