Show's over!

The last two exhibits: Monday 19 October 2015

A pattern of thieving has developed since I installed the posters just over three weeks ago. I've been checking the site regularly and I've had some help from friends who've trekked down to the canal to see the exhibition and they have reported how many posters were left. The posters have been removed at the weekends and not during the week so I presume that the new owners have day jobs to go to.

I'm happy that the posters have been removed and I was surprised that they hadn't been defaced by the graffiti artists. I assumed, following the pattern from the last few weeks that the last two posters would have gone by the time I got back to the towpath at lunchtime today, Monday. Surprise, surprise there were still two remaining so I decided that I would take them home with me. Now the wooden doors are available for their next coat of paint and I'll look forward to seeing what they look like when I next visit the canal.

Here is the final sketch

The site where the abandoned Top o' the Morning pub on Wick Lane used to stand

We've just got home from a month's holiday in Canada and clearly quite a lot has been going on while we've been away. The Top o' the Morning pub is no more and I expect the site will be used for a housing development so maybe this is the beginning of the gentrification on this side of the Hertford Union Canal. Then I walked along the canal for a short distance and I spotted a planning development notice taped to a lamp post. As far as I could tell it concerned an existing property and not the former pub.

The end of the line at White Post Lane

I continued on my way and almost immediately bumped into my 'friend' the motor mechanic who was walking his boss's dog in his lunch hour. I took the opportunity to say goodbye because I had decided this would be my last sketch of this series of drawings. He told me that the business he works for will be moving out by the end of the year. He wished me good luck and we parted company.

Life on the canal is always changing and at the same time seems changeless. The boats continue making their way through the locks and passers-by stand and stare. Runners keep on running and dog walkers keep on yelling at their canine companions.

I've relished recording my responses in the form of sketches, over the spring and summer, to this short length of canal that will probably change out of all recognition over the next few years. I've enjoyed experimenting with my drawing and have been happy to publish the successes and the failures along the way. But now there is a hint of autumn in the air it is time to bring this project to a close.

I leant on the bridge over the canal at White Post Lane to make this drawing

When I began this composition I imagined that I would only use pencil to start with and then I would finish it in pen and ink. Part of the way through this process I realised that it needed to be completed in pencil. From this view you can see the River Lee Navigation ahead and the Hertford Union Canal just on the right hand side.

Although this is the end of the series of drawings it is not the end of the project or the blog and I will be posting developments in the next couple of weeks so please check back later.