Keats Garden, Hampstead: 26 November 2010

I was very excited at the prospect of drawing in the garden of Keats House. Until today I really knew nothing about him other than he was a poet who died young. I had the idea that he had drowned in the Bay of Naples but it was Shelley who drowned.

Initially I strolled around the garden while I was deciding where to work and thought this is the house of someone extremely well off. Well for a start Keats didn't own it and it turns out that he came from a humble background and had a very turbulent life with almost his entire family, including himself, dying of tuberculosis. Frankly it's amazing he managed to produce any poetry at all.

Since it was so cold today I thought I would be doing well to complete any drawing at all so for an hour I worked away with a dip pen and ink pausing occasionally to have a cup of tea from my flask. I chose to sit under an awning that provided a bit of shelter and some visual interest and here is the result.