November

Roman protests

I found this in my sketchbook from earlier this summer - I was sitting waiting for my friend May at Piazza Venezia and ended up getting caught in the middle of an anti-war demonstration. This is a very quick sketch of some of the poliziotti standing at the ready with their riot gear - they looked almost like statues, or like toy police in their starched blue uniforms. In the end the protesters marched by very peacefully, but it was an interesting spectacle nonetheless.

Drawing London by night

Covent Garden market

Cambridge Film Festival 2009

I've spent most of the past week in Cambridge, seeing some great films, interviewing directors and enjoying the crisp autumn weather. Highlights have definitely been interviewing two very cool French directors, Robert Guédiguian and Rémi Bezançon, seeing The Red Shoes for the first time, and watching Joe Wright's The Soloist. I was also impressed by British filmmaker Peter Strickland's simple, beautifully shot first feature set in Romania, Katalin Varga.
I also took advantage of the beautiful weather to do some painting in my old college, Jesus. The Sculpture in the Close exhibition is still on for a few more days and I wanted to capture some of the lovely artworks before they are taken away. The top two sketches depict a pile of Gormleys in Second court, and one of Jake and Dinos Chapman's friendly, rusty dinosaurs lurking in Library Court.

Paris, Marais scenes, Aug 09

Paris, fin d'été