Rock On

    The Minx, The Soup Kitchen, Manchester

 I've been out sketching regularly with two different groups and I've noticed that not a lot of figure drawing goes on. Probably because the human form is the most difficult of subject matter and can ruin a precious sketchbook if we fail (I just stick some paper on top).

But- and this is especially for the urban sketchers among us- our towns and cities wouldn't exist without 'people to people them'.

To redress any imbalance in my own work, I've worn sackcloth and ashes and beat myself with a bunch of nettles, by choosing to sketch at music gigs.

The first's at the Brudenell Social Club in Leeds on a Thursday After a wait in the bar, noting down the colourful local language in my book....

I'm well served in the venue itself by having a view from a raised area, with chair and a shelf in front of me for materials. I've forgotten my small water jar, but the dregs of my beer make a good substitute.
 

       Leeds 6 All-Stars

When the lights go down I can see very little of my sketchbook, but realise it's a ready-made excuse for any failure. And this freedom produces a lively set of drawings which I mightn't have otherwise achieved.

    The Three Johns

..Saturday and we're on to the next gig- at The Soup Kitchen in Manchester. The venue's in a dank, dark basement hung with wires and pipes. There's just one table and two chairs in the place and when the bands come on, I'm too small to see anything, even stood up so I stand on a chair with my back to the wall to draw in fountain pen, adding wash and colour at the table after.

Next time I'll ask for a seat at the side of the stage.

     The Gull Wings

Thursday again, and we're at the Miners Community Arts and Music Centre, Moston, Manchester, where there's a benefit gig to help pay for heating to be installed. I meet the affable Stuart Maconie who's there with other folk from Salford's Media City. 

By the dance floor. Moston

It's a bit dark for it, but with a seat in the second row and an easy view I draw singer-songwriter Jesca Hoop. What a nice lady, she wants to pose with my picture afterwards!

And what have I learned? To be less precious, to go with the flow of circumstances, to respond individually different subject matter, to stand (and sketch) in the gloom , on a chair, after a couple of beers.       

From Urban Sketch to Urban Paintings

Out and About and Inside In

Life's been so hectic with work to finish for my solo show at Salford Museum and Art Gallery.

 It opens on 23rd March and we're in the throes of invites, press, publicity, framing, pricing, and catering for the private view on the Friday evening. Help!!

I've made time, however, for some urban sketching (often with Manchester School of Art Urban sketchers) which will form part of the show... it's on until early July and during this time I'll be out and about drawing Salford and Manchester.

I'd like to Tweet where I am on these days, too, so people can come and see what I'm doing. Not that they usually need any encouragement!

 It's my way of bringing art to the people, the ones who mightn't usually set foot in a gallery, and it's an important side of urban sketching which shouldn't be overlooked.

 

At the same time I'll encourage them to have a look at the exhibition- and dispel any preconceptions that the artist is a recluse producing unfathomable works which are removed from any reality.

Well, that's the idea anyway- they might just see me as some mad old bag whittering on about unconsequentialities! 

Let The Sun Shine, Let the Sun Shine.

Manchester's renowned for rain, but at the second gathering of the new Urban Sketching Group, it's a mild and sunny afternoon..

We meet inside The Exchange- it's the old Corn Exchange building transformed into a theatre.
We can't stay and sketch inside here today as there's a performance on, and, anyway, it's far to nice not to take advantage.

Outside, in St. Anne's Square, they're setting up fake Hansel-and-Gretalesque cabins for the Christmas Market and there are a few stone benches to sit on for those who have no fear of piles.

I settle down to sketch.. two German ladies are surrounded by heaps of boxes, they're arranging it with decorative wooden hangy-things, which in my ignorance I imagine are called Volkjulebilderplakken or somesuch.
 
As time and I draw on, their stall fills up with goods, dusk falls and the lights in the cabin shine out.

When I count up afterwards, we sketchers number around nineteen- such a good turn-out!
We lay our sketchbooks at the foot of the War Memorial- there's a lovely diversity of        
styles and subject matter.


 Well done to all, and especially to Simone for starting the group!

 

 

 

 

 

In The Company of Sketchers

We aren't an official Urban Sketchers group yet, but as Urban Sketcher for Manchester, I was kindly invited by tutor Simone Ridyard to the first meeting of sketchers from Manchester School of Art.

http://www.facebook.com/?ref=tn_tnmn#!/groups/321316664634124/

There was a good turn out- around twenty folk showed up- in front of the smart new Business School building, and we actually had sunshine for the afternoon, a rare event for Manchester!
I sat in the little park opposite the famous music emporium called Johnny Roadhouse and drew the rather scruffy shops.. tattoos, tarots, massage, fast food..


Everyone was SO keen and it was like magic, when after a couple of hours we had a lovely collection of sketchbook drawings which hadn't been there before.
 That's the beauty of creation!

Catching Up

Drawing By the River, Avenham Park, Preston

It's been a while, hasn't it, since my last blog? I'll try and remember what's been happening.
A search through my sketchbooks should give me some clues!
Here's a picture, above, of Avenham Park in Preston, it's where myself and Mr Price met up with other Preston Sketchers.
As is this one of Morrisons Supermarket.

More Reasons to Sketch at Morrisons..

And we also met at Worden Park in Leyland and sheltered from the rain in the one place we could, condemned to draw what was in front of us, or the person next to us, which is what Messrs Price and Heath often do anyway!

Worden Park, Leyland

I seem to have spent a lot of time in hospitals, this one's when I was waiting in the out-patients..

Waiting Room, Cardio-respiratory Department, Royal Preston Hospital

And here's my dear old Mum who I found slumped at her home after a heart attack - thankfully she's making a good recovery.

Mum Asleep in Chorley Hospital

I've done a lot of bus travel and enjoyed drawing out of the windows,

"..And in Five Minutes It Was Out Here!"

 and listening to snippets of conversation.

Ta Love on the Bus to Preston

I've travelled by Virgin train (this sketch has got to be be worth a fortune now!)

The Train from Preston to Euston

to London Town

The Shard, London

 for the Olympics!

The Olympic Stadium  3rd August 2012

Good times were spent in Brittany.

The Beach at Pen-Guen

But now I'm back, doing things like sketching at the museum in Preston,

The Poulton Elk, Harris Museum, Preston

sometimes venturing over the border to Yorkshire..

Bridestones, Todmorden

 and, in the studio, catching up with the artworks for my exhibition next year.

The Mill That Lowry Drew, Pendlebury

Meeting Myself Coming Backwards

The Eagle and Child from the Parish Churchyard, Leyland.

Once upon a very long time ago I joyfully left my hometown in the grim North-West, to go to art college.   

I'd found little inspiration in the place; I hated its non-descript houses, its cultural shortfalls, the drab council estate where I lived.. and  I especially despised the ugly Gasworks in the centre of town.

The Gasworks

 Over the years of separation, my feelings have mellowed, through indifference towards a grudging acceptance and a present re-appraisal. For many years my heart sank at the sight of the Gasworks. It's gone now, and there's a Macdonald's where it stood. Which still makes my heart sink- I'd much rather have the Gasworks, it'd make a great painting!

Some of my favourites are still here, however. There's the lovely park, the weird 'new' 1960's Catholic Church  ( "a thought-provoking treasure-trove of post-war religious architecture, art and design"), the Eagle and Child pub by the parish churchyard, the surrounding rich countryside of the Lancashire plains, and the ever-present distant hills.

But a huge new Tesco store dominates the prettiest, oldest part of town, imposing its huge car park onto the ancient crossroads and making mockery of thousands of years of history.. "Are we at the airport?" asks my grandson.

 I'm living on the outskirts of town, where the flatlands reach to the sea, and the feeling is one of space, light and distance. It's a big vegetable growing area- and farms stand out against the horizon. Towards the Ribble estuary and the sea are the villages my ancestors came from on Mum's side of the family, where they were mariners and farmers.

Great Uncle Captain Matthew Sutton Iddon

 To the south-west is the village where Dad's ancestors were innkeepers in the 1700s; to the North is Preston where they were cotton workers and 'tripe- dressers'. (they sewed  little frocks and trousers for it, haha!)

Tripe-dressers for the Guild 1922 advert

There are great views from all the windows of my house- well, my kind of views, which might involve sheds!

The river's nearby, too, with walks along it and intimate views of pretty gardens leading down to the water's edge. 

Across the River Lostock

So much has changed, even since we left for France.  Bus travel, central heating... shops that have moved or gone completely. Dodgy areas of town have become almost respectable; fields are now housing estates; the big car-building plants of  Leyland Motors have been razed to make way for Argos, Morrisons and Homebase.

 A boy I last met when he was ten is now a bloke with a kid, library books are no longer stamped and my 'card' is now plastic.. my postman is hatless, shaven-headed with shorts and an earring. Where's his uniform and cap, can I really trust him??

 What do I do with four dustbins, when and where, front of the house or back?
 'The Rates' are known as Council Tax and water is a Utility (I always thought it was useful), but why is the Electricity called the Gas?
 
 

From the Bus