Month: May 2015

Gesso, charcoal, pastel and acrylic on The Courier and Evening Telegraph. 28/5/2015

Friday morning. It was supposed to be warm. It wasn’t .The wind was blowing my paper across the road, so having retrieved it I decided on a bus shelter, to use the walls to stick my paper on to, and draw what was in front of me. People were standing waiting for their bus and looking over my shoulder, quietly watching while I drew. I would stop every now and then and chat. These are some of the things we discussed –

Playing cribbie, knitted toys, the rubbish bus service, dementia, seeing a ferret at the burn, visiting family and friends, garden centres, nearly getting into art college, photography and darkrooms, community picnics, working late shifts on the buses, living back at home, the weather and losing someone you love.

I think perhaps a series of bus shelter work might develop, maybe bigger and more dangerous in scale ?!! There are a lot of bus shelters to get round, a whole lot more drawing and stories……

Children with fishing nets, the smell of wild garlic. Drawing the limbs of a tree.

Pink campion,

orange tipped butterflies,

yellow rattle,

liqourice black tadpoles,

sky blue.

The cherry trees at Drumgeith.

Sitting on my wee camping stool by the burn. Dogs sniffing, pheasants screeching, leaves bristling. Man standing next to me reading the paper in dark sunglasses, doesn’t know I am there. Yellow broom in flower. Man with an anchor tattoo. Woman with a scottie dog. Cyclists, joggers, ….’nice day for it’…., pins and needles, hogweed, comfrey, conversations about photographs, family, dog fouling, DC Thompsons, artists in Dundee, tree planting. The sound of the water, apologies from dog owners , sore back, small birds flying through the willow branches and warm sun on my neck.

A memory of sea….

Street and cctv camera. Buses braking at the junction, wind in the trees,’Cheerio’, mobile phones, coughing, ‘Are you drawing’ ?,smell of cut grass, ripping of paper as the wind catches, tearing of tape to stick paper together, laughter, car doors slamming, litter rustling along the fence, ‘Aye, see you later’…,seagulls, pushchairs, bluebells, rain, sighing, squeaky trainers,someone reading a cutting from a newspaper and placing it carefully back in a wallet, pencil on paper, shopping bags, hair blowing in my face, police siren.

St Vincents primary school, Monday morning. Blizzards of pink cherry blossom.

Rain coming and going. Sat in the bus shelter and talked to lots of people about the burn.Two women told me of a boy in their class who had drowned and another who told me she and her friends would play in the ruined cottages in Linlathen. Another said she lived in a tenement in town and loved the view of the back green and the washing lines.She said she hadn’t been anywhere very far, and hadn’t seen most of Dundee, perhaps she ought to, she said.

Gesso, charcoal and pencil on newsprint – 7th may 2015