Two sketches from our extended family gathering in Keswick on another wet weekend in June. The score is Sweden 2 England 3 but I think only my sister Wendy is watching.
My aunt and uncle, whose hospitality we were enjoying, own the wonderful Alhambra Cinema in Keswick.
On the wet Saturday morning they all the second cousins have the run of the place for a private screening of Cloudy with a chance of meatballs.They thought this was wonderful and helped themselves to popcorn.
I’m still fiddling with these sketches. They’re both a bit big to look good on a blog, but here are two cropped bits of ‘Waiting for the Flame’ and ‘Waiting for the Flotilla’ as a sneak preview.
We waited for half an hour and saw the torch on Bristol’s harbourside, but it was the crowds, and the feeling of gathered community, that was worth the trip.
We waited four hours on the South Bank and didn’t see a single boat in the flotilla. That was sort of worth it too.
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| Waiting for the Flame, Bristol Harbourside |
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| Waiting for the Flotilla, South Bank, London |
These pictures are for a commission for which I have already been handsomely paid with two mugs of Mrs. Brown’s excellent Earl Grey tea, a flapjack bite, and a Magnum Classic. Delicious.
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| Evie 1 |
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| Evie’s Twister Trilogy |
I’ve just heard that Roger’s parents (in Los Angeles) got their Golden Anniversary card on time – just three days after we posted it. They met on a coach tour of Italy in 1959, I think, and several letters and one more visit later he left behind his bicycle frame building and repair business in North London and went out to California to marry her. Congratulations Bob and Marie xxx
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| Laurie Burn |
Laurie, who runs the folk club at Totterdown Baptist Church has been gently nagging me to draw an illustrated logo for the club for months. He’d sent me photos but that so rarely works for me. I need not only to look at what I’m drawing but to be in the middle of it. Finally, I found a first Saturday of the month when I could spend the whole evening drawing at the club’s ‘Singaround’ night.
This was the most fantastic life drawing session for just £1. The music was great and there was this special atmosphere of affirmation – I suppose I had stepped into a tiny world that extends across several counties, where everyone knows your song and loves to hear it anyway. Everyone sang twice, three numbers the first time and just one on the second round – and my second round of drawings, done in a fraction of the time, were all the best ones.
The Saltcellar Folk Club always features floor singers and musicians but there is also a full programme of visiting acts which you can see on their website, http://www.saltcellarfolk.org.uk
Hopefully one or two of my sketches will be appearing there too!
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| From left: Jan, Jim Tigwell, David Cheffing, Ray Croll, and Douglas Hamilton |
Early in December we went to an audience with Jeff Kinney who writes Diary of a Wimpy Kid on a Saturday afternoon in Bath when there was also a rugby match and the Christmas market. As we squeezed through the bright crowds I thought I’ll come back, I’d like to produce some Christmas cards next year and there’s lots of material here.
I did get back, on my own, late on a Saturday afternoon later in the month, but the market had gone and the streets were surprisingly quiet. I like the twinkly pictures I ended up with but perhaps the people in them look just a bit lonely.
I was in a charity shop in Huddersfield just before Christmas, with Roger and my brother in law Robin. We had been ranting at length about our many plans for creative businesses, and I began to talk about sketching bands, which seems to have become a bit of a speciality for me. A man stopped me and told me his sons were in a band and I should come and see them at Th’Alma pub in Linthwaite on Boxing Day.
Well, everyone has a son in a band, but why not? Roger and I borrowed my mum’s car and drove up the Colne Valley. He was pleased to discover that Punch Drunk Soul is yet another Yorkshire/California combo (like David Hockney and Embrace) – lead singer Meredith DiMartini was born in San Diego. And then they were great. We’re assuming the band members are music students at Huddersfield University. Their instrumental skills really stood out, but even more seductive was Meredith’s heartfelt, ‘I’ve been there,’ singing. I’m hardly a music reviewer but there you are, we liked the gig. Find out more on their facebook page. Their Manager/Dad tells me this band is going places and a big record company is involved. Here’s the picture I did.
This is Bashema, another band we were lucky enough to have entertaining us at the Front Room exhibition at tbc in November. Find out more at Jelli Records, www.jelli-records.com
Here’s my sketch of Fools on the Hill playing at the Front Room Art Trail. I loved their song Windmill Hill which captured something untold about the tiny community I live in. I’m looking forward to the album. Here’s their facebook page
This is my show at the Front Room Art Trail, and I’m sketching Fools on the Hill, below. They played a wonderful song about living on Windmill Hill. Look out for my picture of them coming soon, and hopefully, one day, their album!
