Totterdown Baptist Church

Front Room 2012

Ruth
Totterdown Baptism

Really enjoyed Front Room this year. The weather was good, we had just the right number of artists in the Salt Cellar at Totterdown Baptist Church, and some lovely music. I didn’t get out much and when I did I headed to Stevens Crescent which is what I always end up doing. It’s always worth it just for Susan Black’s subtle and moving greyscale paintings of old photos, but I also loved standing in the middle of a room full of Darren Hoskins’ powerful pastel cityscapes. Don’t know how he gets that energy from photos. Somehow he can store what he’s seen in his head.

I’ve been trying to draw from the balcony in Totterdown Baptist Church for years. I was thrilled when the picture above appeared in my sketchbook, it’s the nearest I’ve got to capturing the energy of worship in that space.

Saltcellar Folk Club

Ruth
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!

From left: Jan, Jim Tigwell, David Cheffing, Ray Croll, and Douglas Hamilton