Sketching - Wortley Hall

I met up with two of our sketching group this morning.  They came by car from Sheffield and I walked up the hill (which felt hard going as the wind was blowing straight at me).  I suggested we went to Wortley Hall as I thought it would be a little more sheltered, which we did, so it was good to introduce them to the place. It’s owned by the Trade Union Council and basically operates as a hotel and conference centre.  There are large grounds that offer a variety of different things to sketch - the house itself, the gardens, the walled garden (closed today), lots of odd little buildings, and plenty of trees.  I chose the lake, which I suspect was the original reservoir that fed the fountain in the grounds.  I wanted to approach my drawing in a free way starting with watercolour paint rather than start with my usual pen.  I felt like I’d made a bit of a mess, maybe a started out with too ambitious a scene - I’ve been tidying it up since I came home!  I left the others at Wortley who planned to spend another hour there.  I’d rather lost focus so I opted to walk the two miles (or so) home.  It’s been cooler today in the wind but I’m looking out over a pleasantly sunny garden right now.