Performance
I love drawing people making things. For the most part you'll see that mostly the thing being made is art. My favourite drawing experiences have been documenting theatre rehearsals, recording sessions and live gigs - I get carried along on that wave of creative energy and by the music. It's not just the showbiz that gets me. When I was a kid my family worked in the music trade and I was surrounded by kit and half made guitars, so I'm interested in everything that goes into making a performance happen. That includes of course the audience. Drawing at gigs often feels a bit awkward (so I don't always draw!), but it has opened me up to so much music I'd not have heard and conversations I wouldn't have had...cheers music!
This is The Kit - Moonshine Freeze
In 2017 This Is the Kit very kindly let me spend a few days eating their biscuits and drawing the recording sessions for their new album Moonshine Freeze. I am prouder than I can tell you that some of my scribbles now accompany Kate Stables' fine pinhole photos on the vinyl edition of this beautiful album.
Bands...
... largely but not exclusively drawn in Bristol. Lots of drawings of the Fantasy Orchestra, who I've been a long time fan of and am now happy to say I occasionally warble with. If you have the chance to buy their amazing album The Bear you should do so https://www.fantasyorchestra.org/the-bear-and-other-stories/
Another biggie is El Rincon in Bedminster, such a hub forgreat music and lovely people...I am very much missing standing at the back scribbling...
Another biggie is El Rincon in Bedminster, such a hub forgreat music and lovely people...I am very much missing standing at the back scribbling...
Shakespeare at the Tobacco Factory 'King Lear' rehearsals
Waaay back now I asked Shakespeare at the Tobacco Factory if I could sit in on some rehearsals and draw, and they said yes! This was a big deal for me as quite a shy person...I worried that I or they would feel exposed by me being there but I was amazed by how much the actors and crew were happy to have me around and were interested in what I was doing - for my part I felt so priveleged to be able to watch the whole process of a production coming to being.
A New Portrait for Bath Project
In 2018 I was picked to be an Artist on the Holburne Museum's 'A New Portrait For Bath' schools engagement project http://www.holburne.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/10/A-New-Portrait-for-Bath-Project-Report-low-res.pdf.
The brief was to go and talk to students of school leaving age at Beechencliff School about their responses to Sir Thomas Lawrence's portrait of Arthur Atherley, and make a piece of art based on their responses to it.
The brief was to go and talk to students of school leaving age at Beechencliff School about their responses to Sir Thomas Lawrence's portrait of Arthur Atherley, and make a piece of art based on their responses to it.
It was a REALLY hard job, not least because I had a lot of juggling to do to get the bills paid, and I drew a blank for a fair while. In the end out of desperation as much as anything, I decided to document to submit a sketchbook, which used quotes from the students and myself from our meeting, using them in and out of context to find parallels and meaning wherever possible. I also interweaved this with the story of my own struggle to get the work done, again leading to more parallels (I found a book of Lawrence's letters, which are nearly all appeasing irate clients by saying 'you can't hurry genius, portrait's going fine but need more paint...send cash'!).
I REALLY wasn't sure what I thought of this when I submitted it, but it went down well and with hindsight it's one of the most interesting things I've done - I'd love to follow this kind of line more. The realisation isn't as I'd want it, there are loads of bits where it would have been better typeset, printed, 3D...but sketchbooks are about potential, a start... and a reminder from the past to change things up!
