They were the true journalists, parked out on the streets in any weather, always wearing the same ‘plumage’ of the gaberdine mac and flat hat. Their call was unintelligible to most, but generally horse racing-related, with an ability to keep a small Wild Woodbine stuck and still alight throughout their shouted calls. Unlikly to be seen at all these days. Continue reading Newspaperman
Well in the last heatwave it was me. Nothing culinary, but I was ‘as boiled as a cup of tea ’, as my grandson said. He was right, and I needed several cups of the amber nectar to cool me down. What is it with heatwaves that people suddenly think that a cup of tea won’t refresh your thirst? After all, it comes from India, where they are used to this sort of weather. And as for cooking, it didn’t happen much. No wonder the Spanish don’t open restaurants till after the sun has gone down. It surprises me that … Continue reading What’s cooking?
The last two postings were paintings; this is more in my comfort zone. For the interested, this is drawn on layout paper, then the half tone applied with charcoal or pastel. In the old days I would have coloured it with a Magic Marker, those heady pens that probably did me no good whatsoever, but these days I drop the colour on in Affinity software ( it’s free and a bit like Adobe Photoshop, but Adobe is eye-wateringly expensive, so I’ve gone for this new software: yet another learning curve ) The drawing was done some time ago, and I’m … Continue reading Is this me watching the football on Monday? No,I’ll be asleep…
You may be familiar with the scenario: your child is drawing and painting, with the regulation tongue sticking out towards the nose and deep in concentration. The work looks brilliant; if you leave it, he or she will overwork it, and it will become ‘not the work it was’. You’d like to whip it away, but that might light the blue touchpaper for a mini meltdown from the artist and end with a right Jackson Pollock. I’m sort of at that stage with most of my own paintings. I’m not sure of the direction to go, and there’s no such … Continue reading Finished? No, just started.
It is in Derbyshire and is one of my recent paintings, based on a photograph taken some years ago. Did you know there’s a small factory in Tideswell that manufactures bone dust. True! Continue reading Tideswell
A couple of roughs for a poem written by a writer friend. I was thinking of him in a waistcoat and a flying scarf in the top one, and then made him look more like a Stalinist Bee in the second. I’ve been painting too and am not sure which I should be doing: daft little doodles or attempts at abstract landscapes. A heady mix of both. Why not? Continue reading Squadron Leader B Bumble and the Stingers, should I be doing this?
The eccentric: Actually, there was more than one. I worked as a print rep for a large printing company starting when I was a mere 58. It was my first proper job since my erstwhile career in the world of cartoons and illustration; it made a refreshing change from working alone and trying to get on top of the new digital age, without a great deal of success. And it was regular money and paid holidays- what’s not to like? My remit at the company was to sell print, simple. I knew a bit about print but was about to … Continue reading A Map of Peru?
When I was ar art school way back when things were in simple black and white, colour television not long invented, one of the lads in my group thought art history was artistry. One can be forgiven for thinking that not much has changed in art or football. Here’s a recent exchange by pundits before the game between France and Holland So Alan can you just sum up what you think of this French team then Well, Monet and his fellow PSG teammate Manet are a real handful, clever and tricky in this impressive forward lineup, linking in with Van … Continue reading Football artistry, or should that be Art History?
First published on here 9 years ago, I make no apologies for recycling this. Back then it was state of the art football watching kit, all you would need to enjoy the game at home. Also back then, drawn some years before 2017 with magic marker and chalk pastel colouring, something I no longer use. The vapour those old markers gave off not being desperately healthy, but boy were they quick. I will be watching the games, from the comfort of my chair, again this time. Hope all you that enjoy football enjoy the competition as much as I intend … Continue reading All you need for the footy.
Looking at the date on this, the original drawing was done in 2020. It was drawn from a photograph in pen and ink, then run through a couple of computer programmes. The line drawing was re-traced in Illustrator and then the final line work had colour dropped on it in Photoshop. Since doing all this I’ve gone back to basics and am now just drawing and painting, no fancy retrace ( which in some ways sucks the immediacy out of the drawing ) and no more Adobe Illustrator and Photoshop, I’ve ditched them too. When I found this the other … Continue reading Cynthia’s Shed
In my Facebook outline it asks where you are from. I put Wigan, but I could have put in three places in Wigan: Lower Ince, Ashton in Makerfield and Standish. My father was a policeman, and on each promotion, of which he had a lot, he was moved to a different location. My parents did not own a house until after his retirement; all of our houses were police properties. They got progressively smarter as he rose up the greasy pole. Ashton in Makerfield was in the middle, a detached house on a relatively new estate, so he’d been promoted … Continue reading Ashton in Makerfield : beware of the dogs.
I was a big lad as friendly northern people who knew me described me, but looking back at early photos not as big as I thought I was. Less than friendly people called me entirely different names, which I laughed off but it hurt. Settling in London after my college years, I persuaded myself that I should lose some weight. The incentive was a woman who bet me I couldn’t. ( Woman? Girl? Which is it, we were in our early 20s and ‘girl’ sounds too young and woman too old, she wasn’t a lady! ) She worked in the … Continue reading The Pork Pie Diet
Paul Davies Cartoons & stuff 