Bruce Thomson's Sketches
This is a doorway I sketched whilst my people were exploring a church (there are many in Prague!). I have tried to pinpoint where this is and the best I can do is somewhere around the south east side of “MalostranskĂ© nam”… odd – because if you look it up, it’s 5 or 6 streets that make a square (and more). Kafka said of Prague that “This dear little mother had sharp claws”… I would add that she has confusing addresses!
Rue Danton…
This is a sketch from a pub, across from a pub (as so often happens) – this sketch comes from the Rue Danton, just northwest of the Rue Suger – looking south west. The bloke serving me, (after seeing my sketch) called me “Van Gogh” – I checked my right ear, just to be sure, but the clever bugger got a good tip… 🙂
This is a sketch I did in my first day (this time) in Paris… I sketched this from “Le Dome” which is on a “square” but my recent explorations of this area have been unsuccessful. I belive it was “Place de Grrenoug…. ” Or perhaps Place de Greinoug… uggh. Ultimately it is the intersection of the “Ave de Villiers and the Blvd des Batignolles”… sketchy, I know – just like the drawing! 🙂
This was a lovely and very old (my guess is a ’64 or ’65) MGB… the view doesn’t show it well, but it had a nice tonneau cover, but I think that what drew me to it was its colour – I’ve included a little “chart” on the lower left hand side to give you an idea… but it was a lovely “Prussian Blue” (I’m devolving to my acrylic and watercolour designations!). Truly a beautiful car. The day was chilly but sunny, and the swap meet a lot of fun, though I spent more time looking at all the cars in the lot… 🙂
I was sitting in a Pub called the “G cafĂ©” in Athens last year and we sat at a sort of “shelf” table that looked out onto the street… interestingly, the table height was about level with the sidewalk outside, so I got this great dogs eye view of this motorcycle and started to sketch. Finally – some 8 months later, the render is done… 🙂
This is an “International Harvester “Farmall” I sketched from a trip I took last summer – this was at a charming little farmer’s market just to the northwest of Fort Erie… thought it would make an interesting subject!
This is a sketch/render of a lovely Series II owned by someone I met through the Jaguar Club. He was kind enough to take me for a drive in his car prior to me buying mine, which was a big help as it allowed me to get an idea of what it is, because, although I know these by repute, have read much about them, this was my first ride in one… Thanks!!!
In the “better late than never” department – This is a Jaguar XJ220 that I saw at a jaguar Show at the Canadian Warplane Heritage Museum last fall… surprisingly, there were two XJ220s there – the one illustrated and a yellow one that I da seen at British Car day a couple of years ago. Loads of XJs, XJSs and Es there too. Brilliant weather, brilliant cars, brilliant planes made for a brilliant day. 🙂
A quick sketch of “Oscar” – a 25′ (guess) Airstream Land Yacht that Evelyn and I booked this past weekend (Hallowe’en). Oscar was parked on a farm on top of Blue Mountain. The weather, as it turned out, was awful – we hit solid cloud (well – fog) at Orangeville and it only got worse the further north we went. We spent two nights here, but it drizzled the whole time. Interestingly though, this was loads of fun. Our 11 year old Labrador ran around the property like a puppy, and I felt like… let’s change the language – ME felt like MAN coz built FIRE! Ha ha. First time I’ve split logs in 25 years. Most satisfying. Had a great time, visited Collingwood, Thornbury and Clarksburg (lots of art galleries) and hiked – in spite of the weather! Great time. Here’s the link to Oscar.
A long awaited sketch from a brilliant show I went to about a month and a half ago. This was a show at the Canadian Heritage Warplane Museum in Hamilton, and it was a show dedicated to Jags, not planes, though Evelyn and I spent about half our time toddling through the amazing aircraft and watching the old planes taking off and landing with their paying customers… a brilliant day – made even more brilliant by this Jaguar XJ220 – I’ve seen one XJ220 in England and one in Canada – the Canadian one I had seen is a brilliant yellow and was at the last (2019) British Car Day – I’d taken shots of it but never got around to sketching it. This was a silver model, and was parked directly behind the self same yellow XJ220 (which I have excised from the sketch – along with much else to optimize the sketch). I’ve been working on a render of this, but it is taking oh – so long – and thus I give you the sketch. More to follow! 🙂
The rarity of these cars might be highlighted by the fact that I have seen two flying Lancasters – one when I was in my final year at the RCA and, having lunch one late April day on the open deck beside the RCA sandwich shop, saw a singles Lancaster, several Hurricanes and four Spitfires fly overhead heading southeast to Buckingham Palace to amuse the Queen – though I assure you, I, and my friends were likely far more excited. There is also a flying Lancaster out of the Canadian Warplane Heritage Museum – and it is (at the time of this writing) one of only two Lancasters flying worldwide. Go see it.
But – my point? I’ve seen two flying World War Two Bombers (the only ones in existence) and three XJ220s. This should give you an idea of the rarity of these cars – the number of cars manufactured – as far as I know – is 275. Rare indeed. But not as rare as the Lancaster!
Caught in my headlights