Grainger Market Sketch Crawl

No.82, Grainger Market

(0.5 marker over two pages of A5 sketchbook)

Last Wednesday, as part of Bardon Mike's Grainger Market Arts Residency project, 28 artists were in the Market frantically drawing things, and I was one of them.

I had to wait for a very large man with a can of pop to vacate the seat outside The Weighhouse that I'd used the week before, but I was keen to complete the drawing of  the clothes shop at No.82. For a while I thought he was there for the day, but eventually I was able to sit down and finish drawing the left hand page of the sketchbook. I tried to show the nice lady in the shop what I'd done, but she was on the phone again and just waved.

Hunters Deli, Grainger Market

(0.5 marker in A5 sketchbook)

After lunch, I found myself sitting next to another sketcher whose name I failed to learn (sorry!) on a bench opposite Hunters Deli. I'd looked at this subject earlier while waiting for the man with the can of pop to move and had discounted it as being a bit boring, but moving to the other end of the bench gave me a different perspective - I was taken with the sausages and bearing in mind my Mam used to do some part time work for Hunters (a Gateshead branch) when I was little, I decided to immortalise the sausages, jars of jam and Maysan curry packets.

I hadn't intended to attempt the assistants behind the counter but for a moment one of them hovered in front of me and I shoved her in. later the other woman stood at the phone for a little while, so she got caught up in it too. When they asked to see the drawings, one of them said "You haven't got all my chins in!"

My Dad's Diary : Sun 12th October 1947

"Mr & Mrs Brownlee & Ken sick with food poisoning.

Did lots of digging in No.52 garden.

Fine weather continues."

"Mr & Mrs Brownlee" were my Mam's parents who lived in the flat above us with her younger brother Ken. I have no memory of my maternal grandad, but I'm fairly sure this is us together in the backyard. To the best of my knowledge, no one ended up buried in No.52 garden.

The "fine weather" was actually the hottest summer on record for 300 years.

My Dad's Diary : Mon 21st July 1947

"[1st WEEK HOLIDAY]

Dull today with light rain.

Lily & Ken arrived with baby."

That's Aunty Lily, Uncle Ken and Little Ken. Names in the family could be confusing, so we used to refer to Big Ken (Mam's brother-in-law), Young Ken (Mam's younger brother) and Little Ken (my cousin).

My Dad's Diary : Wed 15th January 1947

"Emergency Committee meeting re - Canteen Committee.

Doris got sack of coke.

Filled football pool in."

I think by then Dad was working for the Ministry of National Insirance as a Paper Keeper, having come back from India to find that his job at a furniture shop hadn't been kept for him as was promised.

Oddly, this is the first mention in the diary of my Mam, Doris.