Very First Sketchbook #16

Tangier House, 1990 (Fine point marker and felt pen in A5 sketchbook)

On a whim, and as a result of an offer from my Union, I decided to spend a week in Morocco early in 1990.. This drawing, the only one in the sketchbook although there are others on loose paper,was done from the window of our hotel looking across the street.

By 1990 I'd started to do a painting course with the Open College of the Arts and in the seasonal break we'd been tasked with doing a painting for the next session. I made this painting from my sketch, backed up with photographs:

Tangier 1990 (Acrylic on board, 24 x 36 ins)

This was the biggest painting I'd done so far and I was quite pleased with it, so I was hoping for a bit of praise when I took it to the next OCA tutorial. The tutor looked briefly at it then, without a word, passed quickly on to a her favourite pupil and spent the night extolling the value of his work. That was the beginning of my realisation that  simply occupying the position of  tutor does not make you a good one.