James Hobbs
@jameshobbsart.bsky.social
Drawing London with a thick black pen • latest book Sketchbook Reveal available now • http://www.james-hobbs.co.uk • https://www.sketcherpress.com/product/sketchbook-reveal/
Pont Marie, Paris, and the Île Saint-Louis beyond. You can swim in the Seine here, not that we did. #drawing #paris #art #PontMarie #sketchbook
Starmer leaves Downing Street, and Burnham arrives from Buckingham Palace. It’s great free theatre.
I’m interviewed about my drawing practice in the August 2026 edition of the Leisure Painter and The Artist magazine, published by Painters Online.
Floris van Dijck’s A Banquet Still Life, 1622, quite recently acquired by the National Gallery. I love the paths it takes you around the canvas, from cheese to nuts to fruit.
From the roof of our house, looking over Hackney towards the City.
Friday afternoon in Russell Square Gardens, London. The trees are coming into leaf.
After seeing the Tracey Emin show at Tate Modern, we stop at a cafe on the north bank overlooking the Thames. She is such a survivor.
Thornhill Gardens, Barnsbury, N1. On the cycling commute home. A bit rain splattered.
Two drawings of Grächen, Switzerland, done from the same hotel balcony a few days apart.
Drawing the 1:500 scale model of the towers and streets of London at the London Centre creates the impression that you’re looking at the city from a helicopter or something.
The V&A East Storehouse, Hackney Wick. No pens are allowed in the archives, so I borrow a pencil from the team at the door. It’s a mind-blowing space, with a quarter of a million objects, shown like I’ve never seen stuff shown, and you never know quite what you’ll find next to what.
While clearing out the studio/office, it becomes obvious to me that I have, over time, experimented my way through quite a collection of pen brands. Happy new year. Thanks for following, if you do.
Distant shores of the River Ore, Suffolk, seen from the Maybush Inn, Waldringfield.
Market Hill, Woodbridge, Suffolk, from room 10 of the Bull Inn.
Fabrique cafe, Goodge Street, London. It was the end of the day, after work, and the cafe’s shelves were almost empty. I was the last one out.
Trees along the New River, Islington. It’s neither new nor a river, but built more than 400 years ago to bring fresh water to London from Hertfordshire. It’s ornamental in these lowest stretches.
The tea room at Portmeirion, Wales. It’s a mad place with its bizarre constructions, its eccentric layout, its Italianate Welshness, its touristic overload.
My work is featured in the Nov 2025 issue of Artists & Illustrators magazine, which is out now. My thanks to the editor, Niki Browes.
San Sebastián/Donostia, Spain: bathers at La Concha beach last June, with Monte Urgull beyond. It was such a great place to visit, particularly for its fantastic food, city beaches, and long summer evenings.
Getting off the train at Barmouth, Wales, you find yourself in the middle of an amusement park. The families with young kids took us back to our summer holidays from the past. After exploring the town we doze in a sheltered spot in the dunes and then head up for a walk in the hills behind the town.
Trees in leaf. Summer days in Clissold Park, north London.
La Flèche Saint-Michel, Bordeaux, from a cafe on Rue Gaspard Philippe. This drawing omits the reason for its name, la flèche (arrow), by editing out the spire, which was mostly encased in scaffolding anyway.
Two views from the spectacularly situated Mirador de Lallende bar at Bulnes, high in the Picos de Europa in northern Spain. It’s at the very end of the track, on a ledge, after a drive, a subterranean funicular ride and a trek. #Bulnes
Finsbury Circus Gardens, London EC2, recently reopened after being closed for about a decade while the Elizabeth line was built.
The view from the cafe table where we ate lunch in Comillas, Cantabria, Spain. Just a glimpse of the gently rising street between the buildings. Enough.
