Had a really packed day and this afternoon Husb and I went to Swansea’s Central Library for a talk about Fanny Wollstonecraft, daughter of the 18th century feminist Mary and half sister of the author of Frankenstein, Mary Godwin-Shelley. I’d never known that she had died in Swansea, committed suicide at the age of 22. Dysfunctional families are not a new thing and Fanny’s awful upbringing was a tragedy waiting to happen. When she died, her family refused to claim her body, suicide being so scandalous, and the poor young woman was buried in a pauper’s grave in Swansea. Local historians believe her final, unmarked, resting place is in the grounds of St. Matthew’s Church. I’ve known that place all my life, it’s where some of my family are buried, but until today I didn’t know that Fanny Wollstonecraft is also there.
It’s good practice to draw groups because it can be difficult to get the figures in the correct proportions according to the perspective. It’s also good to draw a range of ages and I was particularly fond of the elderly gent immediately in front of me. It’s lovely to draw that extreme age, loads of character. I used a variety of Faber Castell Pitt pens, sizes S, F, M and B into my A5 pink recycled sari sketchbook. This was one of a series of free monthly talks on local history at Central Library.
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