My Dad's Diary : Mon 30th June 1947

"Grand day.

Bus strike continues.

Tandem let me down - punctures."

My Dad's Diary : Sun 29th June 1947

"Garden in morning.

Back wheel of tandem blew out.

Out with Doris and Baby. Mother's at night."

So: no public transport, no bike, no tandem.

My Dad's Diary : Sat 28th June 1947

"Grand day.

Went to Town with Doris and Baby."

My Dad's Diary : Fri 27th June 1947

"Bus strike continues.

also Gateshead trams.

Submitted application for Est. Board."

The application was for him to be made an Established Civil Servant.

My Dad's Diary : Thur 26th June 1947

"Bus strike continues.

Still using tandem.

Out with Doris and Baby."

My Dad's Diary : Wed 25th June 1947

"Grand day for Plate.

[Bubrain?] won.

Strike continues.

Gateshead trams on strike."

The Northumberland Plate was run on a Wednesday then. I can't make out the name of the winner.

My Dad's Diary : Tues 24th June 1947

"Bicycle laid up - using tandem.

Showery : rained all evening."

My Dad's Diary : Mon 23rd June 1947

"Dull morning.

Submitted Exam appln. to S/E."

My Dad's Diary : Sun 22nd June 1947

"Fine but dull.

Park in afternoon.

Mother's at night."

My Dad's Diary : Sat 21st June 1947

"Rained all afternoon.

Bus strike started."

From Commercial Motor Archive:

"NORTHERN COMPANY WORKERS STRIKE

UNOFFICIAL strikes broke out last Saturday among company bus operatives in 10 counties in the North and parts of the Midlands. Some men staged one-day stoppages, others withdrew labour for the week-end and some groups started indefinite strikes. In certain instances, routes were curtailed because operatives who remained at work refused to enter areas where strikes were in progress."

In addition to the municipal bus service, Gateshead was served by the Northern Bus Company, operating mainly across the Tyne and into Northumberland, and by the United Bus Company which ran into Co. Durham. For getting to Newcastle we relied mainly on Northern for bus travel.

My Dad's Diary : Fri 20th June 1947

"Light rain.

Garden at night."

My Dad's Diary : Thur 19th June 1947

"Dull day."

Repair Work

WIP
(Acrylic on canvas, 12 x 12 in)

This is the painting I started a fortnight ago, before running into obvious problems with perspective due to some faulty reference material. After painting out the errors in perspective and some further repainting, this is where I am with this one now. 

Here's how it looked before:

My Dad's Diary : Wed 18th June 1947

"Dull day."

Sketch Crawl : Mouth of the Ouseburn

Ouseburn Barrage
(Mixed media in A4 sketchbook)

Time to catch up on our most recent Sketch Crawl - Saturday, 10th June at the mouth of the Ouseburn.

The weather was unkind yet again, refusing to maintain the decent sunny spell of the days leading up to the Sketch Crawl and offering instead some light rain. As a consequence, last minute changes were made to the meeting point and when I got to The Cycle Hub, rather than the Tyne Bar, there was Allan sitting outside, but under cover, drawing a view of the bridges up the Tyne.

In the Hub cafe were Mike and Richard, half way through a breakfast coffee, so I joined them and did a bit of catching up.

After a while the rain moved away, so we set about getting down on paper what we could in the time before more arrived. There was a set of huge green floats in the Ouseburn that really took my fancy and would have made quite a simple subject, but without turning my sketchbook sideways I couldn't find a composition. And yes, some people would just turn their sketchbook sideways, but not me.

The Barrage presented a much more intriguing but potentially more demanding subject and it wasn't long after starting it that I began to think I'd bitten off more than I could chew. And yet ... it all started to come together when first I added some colour with brush pens, then seated in the shelter of the viaduct used coloured pencils to force it to work. The watercolour was added at home to finally make me happy with it.

Next time : 29th July is WorldWide SketchCrawl Day, so I think we'll be aiming to join in that. Stay tuned.

My Dad's Diary : Tues 17th June 1947

"Dull day.

Warm night.

Went to garden with Doris."

My Dad's Diary : Mon 16th June 1947

"Dull day.

Coal arrived.

Harry weighs 15 lbs."

Eye Opener

Archie Dunbar McIntosh RSW

Lanark 
(Acrylic on board, 58.5 x 56 cm)

Pat and I made a special trip to Edinburgh yesterday to see the Archie Dunbar McIntosh exhibition at the Open Eye. There's always a good welcome at the gallery and the paintings were terrific. I've always liked his work, but now that I'm experimenting with acrylics it was particularly rewarding to get up close to it. I was conscious of what a great range of greys he employs, as well as his little personal symbols. Well worth the trip.

And as an added bonus, I had a wonderful lime and ginger scone at another of our favourite Edinburgh stopping points, Bon Papillon, before coming home.

My Dad's Diary : Sun 15th June 1947

"Garden in morning.

Raining.

Went to Mother's at night."

My Dad's Diary : Sat 14th June 1947

"Raining today.

Varnished passage and front door."

My Dad's Diary : Fri 13th June 1947

"Put in    1 doz cabbage.
             1 doz Greyhound cabbage.
             1 doz everlasting flowers."

My Dad's Diary : Thur 12th June 1947

"Fine day.

Garden at night."

My Dad's Diary : Wed 11th June 1947

"Fair day.

Doctor says Harry OK.

Finished off front passage."

My Dad's Diary : Tues 10th June 1947

"Wet morning.

Most of night at garden."

My Dad's Diary : Mon 9th June 1947

"Fine sunny morning.

Stayed in at night painting.

Harry has German Measles."

At least I didn't have distemper.

Sketch Crawl Saturday

(Photo: https://losingit.me.uk/2011/07/)

Our next North East Sketch Crawl is not far away! We will be meeting on Saturday 10th June to draw around the Ouseburn valley, Newcastle, meeting at the Tyne Bar at 1.00pm. For anyone coming by public transport, the Q3 bus runs along the Quayside right to the Tyne Bar and can be caught near the Monument Metro station. 

Later, we'll probably have coffee at the Cycle Hub.

Hope to see you there!

My Dad's Diary : Sun 8th June 1947

"Windy and showery.

Suspect Harry has measles, but he seems fine.

Out with Ronnie at night."

My Dad's Diary : Sat 7th June 1947

"Anniversary Father's death (1 yr).

Distempered front bedroom.

Harry develops spots."

My Dad's Diary : Thur 5th June 1947

"Bright morning."

Which is more than can be said for the same (rainy) day in 2017.

Friday at the Club

WIP (Acrylic on canvas, 12 x 12 in)

For reasons which will become apparent in the fullness of time, I can't say much about this painting that I started at Gateshead Art Society on Friday afternoon. 

What I can say is that due to the quality of the photographs I collaged together to make the subject and the fact that I was working at a forty-five degree angle rather than having the canvas upright on an easel, I've ended up with a perspective that is woefully awry.

I suspect the height of the main structure is as shown on the left of the painting and that I've exaggerated the right hand side. Mr Google has provided me with some additional photographic reference and after I've studied it, I'll start correcting the faults. It shouldn't be difficult, but I've always been my worst critic and so can't help being annoyed with myself.

I'll probably post some of the stages of the corrective work, if you think it might be of interest.

More Sketchbook Circle Pages

These are the latest pages in my Sketchbook Circle sketchbook 2017. The first three show additions I made to Gwen's pages, the rest are those I've started or completed alone. Materials used were Posca Pens, watercolour, acrylic ink, patterned parcel tape, washi tape, magazine cuttings, wrapping paper, paper bags, simple printmaking, postage stamps, sheet music, black brush pen, and various adhesive shapes.

My Dad's Diary : Wed 4th June 1947

"Dull day.

Garden at night - put sweet pea net up."

My Dad's Diary : Tues 3rd June 1947

"Dull today. 

Fitted new cotters to bike. Garden at night - put runner bean net up.

Rained."

My Dad's Diary : Mon 2nd June 1947

"Fine warm morning.

Went to Greenesfield House for Welcome Home Fund ... -15/= & certificate."

At the end of the War, Welcome Home Funds were set up round the country to give financial help to returning servicemen. I suspect my Dad wasn't terribly impressed with 15 shillings and a certificate.

My Dad's Diary : Wed 2nd Jul7 1947

"Fine morning.

Took Lennie back to Town on tandem.

Took Ken to garden at night.

Mother had arm attended to."

A couple of mysteries: I don't know who Lennie was, nor what had happened to Gran's arm.

My Dad's Diary : Sun 1st June 1947

"Very warm.

Terrific thunderstorm pm.

Mother's at night."