sketching in the cathedral garden…

I’ve really been enjoying the summer weather of recent days/weeks and one of the activities I’ve particularly been appreciating is sketching in the wonderful Bristol Cathedral garden.
It’s located on the south side of the Chapter House and accessed through the cloisters. It’s not particularly big, but it’s the kind of space in which you can just hunker down on a comfortable bench (I haven’t counted them, but there must be perhaps two dozen?), amid the flowers, the shrubs and the greenery and enjoy the stillness and the beauty.
This magical space seems to be something of a secret garden – despite all the summer sunshine. With the cathedral café currently closed, people seem reluctant to venture through the cloisters (which suits me fine!).
I’ve sketched in the cathedral and garden several times over the years (I’ve probably got perhaps 30 drawings?) but, this year (and with us living less than 200m from the cathedral), I’ve been dropping into the garden on a regular basis. My scribbles aren’t particularly good or technically proficient - and, clearly, there are only a limited number of sketches you can do of the cathedral’s southern façade(!)… but the major benefit is simply being ‘in the garden’ and enjoying all that it offers.
The bonus, of course (and my brother will acknowledge this!), is that someone else manages the space and I simply turn up to enjoy it!
Image: a mishmash of my cathedral garden scribbles (all but one, done over the past 2 or 3 weeks).

oneweek100people…

My friend Charlotte posted a recent link about this ‘challenge’. Essentially, it involved sketching 100 people between Monday-Friday 5-9 March… anything goes: quick scribbles to more detailed drawings; any medium; ideally, drawn ‘out on location’, but copying from postcards/photos is fine too.
So, I decided to give it a go.
From the outset (and given the time constraints, not to mention other stuff I needed to be working on), I knew it meant that my own sketches would be not much more than very rapid caricatures. In fact, I experimented in the Watershed bar one lunchtime and soon realised that my offerings needed to be limited to one-minute sketches (literally).
In order to keep things simple, I gave myself some specific ‘rules’, namely:
1.    7x4.5cm ‘picture frames’ (ten per A4 sketchbook page x 10 pages).
2.    The sketches would be very simple, ink LINE drawings only – no shading or black infilling.
3.    On completion, I would ‘colour’ (with watercolour markers) backgrounds to each sketch (limited to just three colours: red, yellow and blue).
4.    Every sketch I produced would be included in the final 100 images – NO editing or corrections allowed!

Most of the other people participating would no doubt have been entering their respective offerings on Instagram: #OneWeek100People2018 (for some reason, I can no longer update my Instagram account via my laptop… so I abandoned Instagram a few months ago).

For me, I decided that I would simply post a SINGLE image, incorporating all 100 scribbles, on my One Day Like This blog and also this blog.
The resulting sketches were hardly inspiring art(!), but I did enjoy the process AND the challenge. The vast majority of my images were indeed produced ‘on location’… most of them are VERY ordinary, lots are absolute rubbish, but perhaps a handful are quite good (well, I like them anyway). Lots simply look like pretty awful cartoon characters!
For my taste, I ended up concluding that ‘keeping it simple’ was the key.
If I did it again, I’d probably do things very differently… I don’t think the three-colour backgrounds worked very well… and my insistence on drawing ‘frames’ for every image ended up making them look a bit like those old cigarette cards (you’re probably MUCH too young!). Although restricting my sketches to very small frames simplified (and therefore speeded up) the ‘100 people’ challenge, I also think it would have been good to vary the style, size and medium (and not just heads)… Having said that, the use of ‘frames’ (as opposed to lots of random scribbles covering pages of my sketchbook) made it easier to come up with very sparse, graphic images – perhaps I should have concentrating on producing more of these?
Anyway, I’ll be fascinated to see what work other people end up producing.
PS: You'll need to click on the image to enlarge it... but it'll probably be a little blurred!

five years like this…

Well, somewhat remarkably, it’s been FIVE years since I started my ‘one day like this’ blog (setting myself a challenge of posting a daily drawing or photograph). When I first started, I had absolutely no idea of how long I might keep this daily ‘routine’ going… but it’s actually become very much a significant (albeit ‘normal’) part of my life. I still haven’t set myself any end date for the ‘challenge’… and don’t suppose I ever will. 
I started my blog very soon after returning from two months of volunteering with the Iona Community in 2012 (on that beautiful island of Iona, having met some wonderful people during the course of my stay and formed life-long friendships)… very much thanks to Ruth’s encouragement for me to send 40 postcards (which ended up being quick drawings) to various friends during the course of my stay.
Inevitably, the drawing quality has been somewhat variable (at best), but I’ve been quite pleased to have been able to produce the sketches relatively quickly – these days, the average time for each sketch has probably been 20-30 minutes (but sometimes they take 3 minutes and sometimes maybe an hour)… but I’ve really enjoyed the discipline the daily blog post has provided and the fact that I’m actually drawing on a regular basis. I’m very much a ‘project’ person and so my blog ticks a lot of boxes as far as retired life is concerned.
There’s part of me that thinks I should change from my current ‘project’… perhaps just post a daily Instagram drawing instead, for example? I did experiment with Instagram for a relatively brief period (posting stuff from my daily blog via Gramblr) but then the link packed up and I didn’t persevere. Let’s face it, I’m essentially a man of habit (with OCD tendencies!), so I suspect I’ll simply continue down my tried-and-tested road! Boringly, I quite like continuity!
I’ve produced a couple of Blurb books along the way… and perhaps I’ll produce another one in due course (maybe “2,000 days like this”? – I’m already over 1,800! – or maybe I should just wait until I’ve clocked 10,000 days!?).
PS: but it’s STILL costing me a small fortune in sketchbooks!
PPS: collection of twelve  ‘ordinary lines’ images ‘: sketches of small, incidental, ordinary ‘details’ within much bigger, equally ordinary, pictures.

 

drawing group exhibitions

If you live in or around Bristol, then I strongly recommend that you check out these two exhibitions at the historic city churches of St John on the Wall (in the crypt) in Broad Street and Saint Stephen’s in St Stephen’s Street:

St John on the Wall:

Wednesday 30 August-Monday 11 September (11.30am-2pm, Monday- Sunday). Preview/Open evening: Thursday 31 August 5.30-7.30pm.

Saint Stephen’s:

Thursday 7 September-Wednesday 20 September (9.30am-3.30pm Monday-Friday). Preview/Open evening: Thursday 7 September 5.30-7.30pm.

They will be exhibitions with a difference…

For the past 16 months or so, I’ve belonged to an amazing Drawing Group, which meets from 10.30am-12.30pm every Tuesday in either Saint Stephen’s Church (first Tuesdays in the month) or St John-on-the-Wall Church in Broad St (all other Tuesdays) to draw or write poetry or take photographs.
It’s a very lovely, welcoming and diverse collection of individuals with a wide range of artistic abilities, experience and backgrounds… led by the brilliant Charlotte and Alice Pain, wonderful artists in their own right. The exhibitions consist of sketches that group members have undertaken over the past year (we had a similar exhibition in St John’s Crypt last July/August). Some people have some drawing or photographic experience behind them (but, perhaps, have let the habit lapse?). Others have hardly previously drawn at all. For some, it’s an opportunity to experiment. For some, the group’s principal benefit is the group’s sociability.
Anyone/everyone is welcome to join and I’ve been incredibly impressed by the warmth of the welcome and its non-judgemental approach to art and creativity.
This is what Charlotte has previously written about the project and the group:
“This project is about helping the public connect to buildings and locations. It is about breathing a new breath of life into churches, bringing community back within them and exploring their uses. It’s about getting people drawing and making. It’s about a belief that creativity can help us to strengthen our voices, nurture our mental health and help us connect to each other.
From a core group of people who rarely miss a session to random visitors to the city who have long left Bristol behind them, each drawing is a moment in the life of St John’s/Saint and of the people who have walked through the doors. With the support and open-mindedness of The Churches Conservation Trust the project has flourished.
We are a diverse group of people who have developed a passion for St John’s/ Stephen’s and have spent many hours drawing, photographing and admiring these special buildings. This is not only a celebration, but an invitation to the rest of Bristol to join us”.
As you might realise, Charlotte and Alice are a bit special!

I don’t want to embarrass people by highlighting their individual talents or what they bring to the group but, hopefully, this will provide a flavour: Mike has produced more than 100 sketches over the past couple of years and his friendliness encapsulates all that the group stands for; Brian is another of those gentle, generous, welcoming people and his photographs of the churches are an inspiration; David is a simply brilliant artist (especially his watercolours!) who can draw beautifully and chat amusingly at the same time(!); Betty has been something of a revelation for me – every week, she produces her simple, intricate, beautiful sketches; Jonathan loves coming to the group – he’s industrious, friendly and with a passion for art; Jaki simply draws beautifully… and then there’s also Christine, Chris, Frances, Anne-Marie, DaveP, CharlotteM, DaveW, Justin, Jeff, Jean, Alex, Helen, Marc, Aran, Ed etc etc.     
Membership of the group is completely free so, if you fancy having an excuse to do some drawing, then why not give it a try?
Please take an opportunity to pop into the exhibitions to see examples of the work the group has produced over the past twelve months (and also to see these two beautiful Grade I Listed churches).
Photo: Artwork set out on the floor of the Crypt at St John's... selecting from the huge wealth of work produced over the past year wasn't easy!! 

question mark at bristol cathedral…

This morning, I went along to Bristol cathedral to see/hear Stefan Smart perform/recite St Mark’s Gospel. I hadn’t heard anything about this until my good friend Stuart (from our old days in Thame) sent me a facebook message.
Who’s Stefan Smart? Well, sadly, I’d never heard of him before Stuart contacted me… he’s a Christian, but he’s also an English teacher who works alongside Stuart (a Language teacher).
Stefan performed in the cathedral Nave in front of a good-sized audience (and to the amazement of some of the ‘usual’ cathedral visitors as they shuffled down the side aisles!).
It was a stunningly good morning.

I know St Mark’s Gospel pretty well, but I found the experience completely captivating… almost mesmerising (it lasted just over 90 minutes). The cathedral acoustics were perfect for Stefan’s rich tones and I found his ‘performance’ perfectly pitched – very well dramatised, but not over-acted (as I slightly feared!) and with imaginative, simple use of the single ‘prop’ (a set of steps) and the space available. A really impressive, stimulating and thought-provoking performance.

A pretty amazing feat and a wonderfully effective and appropriate prologue to Holy Week. So pleased I went!
PS: Although Stuart had sent me a message letting me know that Stefan was happy for me to take photographs of the performance, the cathedral has a large notice forbidding people to take photographs within the cathedral… at any time (which I think is absolutely barmy). In the circumstances, I didn’t want to cause any disruption, so decided to leave my camera in my bag. However, I did do a few VERY rapid scribbled sketchbook doodles (not really looking at the paper at all) – so, I’m afraid, that’s the best I can offer (see above)!!
PPS: On my way home, I was reflecting on Stefan Smart’s incredible achievement of memorising the entire Gospel of St Mark… and then remembered being in a nativity play at St Mary’s church, Thame (I had ‘volunteered’ to play one of the Kings and Stuart’s wife, Mary, somewhat predictably played the part of Mary)… I had six lines to learn (or was it four? I can’t remember!). My moment duly came and I began: “Oh Mary”… this was followed by one of the longest dramatic pauses in the entire history of nativity plays (possibly more than 30 seconds?) as I desperately tried to remember what came next…
Oh, how we laughed (eventually)! Needless to say, Stefan didn’t have ANY such moments. Oh the irony!

art projects…

It’s been a bit of a strange day… (no, rest assured, nothing to do with the Tory Party Conference!).
Today, couriers delivered the “results” of TWO art projects I’ve been working on.
One of them relates to an ongoing venture (my daily “One Day Like This” blog) and the other to a 2017 Calendar of some of my Bristol drawings (very much a one-off undertaking!).
Firstly, I organised a Blurb book to mark four years of my daily “One Day Like This” blog (since 12 September 2012, I’ve been posting one of my drawings or photographs every day). It’s purely a record, for my own reference – I made a similar book after the blog’s first year. This time, I’ve included a random collection of both drawings and photographs… but, as you can imagine (after posting more than 700 photographs and 700 drawings over the past four years!), the “final” selection represents only a very small percentage of the total output!
Secondly, I decided to put together some drawings of Bristol in the form of a calendar. This is a very speculative project, as you might imagine(!)… I hope to sell copies for £15 in perhaps three Bristol shops on the run-up to Christmas (and also to friends via facebook). I’ll post some images on facebook in due course… and will nag people incessantly until they finally give in and purchase their own highly-prized copy (obviously!).
Photo: my “Four Years Like This” Blurb book and the back page of my Calendar of drawings.

brixham drawing project...



Across from North View Steps

Fishing Boats

I was contacted by our lovely friend Tanya a couple of months ago. Over the past couple of years, she’s made very generous comments about my drawings and was now suggesting that Moira+I might like to stay at their Brixham house in exchange for some drawings of the town…

As you might imagine, it was no contest!!

Harbourside Facades



New Quay Inn, King Street

What a wonderful opportunity to spend time in a beautiful Devon fishing port - overlooking the harbourside, the marina and the rows of hillside houses (she sent us some stunning photographs taken from her property… just in case we had any doubts - we didn’t!)!

I ended up completing eight drawings in total and have, with Tanya’s agreement, posted them here in their entirely (I’d previously only posted extracts on my “one day like this” blog – double click on the individual images to enlarge).

Well, we’ve now returned from our week in Brixham and it really did prove to be a lovely time – we were very fortunate with the weather and we’d forgotten just how beautiful the town was (it was a few decades since either Moira or I had last visited!).

The views from the house’s living room windows were spectacular  – overlooking the harbour, the marina and the busy fishing fleet. It reminded us of the views from another favourite seaside upper floor living room - at Upper Saltings in St Ives (where one could happily stare out at the ocean for hours on end!). Absolutely mesmerising.

Overgang

Quay Facades

Tanya’s house was ideally located – just a three minute walk to the harbour or the marina (admittedly down lines of steep steps, but hey!) and within 10 minutes you could easily be walking along the sea wall/breakwater to the small, white lighthouse. Lots of excellent restaurants and cafés (eg. we enjoyed a very good supper at the Rockfish restaurant and an equally good breakfast at the Breakwater Café!). We also met up with our great friends Gail+Ian in Totnes and visited the National Trust’s Greenway (former summer home of Agatha Christie) – in the case of the latter, partly via steam train! Lots of excellent coastal walks too: we walked to Berry Head (30 minutes) and also beside the sea in the other direction to The Grove woodland (again, say 30 minutes).

Harbour Boats and Houses

Marina

After this very enjoyable experience, we’re now looking for more lovely friends who have properties in Venice… or Florence… or Tuscany… or the west coast of Ireland… or (as you can see, we’re not fussy!).

Life is tough.

sketchbook…

As some of you will be aware, I started my “One Day Like This” blog in September 2012 – posting a daily photograph or drawing on alternate days. Thus far, I’ve posted well over 300 drawings and 300 photographs. Until quite recently, I was producing drawings in various A4 spiral-bound sketchbooks and then ripping out individual sheets and scanning them for blog purposes. In February this year, however, I was given a smaller, A5 “hardback” sketchbook and decided that I would keep the sketchbook in tact and NOT to rip out individual pages (ie. simply scan in situ as it were).

Four months later, I’ve now used up the entire sketchbook… and I’ve found the whole process strangely liberating. The A5 format is much handier for carrying around in my shoulder bag and (perhaps encouraged by its smaller size?) I’ve found myself become far less “precious” about the resulting drawings. One of the bonuses has been that I’ve speeded up my sketching “technique” – with many of my drawings now taking me no more than 10-20 minutes to produce and far more being drawn “on the spot” rather than perhaps a combination of on-the-spot and photographs.
I’m not quite sure where to go from here (but I have been given a rather lovely A4 hardback sketchbook recently!), but I’ll certainly be continuing to post drawings on my blog every other day.
Photo: the finished sketchbook (not that you can see all 62 pages of scribbles!).

family history repeating itself?

Shortly after my father died (just over 21 years ago), we were all highly amused to find a drawer containing two tins of pens. These were labelled “good pens” and “not so good pens” respectively (or something along these lines).

Well, in a plastic wallet in my shoulder bag, I keep my various fibre-tip pens and assorted pencils. Obviously, my pens of choice (Kuretake “Writer”!) do need replacing from time to time but, because they still “work a little bit”, I’ve been loathe to discard them. So, over the past few months (in order to avoid getting the “worn” and “decent” pens mixed up), I've started marking subsequent pens with red rings… then later ones with red rings at each end… then two red rings at one end… and I’m currently using ones with one ring at one end and two at the other…
It was only then that I realised the painful similarities!
Oh dearie, dearie me… like father, like son.
PS: my family already laughs at me, so disposing with old pens before I die is the least of my worries!
Photo: a line-up of the pens out of my bag (note: the red marks fade with use!).

“drawn” exhibition at the RWA

Blimey!

It was perhaps appropriate that daughter Ruth accompanied me to last night’s private view at the Royal West of England Academy (RWA) as she was the person who effectively got me drawing again on a regular basis - as the instigator of the Iona Postcard Project last May/June (note: we’d invited great friends Ros+Eric from Thame for the weekend, so Moira was otherwise engaged).
I decided to enter a piece comprising eighteen café drawings from my sketchbook for the RWA’s “Drawn” exhibition and it's all been a bit of a roller-coaster. Ruth’s husband Stu kindly delivered the framed work last Friday 15 March (while we were on holiday); judging took place on Sunday; a couple of days later, I was notified that it had been accepted; and last night was the private view!
I was delighted to have been included amongst the 201 works from 156 artists (over 700 pieces were submitted) and was rendered almost speechless when I found that someone had actually bought it!! As if this wasn’t enough, I later discovered that I’d even been mentioned in the RWA’s press release (“Steve Broadway's work Cafe Mornings: sketchbook extracts shows quiet observations of cafe scenes drawn in black pen, embodying the lines of an architect but through the eyes of an artist”)!
The exhibition runs from today, 23 March, until 2 June.
I appreciate that all this is of minor significance when compared with artists who do this sort of thing week after week but, for me, it’s been a new and very pleasant experience!   
Photo: the evidence – my picture and the red dot!
PS: When I went to check who had purchased my drawing, the woman leading the front of house team congratulated me (as far as I could tell there had had only been one other piece sold at the time!) and said: “Steve, you used to be a teacher at Norton Hill School didn’t you?”!! She (Rose) had apparently been a student during my time there (even if I didn’t actually “teach”)… I hadn’t recognised her, but it was a lovely coincidence and very nice that she’d remembered me. 
Note: I’d also submitted my “Postcards from Iona” piece but, unfortunately, this hadn’t been selected. Shame!

early architectural heroes

Yesterday, I came across “The History ofthe Future in Ten Images” on the BBC website. Featured fifth was “Antonio Sant'Elia's futuristic cities” and featured one of the influential Italian architect Sant’Elia’s seminal, iconic architectural perspectives (left hand drawing above) which he drew for a futurist “Citta Nuova”. It might seem strange but, throughout my career, this image was a huge influence in my architectural thinking and development – not that I ever fancied designing entire cities! Somewhat frightening (for me), as I read the article, I realised the drawing was produced very nearly a HUNDRED years ago (1914)… amazing.

I’ve always held the view (and I appreciate that, these days, this is probably a minority opinion!) that architects SHOULD BE ABLE TO DRAW… and, perhaps somewhat strangely (in the eyes of many), I still maintain this view – even in this wonderful age of computer technology.
I produced a large number of architectural perspectives during the course of my architectural career – although I now probably only have records of one or two fairly insignificant ones (a cause of some regret).
Seeing the Sant’Elia (1888-1916) drawing reminded me of my other architectural perspectivist hero, Helmut Jacoby (1926-2005).
I used to get his books out of the library on an incredibly regular basis (I think our local library stocked just two of them… and that I was the only person who ever booked them out!). A typical illustration of his is shown on the right hand side of the above image.
I just googled the name and see that I could buy a used copy of “Helmut Jacoby: Master of Architectural Drawing” for a mere £1,226.29!
We all need heroes… and these were two of my mine.