Chimneys

The final sketch from my Christmas visit back home. Delph is one of the villages of slate-roofed, millstone grit houses that make up the rural area of Saddleworth in the Pennine Hills. It was damp and not very bright for eight out of the nine days I was there. Living in the south of France, I am used to strong light and deep shadows creating depth and stark contrasts. Here in Delph on a damp, dark day typical of the area, the views are flattened and lines softened by the misty atmosphere.

Christmas in Delph

A first for me this year: painting on Christmas Day, a great antidote to overeating and awful telly. This is the view from another window of Mum and Dad's second-floor flat. At twilight the lights in the craft shop window are reflected in the wet road. Delph has won awards for its Christmas lights... many buildings have real Christmas trees with white lights mounted on the walls.

L'Alhumetur

Sketched from my car, parked across the square from this busy newsagents and tobacconists. At six thirty in the evening, there is a steady stream of customers, calling in for a pack of Gauloises or a copy of the local paper on their way home from work.

The lighting was a challenge. The front of the building is lit by the street lamps in the square and the two floodlights on the shopfront cast diagonal beams. The style of the lettering caught my eye. I wondered if "alhumetur" meant "match" in Occitan (the local dialect) but I haven't been able to verify that.

Génoises

On both the houses in this sketch you can see the génoises which are a common architectural feature on old houses here in Languedoc Roussillon and other parts of southern France. These are single, double or even triple rows of canal tiles fitted under the eaves and filled in with mortar. Their purpose, I've learned, is to protect the walls of the building from rainwater, in the absence of guttering. The taller the house, the more rows of génoises are needed to do the job.

White Van

The village was rockin' last night with the blues gig at Café de Fa, back to its usual quiet self this afternoon. I rarely put parked vehicles in my sketches, let alone people, because they have a habit of moving. This white van looked like it was there for a while however so I took a risk and managed to finish it before the owner came back. And what do you know, it belonged to Uncl'Stf, the blues man from last night.