Karen Neale Art

London in Landscape Volume II

London in Landscape Volume II cover © Karen Neale

So I’ve been back out walking through the city streets and spaces in my trusty Dr. Martens. Walking is always good for both body and soul. Not only does it help to burn up chocolate cake calories it can also clear clouded minds. Although a few of the sketches in this book are specific suggestions from people, many are quite randomly spotted whilst wandering to wherever.


Paternoster Square© Karen Neale
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Once I have picked my ‘landscape’ I stand, or if I’m very lucky sit, and I just sketch the world around me. When I begin to sketch, I am soon completely focused and absorbed in my surroundings. The concentration and awareness that the ‘drawing department’ of my brain demands to do this, crowds out any current worries.


This results in a sense of calmness in which I am at once in the thick of things, and yet abstracted, as I communicate and commit to paper what I see, and equally important what I feel at this time. The whole experience is most therapeutic.

Overlooking London from the Royal Observatory at Greenwich© Karen Neale
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In this second volume I’ve been to some favourite old haunts as well as some new ones, and all evoke a constant state of flux. St Pancras Station is both gorgeous and glorious once more, whilst Walthamstow Dog Stadium has sadly demised. Many of the sketches track the course of the Thames, constant but constantly changing.

Waterloo Bridge Looking East © Karen Neale
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Those paying close attention will have noticed that this sketchbook has also travelled to Havana in Cuba to visit my husband’s family, and it would seem unkind to leave these two pages out of my sketchbook diary. So here they are and the ‘Capitolio’ does a great impression of St. Paul’s!

Havana Cuba © Karen Neale
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There are of course many more landscapes of London to sketch and many areas yet to be ‘discovered’. The preparations for 2012 would be more than sufficient for an ‘Olympics’ edition and there are many possibilities for a third volume of other city scenes. The list is endless and growing by the day. But for now, this book is published at a time of many uncertainties and I hope that the calm comfort I’ve enjoyed in its creation will pervade through its pages to all readers.

Farringdon Tube Station © Karen Neale
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