Using photos, sketches and memories I try compose something to capture the atmosphere of what I witnessed. I have never witnessed it from this angle, the characters don’t face the canal and there have never been people sitting on a narrow boat roof, but it captures a feel. This event triggered memories of my Grandad, that were included in the Family Stories pages.
This one is based on a whole collection of old photos from the 1970’s, non of which looked vaguely like this.
The dancers are from a photo outside the Star in Lockwood. Huddersfield. When they dance in Pateley Bridge, they actually dance in front of a pub to the left of this view.
Each year White Rose Morris and guests dance on Castle Hill in Huddersfield, at dawn on May 1st. While Hexadaisy Morris existed and Ruth was with them, Ruth and the others danced too.
This one is somewhat prescient. I wanted to contrast the enormous range of colour you can get from books with the more limited view on the television. Even with the huge range of channels, streaming services, YouTube and other services, books are still really important, to me at least, even if they are now electronic.
The back of a house we lived in in the 1980’s. The neighbourhood kids gathered to play Hide and Seek. I just drew the scene from memory. There seemed to be some confusion about the name of the game.
Finally one that both works and doesn’t. I think I did this originally using Oil Pastels, which I disliked more and more as I worked. Instead of starting again, I put it aside, hoping the pastels would have dried. They never really did. Later I reworked it with acrylics on top of the original, several times, and have never been satisfied with it. It does capture a time and place.
