Husb and I popped down to the city centre yesterday evening to the anti-racism rally. There were a lot of police around, several police cars and a large police van. And about 100 genteel people dressed for the heavy, muggy drizzle (of course, it’s Britain) in duffel coats and kagouls, holding soggy placards and listening politely to speakers with a noisy megaphone. A nice bit of overtime for the local bobbies, makes a change from policing the drunken mayhem in the city centre at weekends. The police were fingering something on their shoulders, I think it was their radios but I’m not sure.
I drew into my steampunk leather-bound sketchbook onto paper I’d prepared with my homemade walnut ink using Faber Castell Pitt drawing pens.
I am putting my series of drawings of ancient Welsh monuments on Artfinder. If you want to see more, please click on the image below or the Artfinder link at the top right of this page.
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I love this.
Thanks Neil. That’s as much as I could do before the drizzle made the paper too damp. I’ll have to carry pencils in future.
I meant to say more but it was late. However, the whole idea chimes with me, being out on a protest being participant but also observer and commentator through the drawing. And, as always, your skill shows, here bringing out a kind of narrative in a single frame.
Thanks Neil. It was a gift, with those two officers standing at the top of the steps and the demonstrators down below. It’s surprising to see such a heavy police presence for a small provincial gathering. Someone’s getting twitchy.
I’ve often mused on the moral dilemmas and crises of courage I imagined faced people as Europe descended into fascism and holocaust. Perhaps it did not feel like that at the time and the outcome was literally unimaginable. For many, for those cushioned by privilege, the time to make a stand was never now. Now I wonder whether this is what we are now living through. Can we continue to live as we have done?
I think the majority of people are untouched by it all, the creeping rise in racism, the insidious increase in discrimination against and hatred for the disabled are things that a minority see and experience. We have such better communications now, a chance to confront people with what’s going on. But that doesn’t mean they care though. ..