TOR3: Bar Humbug, Monk Bar, York. Prints derived from my original Drawing.

Want 2 £15 Prints for £25 Click Here for the offer

Or 4 £5 Prints for £15 Click Here for the offer

This picture was drawn as part of a secret project which I can’t tell you about just yet but soon…

Monk Bar is one of the city's ancient gateways, in olden days the heads of criminals were placed on the bars to warn against bad behaviour. Monk Bar is adorned by some pretty vicious looking gargoyles with large boulders in hand ready to batter those that are not allowed to enter. Most of them at the time of building would have been Scotts, it is said that a local bylaw still permits those born within the city walls the right to shoot Scotts with a crossbow! This may be down to a certain Mr Wallace, who unlike Mel Gibson tells us didn’t actually sack the city of York. He did however captured Nobels in Northumbria who he tried to get the leader of York to come and negotiate their release… I don’t think many survived these negotiations, and the leader of York was not daft enough to turn up. These days we welcome everyone to the city even the Scotts!

Under the right archway of Monk Bar is my favourite childhood shop, Monk Bar Model shop. The dioramas of train tracks and buildings were always in the window and a joy to look at. The Bar itself is said to contain a working portcullis.

Here we see the Bar bathed in sunlight in the early morning with a red classic VW Beatle driving out of the city. High above in the sky flys hot air balloons, some red and one just looks like a humbug.

Lucy my black cat hides in this and most of my other York pictures. Have you found Lucy?

The original sketch is done in graphite pencil, matt pencil and Faber Castell polychromos pencil.

The Original of this Drawing Is Available, and prints in various sizes and formats are also available, all paper prints are Giclée prints and here are the options:

24 x 30cm mounted print Cream mount, image area approx 15 x 20cm.

30 x 40cm mounted print Cream mount, image area 19 x 29cm.

40 x 50cm Large mounted print Cream mount, image area 26 x 36cm

ORIGINAL drawing on cotton mounted in a Snow White 40 x 50cm mount, image area 30 x 40 cm