I am often fascinated by how the landscape changes over a period of time. The Sandonia in Stafford has recently seen some dramatic changes after builders started to knock down some of the walls but then stopped, leaving it in a semi demolished state. This opened up the side of the structure revealing some of the interior, which I found interesting. I have just completed a new pencil drawing of the view from one of the sides and tried out a number of techniques to capture the gritty textures on the walls and ground.
As always, my interest in this kind of scene is the way nature takes over the places we abandon. In addition there’s the history side of it where people have memories of how the place used to be. The building has been used for various things over the years, finishing off as a snooker hall towards the end of its life. I remember playing snooker there once as a teenager with friends. At the moment I’m not sure whether the place will be fully demolished or restored once again.
You can view the drawing in the Abandoned Spaces section of this website.