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To What Extent Does Where We Live Effect What We Paint?
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Posted
Fascinating Lew ,love your very vivid description of your shop. Memories ,you are so right and like you I have plenty . Reading your comment I can understand how the detail evolves in your drawings it’s all there, tucked away.
Maybe we should set up a challenge based on a memory. Not using photographs , not sitting in front of objects or landscapes but digging into our own reservoir of past happenings. Lovely Syd would have enjoyed it. He even beat you and me on the aged front.
Any thoughts ? Even you younger beings have memories. Challenge ...go on “do it “.
Posted
Cracking, and obviously very lucid memories Lew. I can see the little lad looking in the shop window now. You’ve reminded me of the little sweet shop we were allowed to stop at after church on a Sunday morning for our weekly sweets.
My dad was a heating and ventilating engineer and used to bring home large rolled up plans of buildings he was working on, when they were finished with, and that’s what I used to draw on- the reverse of the plans. I drew endless people and it was lovely quality paper (no landscapes there!).
In high school I was desperate to go to art college and my parents encouraged me. I did go to Cardiff art college for the foundation course but it wasn’t really what I had hoped for. I had plans for book illustration and portrait painting, but they weren’t into anything of that kind. Also I didn’t do A levels and had a year to fill before I could go onto the degree course so joined the civil service, largely forgot about art, and got on with life.
Talking of painting childhood memories, Ian has posted some wonderful paintings of just that recently. Not sure if he used photos?
Memories eh? The thought of actually painting from childhood out of the head would be very challenging ! Hmmm...
Posted
Having recently gorged myself on memories with my 'growing up' pics, I can't run to another painting...but here's a quick sketch of me meeting my wife for the first time. So I guess it's really HER memory.
I met my wife at a dance, this is what she tells everybody I'm supposed to have said this to her during our first dance. I don't remember it...seems an unlikely thing to say to a girl you've just met. Amazingly, it didn't put her off. She insists it's what I said. I do remember this...at these dances I promised myself I'd NEVER say 'do you come here often.' So maybe it's true.
More memory/nostalgia pointers....
Check out the padded shoulders...the quiff (somewhat spoilt by my regulation short back and sides)...the girls wore DRESSES in those days!!! Another thing I remember, that I haven't shown, is my cardboard handkerchief. These went in the breast pocket of your jacket. Cardboard with a frill of white cotton sewn along the top...a fake handkerchief...smart, but useless for blowing your nose.
Who says romance is dead???
I met my wife at a dance, this is what she tells everybody I'm supposed to have said this to her during our first dance. I don't remember it...seems an unlikely thing to say to a girl you've just met. Amazingly, it didn't put her off. She insists it's what I said. I do remember this...at these dances I promised myself I'd NEVER say 'do you come here often.' So maybe it's true.
More memory/nostalgia pointers....
Check out the padded shoulders...the quiff (somewhat spoilt by my regulation short back and sides)...the girls wore DRESSES in those days!!! Another thing I remember, that I haven't shown, is my cardboard handkerchief. These went in the breast pocket of your jacket. Cardboard with a frill of white cotton sewn along the top...a fake handkerchief...smart, but useless for blowing your nose.
Who says romance is dead??? 
Posted
I can happily say the place I grew up, the county I live in and its people, remain a constant muse and source of inspiration. The Dukeries area, Clumber, Thoresby, Rufford, Sherwood Forest, are still the main haunts for my sketchbook days out. When a student in Liverpool, that also became my subject for a while, and kindled an interest in urban subjects which stayed with me to where I live now.
I think to make art from things one has never experienced or seen is fakery. Hence, I have no patience with paintings / drawings copied from wildlife books of animals / birds, etc., or similar mundanities. Harsh?
In my opinion copy work requires only patience and practise. I think Art must be self-expression from personal experience. So yes, Tessa, what I paint / draw / write about, is 100% effected by where I’ve lived. (Good question).
Posted
It makes me wish I had started painting decades ago, having visited and lived in some fantastic places throughout my life.
I was brought up in Scotland and still love to go there occasionally to capture some of the scenery I took for granted in my younger days. Australia was also my home for nearly 17 years but again before starting painting so never took advantage of the diversity. In fact I’m in Australia at the moment, getting away from the cold and rain for a couple of months, and trying to make amends for the years lost in gathering sketches to keep me busy through the winter back home in Norfolk.
Living in Norfolk, now, I don’t want to get sucked in by the ‘twee’ paintings I often come across - Cley Mill, Morston Quay, etc. However, it’s an ideal area to get outside and do some PleinAir painting (once it warms up a bit 😉).
There is a lot of scenes I would like to paint and they generally involve places I have lived or visited. They are the places that leave a lasting impression on me.