A bright and chilly morning greeted the fourteen artists who assembled at the RAF Museum Hendon for our first sketching day of 2024 and it was a pleasure to welcome several new faces. As our ‘home base’, Hendon traditionally bookends the sketching year and it’s always good to see the changes made in their displays.

This time the exhibition “Higher, Faster, Further” had opened, highlighting aviation during the Interwar years. The gleaming Southampton flying boat hull was in a more prominent position and the Bulldog was no longer hiding behind wire fencing. Good to see the rare Westland Wallace fuselage too, showing a typical interwar aircraft. After assembling in the boardroom, with an introduction by our new SE Region Organiser, David Livesley, we dispersed far and wide. Brian Miller and Chris Tyler joined us though both had to leave before the end.

We returned to the boardroom at 3.30pm where we were privileged to have Chris French join our own Richard Wheatland to lead the critique. Finally, I thought it might be interesting to demonstrate how my work is almost never completed on the day and further toil is required at home! I showed finished versions of my last two sketching day studies, Hendon’s Bulldog & the DH jetliner duo from the de Havilland Museum.

The meeting closed at 4.30pm and we all went our separate, weary but happy ways.

Damon Poole AGAvA