Le Cimetiere

By Caroline Johnson
Rennes, France

Yesterday — despite the showers — I was determined to get out to do some sketching around the village.

The cemetery’s a quiet place — no one here’s going to come and look over my shoulder at what I’m drawing — hopefully!

It starts to rain just as I’ve chosen a suitable spot, so I shelter under the huge dark yew tree in the corner, sitting on a soft carpet of needles. Here, I’m obliged to draw pretty much what’s in front of me, so I go for what I think could be a dramatic composition, with the nearest cross looming large in the right-hand foreground.

I’ve stuck some Canson paper on a couple of pages in my book, and decide to work tonally on this coloured ground, in pen, black watercolour and white gouache.

The size of the cross means it’s big enough to get the inscription readable on the page.

Poor Joseph Sourdaine — at least his mother died in 1911, before he was killed in action in the First World War… such grim and sobering thoughts. And now the sky is massing its own storm-clouds, accompanied by distant thunder, so I gather up my bits and pieces and hasten down the street to home and a cheering cup of tea.

I finish off the sketch at the kitchen table, just the sky to fix, really, and I stop when I think it’s suitably Gloom-and -Doomy!

This drawing and story were shared on our Flickr group by Caroline Johnson, an English artist living in Brittany. Check out more of Caroline’s art on her blog. Look for more Flickr Faves here every week.