Rear gunner

Supermarket check out

 

Fine line drawing, based on a number of quick sketches done on our weekly trip to the supermarket.

Unfortunately I splased it with wet ink from another "work in progress"!

The great thing about supermarkets is the opportunity to catch diffrent postures and poses, to say nothing of the interpersonal encounters: don't get that on -line!

old and young

Young child and old man: tribute to Simeon and old age

Holocaust Memorial Day

Years ago I visited the Holocaust Museum at Yad Vashem in Jerusalem. The memories and stored images in my brain overwheming. One which I see still is the cattle truck  used to transport people to the Nazi "final solution" in the death camps. It hstands on rails overhanging a chasm. I took no photos, but years later I have drawn this from memory:

 It is the road to nowhere.

post funeral debrief

This image probably isn't one to attract folk; nonetheless it 's to do with reality. It's the one sure thing in life. Perhaps much of our life is spent in denial about it. I've spent much of my working life in funerals. Why dow we draw or paint? For me it is about expresssing what I feel or think; somehow I don't really know what I think or feel until I "put it out there!" Hence this ink drawing:

Over the years I've had ample opprtunity to observe folk at funerals: the big bloke who doesn't want to show emotion, the young men who want to look macho, so wear black tie and black trousers as a concession to good taste, but ensure the shirt hangs out so they still look "cool"; the young women trying to look sexy even at an occasion such as this, the older women sometimes looking censorious or formidable, the funeral director always looking professional and present but not  involved.

"Ask not for whom the bell tolls, it tolls for thee"

Today I had to conduct the funeral service of someone whom I had known; he died of Alzheimer's.
I've done many funerals over the last 40 years: it does't get any easier;
the images below are quick sketches done today: a sort of "debrief":

Rule of St Benedict chp 4, v 47;"Day by day remind yourself that you are going to die".
Today was a sharp reminder

The wedding; the bride finally arrives!

This sepia drawing, and the previous post, "The Christening", both draw on my time as a parish priest. Observing many people in these situations I was sometimes amused, sometimes irritated, by their behaviour. I guess drawing them is a kind a kind of catharsis!

the Christening

swimmers

 

 

Swimming and swimmers

"mediocre swimmer" it says in my profile: I swim daily , frees up body mind and soul, (provided it's not too busy). It is also quite a social event, over the years I have met and got to know some interesting people. For someone like myself who likes to draw and paint it can present quite a challenge, testing observational skills and those observations have to be remembered, jotted down in the privacy of the changing cubicle, and then used later: here are some:

as ireached the end of the lane, she turend, to avoid the splash I was making: an interesting view,
but it didn't quite catch it; for one thing, the lady in question was Filippino
so I tried another:

this got more of the angle and the hair, but I smudged the ink across the mouth ( I love using nib pen loaded with sepia ink).

 

 

He is a friend of mine, I chattedto him whilst he was changing in his cubicle; he is ver fast swimmer and triathlon man, and also a very accomplished artist. Ii's not a good facial likeness but the pose is about right.

 

 

This is his brother waiting for the pool gate to be opened, (06:30) a fine liner A6 based on an an earlier quick sketch.





 

 

Let's hear it for the poolside team! Pen lines and colour wash on mountboard.

 

 

 

 

all shapes and sizes attend! pen line and ink wash.

 

 

some quick notes.





Water for wine!

girls carrying water

I needed an image of girls or women carrying water, to illustrate  the scene in the Gospel of John where water is turned into wine at the wedding at Cana in Galilee. I've enver heard anyone make  much reference to the sheer hard work of fetching water from the well and filling six containers each holding thirty gallons. That's a lot of water and a lot of wine! I once met a young woman from Zaire who described what it was like being the water carrier for the family, and the diseases you can get from it! So I found an image on the Internet and turned the African girls into more Middle Easten ones: the expressions on their faces just emerged as I drew it!
sepia ink, nib pen on mountboard 6.5 x 6.5 ins

PORTRAITS

fine liner on A6

pencil on A6

 

 

 

 

sepia ink and nib pen on mountboard

 

 

 

 

 

 

fine liner on the left, sketching pen on the right A6



winter colours

David Hockney last year had a major exhibition showing his IPad art recording the changing seasons in Yorkshire. His winter colours seemed vivid; but at least it got me to look more carefully at the colours in winter. It seesm when people are motivated to draw or paint winter scenes they often produce snow and frost scenes. To be honest, most of the UK experiences winter as a time of dul lgrey and wet, so the real task from Hockey is to learn to see what colours are there in the gloom and grey: here are 3 attempts:

a street lamp behind winter hedge and foliage, not far from a hsopital unit in which I worked

same place: different tree!

this little car is parked over the road in which i live, it's the stripes and bin which are the only noteworthy colours on a grey day!

 

Shopping: not my favourite activity, but............ if I've got a sketch book and pen with me, I'm happy. We stopped for lunch in small cafe caleed "Smile"; good food and lots of folk to draw: below some quick sketches