Sketching at the Samovar Tea House in Ely

A new group has just off the ground, the Fenland Sketchers, and today I joined four other members for the first official meeting to chat and sketch in the delightful Samovar Tea House in Ely.  It was a fitting venue as this was where Anita and Emma-Jane hatched the idea of creating a Facebook group for people to connect and arrange sketch outings.  Nine days later and their idea has successfully come to fruition.

Interior of the Samovar Tea House

Sketching and chatting - great company...

Our sketchbooks were all very different and we enjoyed peeking into each others and sharing information.  Mine are quite messy, Anita described it as 'a working sketchbook'.  She favours an accordion style sketchbook currently and creates beautiful visual journal style pages with added text to capture the moment.  Emma-Jane worked in a smaller book and Isabel had the largest sketchbook.  Amy became the fifth sketcher - she was seated at a table nearby and became interested in what we were up to.  On enquiring how she could join she was encouraged to just grab some paper and get drawing right there and then.  Hats off to her, she dashed out to buy a sketchbook, came back and got on with it!

Water soluble graphite pencil on collage/gesso page

Graphite pencil on tinted gesso page

Pen and Inktense pencils on collage/gesso page

As you can see I had prepared some pages in advance in my sketchbook (an A5 hardback, Seawhite) by tinting white gesso with some acrylic paint and painting the paper with multi directional strokes.  I like the random colouring and matt surface to work on.  I also had a few pages with collage on then painted over that to integrate the material into the surface. 

If you live in and around the Fens and are interested in joining us for meetings locally to sketch then access the Fenland Sketchers Facebook page and click 'Join' (Emma-Jane will sign you up asap).  If you live further away see if there is a similar group in your area, and if not start one!  What are you waiting for?  It's a great way to meet new people who share your passion for drawing, and to find fascinating new places to visit.  Thank you to the staff at the Samovar Tea House for making us so welcome!