Just realised I missed a few of the Bus Shelter series that should have been in the previous post but they’re good enough to get their own post. Both graphitints, and from the wet springtime when I was sheltering in bus stops to have anywhere to work outside the flat. The first one is called “Entry Next’ and is of Portsmouth Road, Surbiton where there is a former garage with houses behind. The sign is saying <- Entry Next Turn for the carwash and cafe which inhabits the garage now.
As per a lot of these pieces, it was drawn first with one of my fountain pens – this one was one of the first to use my Waterman 32 vintage pen, so hence me remembering that. Then Derwent Graphitint paint added after – unusually for this piece I photographed the in progress drawing with my phone.
Not too far from there are the Surbiton Assembly Rooms – famous as a place local bands like the Cardiacs and even Black Sabbath (!) used to play, and interestingly it was built in 1890 and was an early cinema around 1910 – the area has a link to moving pictures via Eadweard Muybridge who was born in nearby Kingston. Looks like they built another bit on top later after 1896, as this photo only shows the lower arches.
Now sadly it’s part of the ever-present Surbiton High Girls’ Preparatory School which seem to be taking over large parts of Surbiton. But there is a bus shelter over the road, and as it was the weekend I was unbothered by the students crowding onto the buses (a common occurence, even during the pandemic, which made bus journeys into Kingston stressful). I’m not sure I did this glorious Victorian building proud, but it was fun to draw even though it rained while I was doing it.
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