Sketching My Way Round NYC #1…the disabled man in Grand Central.

  I’ve been to New York City a few times and it’s a great place for drawing people. One of my favourite places is Grand Central Station. There’s a large Dining Concourse with a beautifully painted ceiling and little stalls around the edge selling all sorts of food – Middle Eastern, Jewish, Italian, Chinese, Indian,Continue reading “Sketching My Way Round NYC #1…the disabled man in Grand Central.”

Bauhaus and the Bates Motel in New Jersey

A couple of years ago I was lucky enough to visit friends based at the Princeton University Institute of Advanced Studies in the USA. I was expecting New Jersey to be a cross between a Bruce Springsteen song and The Sopranos but I had a surprise because it was beautiful. The university campus is anContinue reading “Bauhaus and the Bates Motel in New Jersey”

Babysitting the Art at Bus Stop Cinema

I volunteer regularly to babysit exhibitions at Elysium Gallery and it’s a chance to catch up on admin on the laptop like cataloguing photos and writing artist statements. This week it’s Bus Stop Cinema, featuring 13 films from international artists, an eclectic mix of art, drama, animation and parody. It’s fun babysitting in the darkContinue reading “Babysitting the Art at Bus Stop Cinema”

The Duke’s Legs Akimbo in Brighton

  Taking a break for a few days in Brighton, we went to see The Guard, hilariously funny film, at The Duke of York’s Picturehouse. It’s an independent cinema built in 1910 in a rather over-the-top Victorian style; one of those buildings that looks like a wedding cake, all white and stuccoed and covered withContinue reading “The Duke’s Legs Akimbo in Brighton”

Hot Rods, Velocettes and The Yellow Submarine.

  We’re having a few days away on the English South coast in a very typical small seaside town with some friends and this very sunny morning we wandered down to a field by the seafront to a festival of vintage and custom motorbikes and cars, with leather-clad bikers, heavy rock bands and ………. theContinue reading “Hot Rods, Velocettes and The Yellow Submarine.”

Cats in My Sketchbook

  I think that cats are good for drawing practice as they’re surprisingly difficult to draw. I’m so used to using the human body as a subject that cats are a completely alien lifeform when it comes to scribbling; not only do they have different skeletons which work in strange ways, like knees that bendContinue reading “Cats in My Sketchbook”

A hunky male model and electrocuting fleas.

  I fancied doing some life drawing but it wasn’t life drawing group night so I borrowed Melvyn’s childhood Action Man, set up a floodlight and posed the little chap on a stool while I did this ink drawing of him. Best model I ever had – didn’t move a muscle. He’s got really bigContinue reading “A hunky male model and electrocuting fleas.”