On the 17th December 2021, I went to Maidstone Museum. It’s somewhere I have always wanted to go to for a while now, so visiting it was great and I learnt lots of new things about Maidstone and saw lots of different art which I really liked as well as different historical artefacts.

I was particularly fond of all the artworks that I saw. I was inspired by all the oil paintings of landscapes as well as the architectural sketches as I am really interested in architecture, and I love drawing it. Viewing the different drawings and paintings also allowed me to have a new outlook on Maidstone. For example, Gordon de la Moth produced an oil painting on board of the scene from Foster Street, Maidstone, from the 1970s and the tower blocks are still present. This painting was very detailed and allowed me to see Maidstone from a different perspective. I haven’t used oil paints much, but after seeing all the paintings at the museum, I have been inspired and really want to practice my oil painting skills.

Furthermore, whilst at Maidstone Museum, I also discovered an artist called William Alexander, who was born in Maidstone and created watercolour drawings. On display were a few cathedrals and churches that were produced with pencil and wash. Overall, I think his artworks were very detailed, and as I love drawing architecture, I think that I could take inspiration from him to do some of my own observational sketches.

The final part of the museum that I was especially fascinated by, was the natural history section. It contained lots of butterflies, moths, and shells which I find very pretty, so it was nice to see such a varied range of them. I think they will inspire me in the future when I am drawing as it has now given me lots of references.

Overall, I enjoyed viewing the museum, and I may go there again to spend more time in certain areas that I didn’t such as the archaeology and ancient lives as I found these places interesting as well as I learnt lots about ancient history such as jewellery and ornament