Old Drawings #41

Car Park Steps (Charcoal, compressed charcoal on A2 cartridge paper)

As I'm still in Sorting Out mode, I'm not getting anything done to show you, so I may have to resort to showing Old Drawings for a while. Not such a bad thing, as we've reached the point in 1997 where I went to Newcastle University to start my BA (Hons) in Fine Art. As a result, there are quite a few drawings from that period.

The course was a four year course (rather on the model of the Scottish art colleges) and the first year was designed to bring everyone up to a similar level of ability. There were periods of drawing, sculpture and printmaking and this first exercise sent us out into town to make drawings of urban architecture, with a view to making sculpture based on the drawings.

This is the first I did.

Old Drawings

Mug with Apples (2B pencil, cartridge paper, )

Maybe it's something to do with the Summer Solstice, but I'm going through a period of retrenchment, reflecting on what's been achieved in the first half of the year, what's not been achieved, and taking stock of where I might be going as the days begin to shorten.

Some of this is due to a feeling of deflation after the work involved in putting together sufficient work for four exhibitions this year and the knowledge that there are still some outstanding issues with the last of these. Time to calm down and do some gentle thinking.

As I'm not bashing on with my painting, I decided that I'd make an effort to get my drawings photographed. It's been an interesting couple of days. Pulling out portfolios which I'd not looked at for years, meant that I found drawings dating back to my 'A' Level Art evening classes in 1971/2. Photographing them has also proven interesting, because the older drawings have come out looking like they're old.

Now that the drawings are safely stored on the Boogie Street computer, I thought it might be amusing (to me at least - you must tell me if the idea doesn't appeal) to start posting them here. Some are good, some not so good, but that doesn't matter. But how often should I post them? One a day seems too many, one a week not enough. Maybe it'll just be as and when the mood takes me, but what do you think?

I wish I'd always dated my drawings, but I'm pretty certain the drawing above is the oldest drawing I have (apart from some schoolboy work in the margins of notebooks). It must have been done in 1972, as part of those evening classes. Even then, I was obviously fascinated by extremes of light and shade.

Old Drawings #64

Tree and Rocks, Blawearie
(Charcoal on cartridge paper, 20 x 33 ins)

As those of you in the UK will be only too well aware, we're going through the Bank Holiday season, a time when nothing gets done because we're all too busy Having Fun.

In the absence of anything new to post, therefore, I'm posting what may prove to be the last of the Old Drawings series (I need to check - there may be one or two more). I need to think about how to replace this occasional series. Something called New Drawings would, in an ideal world, be a suitable replacement, but that's a series very long in the gestation it seems. I could start to post from my sporadic sketchbook drawings. What do you think? What would you like to see?

This drawing, by the way, is one of the first in what would come to be the Rock and Tree series, an ongoing project. I did it at University in 2001, I reckon, and it's taken from something seen at Blawearie. I'm rather fond of the way I simplified the forms.

Old Drawings #34

Devon Blocks (Charcoal, compressed charcoal on cartridge paper, 21 x 33 ins.)

I did some tinkering with my Tram series today, but nothing you'd be able to see in a photograph. I'm still feeling off-colour and finding it difficult to get into my work properly. So, it's back to Old Drawings again.

I came across these old concrete blocks somewhere on the Devon Coast Path in 1996. I was on holiday there for a couple of weeks and the walks along the cliffs were spectacular. The decaying concrete of an old gun emplacement was bound to attract me, so I made this drawing, but in the finished work I exaggerated the size of the blocks to make them seem almost Neolithic.

Shortly after we passed them, we were caught in the blackest, heaviest storm I've ever encountered - you can see it approaching in the distance.

Old Drawings #4

Hammer and Torch (2B pencil, A2 cartridge paper)

I finished photographing all the drawings I could find today, and it was quite a thrilling experience. I renewed acquaintance with one or two sets of drawings that represent avenues of enquiry that were cut short at University. Cut short largely due to tutors' indifference. I should have stood up for what I was interested in, I suppose, but because it's difficult to oppose indifference, I didn't, so I guess I must reluctantly share the blame.

But I'm getting ahead of myself. We'll come to those drawings in due course. Meanwhile, this is another of those careful still life drawings from around 1973, set up on card table in the living room..

Old Drawings #50

Collingwood Monument (Charcoal, compressed charcoal on A4 cartridge paper)

I seem very susceptible to the kind of cold that imparts an endless hacking cough. I collected one from Tesco just over a week ago and it's been wearing me down ever since. 24 hour coughing is very debilitating, and I've had no energy to pick up any of the threads I was working on previously, or to make a start on some new projects I have in mind.

Bear with me? There are, after all, Old Drawings to keep things going. This is another from that lonely walk in 1998 from Seaton Sluice to Tynemouth that resulted in the Seaside Shelter drawing.

Old Drawings #52

Rooftops (Charcoal and compressed charcoal on cartridge paper)

This drawing is clouded in uncertainty. I don't really remember when I did it, but this seems an appropriate point in the Old Drawings scheme of things to post it. I can't locate the dimensions of it either, although I suspect it was done on a sheet of A1 cartridge paper.

It's a drawing of the rooftops to be seen if you look over the Western side of the Tyne Bridge. Eventually, I made a painting from it, but people so rarely look over the side of the Tyne Bridge that no one knew where it was and kept asking if it might be somewhere in the Mediterranean! The painting is in a private collection, so I don't have access to a good photograph of it, I'm afraid.

Old Drawings #27

In the Hatton (Charcoal, compressed charcoal, A2 cartridge paper)

I'm still in that inevitable post-Xmas slump, but hope to get a new painting going tomorrow. Meanwhile, here's another in what must seem like an inexhaustible supply of Old Drawings. This was done at another drawing workshop, this one run by Tracey Tofield at the Hatton Gallery, again probably in 1995.

I quite liked it at the time, but now recognise that it only really works because of the dynamic "railway viaduct" sculpture in the gallery at the time. The lighting in the gallery is rotten, which may account for the interesting patterns on the ceiling.

Old Drawings #63

Car Park (Charcoal, pastel on cartridge paper, 60 x 60 cms)

I don't think I've posted this before and it does more or less fit chronologically into the series of Old Drawings, having been drawn in 2000/2001.

The underground car park shown is still there in Newcastle, but much of the superstructure was demolished or remodelled when the new City Library was built last year.

Old Drawings #31, #32 and #33

I was woken from my slumbers by the call of the lesser spotted scaffolder this morning. Can window replacement be far behind? Not far at all - Monday, in fact. I'm having all the windows at the back, including the studio window replaced with uPVC.

This intrusion of scaffolding, coupled with my first heavy cold of the winter, meant I didn't go to the Club today. This winter is seriously affecting my work production, although on the positive side, it's giving me ample time for further reflection.

So, with no new work to show you, Old Drawings steps into the breach. These are from a drawing workshop I went to (at the Art Club, as a matter of fact, before I became a member) in 1996. The one above was done using graphite sticks and white spirit on cartridge paper. An interesting method, but a smelly one, and probably not particularly good for your health.



This one was simply charcoal on cartridge paper.

And this was made with a bamboo pen dipped in Indian ink applied to cartridge paper.

Old Drawings #43

Processional Way, Civic Centre (charcoal on A2 cartridge paper)

I'm full of cold at the moment and struggling to complete my end of year accounts, so only time to post another in the Old Drawings series.

This is the third of those I did for the Drawing for Sculpture project in 1997. It's a drawing of part of the Processional Way leading into Newcastle's Civic Centre and shows an ornate bronze screen which proved a bugger to draw with wind-frozen fingers.

Old Drawings #53

Crustacean Root (Charcoal, compressed charcoal on A1 cartridge paper)

In 1999 I was doing research for my BA Dissertation on the Pembrokeshire landscapes of Graham Sutherland and in an effort to get first hand knowledge of the area that so inspired him, I took the opportunity of a stay in Swansea to go for the day to Picton Castle.

Everything I'd read told me that Sutherland had donated his considerable archive to Picton Castle in the form of the Graham and Kathleen Sutherland Foundation, so it came as a big disappointment when we got there to find that everything had been shipped off to Cardiff and the gallery space at the Castle was devoted to contemporary Welsh artists. Apparently funding for the Foundation had proved insufficient and all of Sutherland's papers, drawings, paintings had been lodged with the National Museum Wales.

But the trip wasn't wasted by any means. Before going back we had time to wander along the shores of the Eastern Cleddau where the shaly soil of the banks has fallen into the curious shapes that fascinated Sutherland and where the twisted roots of old oaks poke out into the air.

This drawing is one of three inspired by the roots of the Eastern Cleddau shore. Not done in a terribly Sutherland manner, but they are important to me. As each of them developed, accidental effects made them take on individual characteristics that the original roots didn't obviously possess. This one, for instance began to take on the look (at least to me) of some kind of lobster or other crustacean. These drawings represent an approach not yet explored but waiting for the time to be right.

Just to round this story off, I did get to see the Sutherland Archive in Cardiff. It was unbelievably thrilling to be able to sift through his sketchbooks, squared-up photographs, watercolours, prints and paintings. Definitely a trip to remember.

Old Drawings #62

In the Yard at Lemba (Charcoal, compressed charcoal on cartridge paper, 60 x 60 cms.)

As the snow continues to swirl round the lamp standard across the road, as it has done for days now, let's move back again into the swirling mists of time to the sun-drenched Cyprus College of Art, where I last talked about the curious wall there and showed you one of the drawings based on it. This is the last of those drawings, done in the studio at University and, as usual, ignored by all and sundry. I find I get increasingly cross now thinking about that, but I still like the drawing.

Old Drawings #18

Red Extractor (Pastel and marker over photocopied sketchbook drawing)

I'm getting ahead of myself with this Old Drawing, but the recent drawings of aloes reminded me of it. I drew it in pencil in an A4 sketchbook in the Sculpture Department of Newcastle University in 1999, half-way though my degree. The addition of colour came later, when I was playing around with reworking photocopies. There were, in fact, two extractors, which accounts for the extra hose.

Old Drawings #38

Hanover Street (Charcoal on cartridge paper)

I did this sometime in 1997, I reckon. It's a drawing of an old Newcastle street near the Quayside, with some fascinating old warehouses at the left.

Someone bought the warehouses years ago, probably with the intention of converting them into fashionable apartments, but then discovered that they were subject to a Grade II listing. Even worse, from their point of view, the listing applied to the inside of the buildings.

As a consequence they stood empty for a long.

Then there was a fire. Curious that, but luckily the fire didn't do too much damage.

Then a couple of years later, there was another fire. Strangely the security seems not to have been tightened sufficiently after the first fire and the second fire more or less destroyed the better half of the warehouses. Now they've been converted into fashionable apartments. So that's alright then.

You put your left leg in ...

Moa Legbone, Hancock Museum (charcoal, coloured Conte, A4 sketchbook)

At about this time every year, I begin to look forward to the end of festivities. After almost two weeks of rich food and drink, constant partying alternated with couch potatoing in front of the telly, I feel the need to get back to the routine of work in the studio and the occasional meal of beans on toast.

I miss making art. It starts to burn me up inside, but I did at least find the time over the holidays to scan in all my sketchbooks. I was pleasantly surprised to find that - scattered as they are throughout umpteen half-empty books - the images amount to much more than I'd thought. Don't worry, I'm not about to launch a new series of Old Sketches - the continuing Old Drawings series has a while to run yet. But my continuing interest in reviving the sketchbook habit has had something of a boost from this exercise.

Just after Xmas Day, Pat and I went on a fascinating walk through an old part of Newcastle which got me wishing I'd taken a sketchbook along, and I'm still thinking about the place over a week later. Maybe when the weather gets a bit more inspiring ...

Very First Sketch Book ( #1 )

Opposite Hotel Pythagorion 16.9.85 (Fine marker in A5 sketchbook)

I'm still finding a reluctance to get work done right now, but it's always been my policy to try to keep blogging through these flat patches.

Previously, I posted from my series of Old Drawings but those are all posted here now. So what I've decided to do is work my way through my sketchbooks. I've mentioned before that the sketchbook habit has evaded me over the years, but I do have quite a few sketchbooks and some of them even have drawings in them!

In 1985 I decided to try to get into the habit of sketching and bought an A5 spiral bound sketchbook to take with me on a trip to Greece. This is the first sketch I made, looking out of the window of my room at the Hotel Pythagorion in Athens. It was done quickly as I'm sure you can tell and I used a rather unsympathetic marker, but I was happy with it at the time.

I've often thought that I might use the sketch as the basis of a painting, but that hasn't happened so far.

Old Drawings #45

Drury Lane Fire Escapes (Charcoal on A2 cartridge paper)

I seem to be unable to get down to some work at the moment. I spent today with friends, looking at the Red Box and Guildhall shows, but I didn't come away with a burning need to get back in the studio, as sometimes happens.

So for now, let's carry on with the last of the Drawing for Sculpture drawings. There was one other, also done in Drury Lane (it's a lane in Newcastle, not London); a much better drawing, I believe, but one which I sold without taking a photograph of it. Foolish.

Old Drawings #5

Cheese plant (2B pencil, A2 cartridge paper)

Years pass. Pages fly from the front of the calendar. Tumbleweed blows across Boogie Street, and I do no drawing apart from cartoons (some of which are finding new life in Illustration Friday).

But now it's 1986. In a Journal I kept at the time, I wrote:

9th October 1986

The only other development has been my first session at the Cert. of Visual Studies course last Monday. I got there and hung around until the tutor, Mr T, put in an appearance. He kind of glanced at my drawings and recent Rhodes sketches and then suggested I sit down and draw something from life. There was already a big cheese plant set up so I had a go at that. After three hours I felt really into it. Wonderful feeling, and he thought it was a good drawing, too.

The problem now is that I'm not sure where I go from here. The course seems totally unstructured. I am supposed to provide my own structure, but surely that's always been my problem. Still, it's maybe a bit early to make judgements.

Old Drawings #40

Gallowgate (charcoal, compressed charcoal on cartridge paper)

This must have been one of the last drawings I did before starting my BA (Hons) course at Newcastle University in 1997. The quality of the photograph is a little compromised because the drawing was sold and is now under glass, so the image has been Photoshopped to try to remove excessive glare.

In the background of the drawing is the Newcastle Brewery, which dominated the Gallowgate area of Newcastle for many years, but which was demolished in 2008.