I want to encourage you further in your drawing despite the arthritis and attendant pains the come with that. I retired at 75 yo - ten years ago - and decided to move, in part, to a missed life, and took up the cello having never played any instrument before in my life. I quickly discovered the cello, like many instruments, can come with pain. Arthritis in the hands and cello are a challenging combination. But I wanted that new life very much and I have persisted. If Django Reinhardt could play guitar with three fingers, I could play cello with arthritic old hands. And I learned, with the help of my teachers, that however it was that I would figure out to play, it would be a valid way. You may draw in a different manner than you did in the past but it is you, your mind, your life, your soul drawing albeit with different hands - you - in a slightly different version of the universe you lived in previously. I was probably never going to to sound like Rostoprovich anyway- no matter what age and level of my personal physical ability I had started at. So..I am me now...it's good enough to satisfy what I wanted and needed to be finally a musician.
I am so moved by your reply, thank you very much. Arthritis is a wretched business. My physio told me that many experience the changes to the joints, but remain completely without pain, sadly for both of us that seems not to be the case. I am taking every possible supplement and no joy yet!
I love the cello, and play Bach's cello suites constantly. I am so glad that you didn't allow arthritis to deter you and who wants to sound like Rostoprovich when you can sound like Abe?
I refuse to give in and am very glad you feel the same. There have been days when I have been furious, but that gets me nowhere and lift is just too short.
So I applaud you and wish I could hear that cello. Thank you again for such kindness.
Just wonderful Deborah and such a fascinating angle, also inspiring for those like me who perhaps feel they can’t draw/paint but who can still keep a record/journal/sketchbook. I love the way you’ve adapted to those changes in your ability too. It’s a tough lesson when hands start to ‘go’.
Talking of women artists and sketch books…we rescued some by a local artist of the 1930’s from a market stall. We’d already picked up a few of her paintings so the sketchbooks really added to that. What saddens me most is that nothing is really made of her memory locally; just a few of us keeping the flame alight.
I fear that is the case with so many artists and I am delighted that you managed to save her sketchbooks. They are such preious things and tell us so much about the finished work. So many did their best work in them (and hence they are dismantled and sold) because there is no presuure in them. If it goes wrong you just turn the page and start again! Thank you very much for reading it.
Dudley, you have made my day! I nearly didn't put them in nad I am glad I was brave and did. They are so differerent for me, but I am really enjoying doing them. Thank you very much.
Wasn't Summerwater brilliant? I have loved all her books and I am looking forward to the one just out. Apparently Channel 4 are making a film of Summerwater, but it isn't clear when it will be released yet.
Doesn't it just. A new carpet must be got as there is no hiding it! I am so pleased you liked the drawings, I felt very nervous showing them, as they are so different, but I am enjoying pen and ink , apart from the obvious draw back!
"I decided that there was little point in lamenting what was lost and that instead I should embrace the lack of control. Using a dip pen, a brush and a pot of black ink, I opened a new sketchbook, sat in my garden and began again."
I so appreciate you and your blog and am greatly inspired, thoroughly enjoying seeing the many sketchbooks today. Having a mild stroke on the last day of March this year, only my non-dominant left hand was affected but I had been drawing with that hand exclusively for the previous two years. Although I can't hold a pen or pencil as before, I've developed some workarounds with that hand and am delighted with the results. I've not utilized sketchbooks before but have been making a simple drawing daily of a ceramic cat for a little over a month now.
I am so sorry to hear that. What I have learned is that it has allowed me to draw in a way that is less inhibited. The lack of control can work in our favour as it makes us commit quickly and that helps us be more fluent. By also drawing with your non-dominant hand ( a technique that is often used for starting drawing) helps us access the creative side to our brain. But, of course, it is hugely frustrating, when you want to do something and it is not possible.
Keep going, and use a sketchbook, it feels much less precious and, as you have already found, the results can be surprising.
Thank you very much for your lovely, supportive comment, it was so heartening to read and I wish you the very best with your art.
Your new drawings are wonderful, Deborah—sorry about the rug blots—and I loved this post. So many interesting rabbit holes to go down. I may spend the rest of the week exploring them. Thank you!
What a wonderful post, and so interesting about the sketchbooks. I absolutely love your ink drawings, they are really effective - and I do admire you for keeping on going despite all the difficulties. What a shame about the carpet! Light coloured carpets do seem to attract accidents - years ago my mum had a new cream carpet in the living room and the very next day she dropped a full teapot on it - it was never the same again, and had to have a rug put over the top of the enormous stain!
Thank you very much, Amy. I am really enjoying them and who knows where they will lead.
After scrubbing at the carpet for some while, I realized that no matter what I did, it wasn't going to go away! Sadly a rug would cover the blot, but not the footsteps all across the room!😂
I like the new drawings too, and it's great that you're exploring new ways to "make your mark", and not falling into despondency and inertia. Bodies are amazing things but can be so disruptive when they're not doing what you expect them to and you have got used to! Shame about the carpet!!
I confess that there are times when I am furious at the changes, and how it has happened so quickly, but I am also very aware that I really need to make best use of the time so I really need to accept it and do what I can, when I can. I am so glad you like them.
The carpet is oatmeal, so you can imagine the impact...
Another feast for mind and eye, so much in here Deborah. Your new work is beautiful despite the limits on your capacity to draw,thanks for sharing new pages. So much resonates,but will pick up re your ref to Penelope Lively & Golsoncott (edge of Brendons hills,not far from here,Bridgwater)- imagine you know her aunt,Rachel Reckitt was an artist. Would make for an absorbing newsletter piece -Museum of Somerset (Taunton)did retrospective last autumn,including sculptural work in iron&wood.Again working in 'obscurity'but a powerful artist &woman, & key figure in PL's life, thanks Deborah
Thank you very much, Jo. I only know of Rachel Reckitts in relation to Penelope Lively and she is certainly someone I would love to investigate. I have seen just a few pieces of her work - there seems little online, but I will look at the Museum of Somerset and see where that leads. Thank you.
I am so pleased you like the work. It is quite a departure but I quite like the fact that I don't have much control as it stops me fussing!
The loose drawings in ink are wonderful— so sorry to hear about the ink spill, though. The dearth of women’s sketchbooks to be found is perhaps not surprising, but it’s disheartening, while every scrap of contemporary male artists is treated as museum- and collection-worthy. Thank you for sharing this research and what you’ve found.
I am glad you like the drawings - that is so heartening!
I just hadn't registered how few women's sketchbooks are available to be seen, and, as you say, there is no shortage of the same from male artists. It is very frustrating.
I thought as I was writing it how Francis Bacon's entire studio was taken and replicated exactly and Henry Moore's...I can't think of a female equivalent, with the exception of Barbara Hepworth.
What a fascinating read Deborah, your detailed research is to be commended, I really enjoy your posts and thank you for the trip down memory lane. I remember watching when the boat comes in as a child in the 70’s and I started singing the theme song in my head x
I might have a version if it exists I as have lots of North East & Northumberland Vinyl Albums. I log them but not the Tracks.
The one person who will definitely know is My Favourite Folk Singer ( Don't tell the Others ) Rachel Unthank of The Unthanks & will sing you a version herself.
I bought two vinyl albums on Saturday and featured on my Blog
Cleadon Library - Beuk O'The Daze -Thursday 26th June 2025
-
The American Cowboy Square Dance Book
Jimmy Classin, Carl Hertzag
( It's a Ruse to attract our Cousins Overseas - Rest are Scottish Country Dances )
Hoping for a response from the Songs below and the one I feature in my Signature below
Other ( Fellow ) Poet's Thoughts :-
-
Hotspur Harry / Three Lions Might
Other ( Fellow ) Poet's Thoughts :-
-
Odin's Daughter / Norse God's Wrath
INTERESTING POINT :-
If you View my Blog you will see the Album other than Come Scottish Dancing
SIDE ONE TRACK ONE
Arranged by A Butterworth OP55
Notes mention commonly known as " When the boats come in " - Not Proper Title.
A jolly tune to keep the children quiet - the verses portray a family of alcohol addicts and it is well that the child is too young to understand the words
Recording BBC Radio Newcastle
Engineers Don Gill and John Moore
Chief Secretary at the time WW Maddison ( To the Choir which my next door neighbour when young Mr L R belonged -Mr L R Lecturer in Steam Turbine Technology at Marine & Tech - Probably knew James Mitchell )
-
I'll add the correct Song title to my Blog later ( I had Over 178,000 Views on SLinked-In in Two Years until Barred by " The English Teacher-Sir " Now CEO XTC-QC out of Petty Spite - Now I get exited over One TRUE View or comment )
-
I never watched it but my nephew Loved it and I knew a Wardrobe lad from my village - Byker Grove - Over the River . Ant & Dec started here I believe ?
Boys from the Black Stuff - Alan Bleasdale possibly set Liverpool . Kes - Ken Loach film - Make you Weep - I have a brother like his. Any Ken Loach film he did one few years go Very Famous about Life on the Dole.
Called " I , Danial Blake " just checked - Not Seen. " Old Oak " more recent - Migrants living in Easington possibly ?? .
Best Ever Film Documentary Style / Semi-Autobiographical about Miners Strike and Sea Coal. Chri Killip photographer.
I Loved it and can still see Scenes in my mind. I'll just research as I have notes from another blog but I have Huge Excel File. Laing Art Gallery sell his Photography Books . It will come to me but it's early and I must see to mother's Meds.
Just checked it is called " Seacoal " Channel 4 ( 1985) .
Check out Amber Film and Photography collective. Went to showing on Shipyards recently at Washington Arts Centre.
Another of my Favourites - Pete Postlethwaite starred in film where he is a Contractor painting Electricity Pylons and hooks up with much younger woman ( Obviously ) whom he gives a painting job.
Think he starred in Brassed Off with Ewan MacGregor.
Obviously " Auf Weidersehen Pet "
Get Carter.
-
Final Point
The Unthanks email on website - They are one group who reply genuinely to All correspondence.
I sent 1641 Beggin' Song Rewritten for 2020 to All Folk Acts I followed and paid Vast Amounts to see Live. £800 for Three day trips to London.
-
Other ( Fellow ) Poet's Thoughts :-
-
Lockdown in Camden Town/Why Graft when you have the Craft
-
Stick in the Wheel & The Young Uns reacted " Disgracefully " ( So hilarious ) but Adrian McNally - Rachel's husband and main Music expert wrote a very lengthy reply detailing why selling " Limited edition " merch extras ( And they raised £40k in Covid ) wasn't Beggin' .
I researched Rachel's song about Isabella Coke Ovens as requested at gig - Who Isabella was ? ( Wife of Director of Coal Mine Company but need Volume Two of Book on Coal Mining for more detail . )
Think they are touring soon. Go on Unthanks Singing Weekend and Rachel will definitely Sing your request there I presume !!!
I wouldn’t guess your lovely drawings are the work of an artist with arthritis. Keep going! My father, also an artist with arthritis, adapted his style as you are doing. When he couldn’t hold a brush, he used a palette knife, creating beautiful work in his last years. Thank you for the sketchbooks—yours and theirs.
Rona, that is so heartening to hear, thank you. Finding a different approach has made such a difference rather than trying to do something that just highlighted my inability. Thank you for reading it and your kind words x
This post is such a treasure trove. Hepworth's notes were fascinating and your sketches are lovely! I also loved Summerwater and fondly remember When the Boat Comes In from my childhood.
Dear Deborah, thank you for another great piece. I have trouble writing a comment because (as I invariably read these posts when I am on my own) I talk to them directly (often out loud). I think that my brain believes that I’ve already done a reply when of course I haven’t! 😂
Sketchbooks are wonderful, beautiful, fascinating things. I love to see them, the sketchbooks of David Hockney, Henry Moore, etc. The sketchbooks of Evelyn Dunbar are a happy survival, when so much of women artists work simply vanishes (both sketchbooks and art). It is an interesting area to pursue. I began to keep a sketchbook following my recuperation from my first bout of Rheumatoid Arthritis and quickly began to both number the book and to write a date of when I did what. They are not brilliant (to say the least) but they are precious to me because as you state they contain your life. My early ones often feature fellow train travellers to and from work, or people waiting for trains. One of the joys of Wakefield Westgate train station were the young dance students from the nearby Capa College - it was not unlike the ‘kids from Fame’(1980s television!) and trying to capture their constant movement was fun but challenging.
I was so sorry to hear about the situation with your hands but cheered (out loud) when I read about your way forward and then marvelled at the beautiful of your new work. I am so glad that you braved showing it to your readers. It reminds me a bit of John Piper’s work. I love it ! Please keep us all posted with your continuing progress.
Reading matter - I have just purchased Voyaging Out (wonderful Minstergate Bookshop, York) and am hoping that this ends my own dry reading spell.
Many thanks once again Deborah for your posts and also to all the people who leave such lovely interesting comments. ❤️
Thank you, Ruth, I know exactly what you mean about thinking you have replied!
When you keep a sketchbook for yourself, you are free to draw whatever you like and the outcome matters much less than the process. It cements what you see too. I love the thought of you surreptitiously drawing your fellow travellers and the dance students - I now have the theme tune running round my head!
I am glad you like the drawings. I love John PIper and have been playing about with his collages this week, which are fascinating. There is a lovely film of him from an old South Bank Show and he was such a dear man, quite unlike his rather severe appearance.
I hope you enjoy Voyaging Out. I have read alot of disappointing books of late which is why I returned to some trusted favourites! x
How fascinating to see such different approaches to sketching in the work of the artists you featured here! I also wanted to say how beautiful your ink drawings are - the blot was unfortunate, but perhaps could be seen as part of the path of creativity...
I think that is a very good way to look at it! Thank you very much, I am so pleased you liked the drawings, and will keep going, but definitely outdoors now!
I am so sorry about your hands. That sounds awful in so many ways. But Deborah, your new work, with them, is wonderful! Like others writing here I am so glad to have seen it, and hope very much that you will share more of it, if you are willing. I would actively look forward to seeing it.
Am I alone in thinking that inky footsteps on a studio floor is wonderfully romantic? I rather like the idea of a permanent mark like that. I don’t paint, but I write using fountain pens, and there is a large inky blot on one of my favorite duvet covers, from writing in bed many years ago with a pen that suddenly began to leak. When I unpacked that duvet cover after many years the blot brought such a sense of memory and, oddly, connection and continuity. [Apologies — on reread, it’s a living room floor, not a studio floor. Oh no. But even so, there is something romantic about an ink blot made by an artist at work, at least if one is only picturing it.)
On women artists’s sketchbooks, I wonder if the holdings of the Skissernas museum (“The Sketch museum” in English) might be worth exploring?
I want to encourage you further in your drawing despite the arthritis and attendant pains the come with that. I retired at 75 yo - ten years ago - and decided to move, in part, to a missed life, and took up the cello having never played any instrument before in my life. I quickly discovered the cello, like many instruments, can come with pain. Arthritis in the hands and cello are a challenging combination. But I wanted that new life very much and I have persisted. If Django Reinhardt could play guitar with three fingers, I could play cello with arthritic old hands. And I learned, with the help of my teachers, that however it was that I would figure out to play, it would be a valid way. You may draw in a different manner than you did in the past but it is you, your mind, your life, your soul drawing albeit with different hands - you - in a slightly different version of the universe you lived in previously. I was probably never going to to sound like Rostoprovich anyway- no matter what age and level of my personal physical ability I had started at. So..I am me now...it's good enough to satisfy what I wanted and needed to be finally a musician.
I am so moved by your reply, thank you very much. Arthritis is a wretched business. My physio told me that many experience the changes to the joints, but remain completely without pain, sadly for both of us that seems not to be the case. I am taking every possible supplement and no joy yet!
I love the cello, and play Bach's cello suites constantly. I am so glad that you didn't allow arthritis to deter you and who wants to sound like Rostoprovich when you can sound like Abe?
I refuse to give in and am very glad you feel the same. There have been days when I have been furious, but that gets me nowhere and lift is just too short.
So I applaud you and wish I could hear that cello. Thank you again for such kindness.
Just wonderful Deborah and such a fascinating angle, also inspiring for those like me who perhaps feel they can’t draw/paint but who can still keep a record/journal/sketchbook. I love the way you’ve adapted to those changes in your ability too. It’s a tough lesson when hands start to ‘go’.
Talking of women artists and sketch books…we rescued some by a local artist of the 1930’s from a market stall. We’d already picked up a few of her paintings so the sketchbooks really added to that. What saddens me most is that nothing is really made of her memory locally; just a few of us keeping the flame alight.
I fear that is the case with so many artists and I am delighted that you managed to save her sketchbooks. They are such preious things and tell us so much about the finished work. So many did their best work in them (and hence they are dismantled and sold) because there is no presuure in them. If it goes wrong you just turn the page and start again! Thank you very much for reading it.
Your ink drawings are stunning. I love the way you mass the darks and lights, and the delicacy of the thin lines.
Dudley, you have made my day! I nearly didn't put them in nad I am glad I was brave and did. They are so differerent for me, but I am really enjoying doing them. Thank you very much.
Life changes every part of us. I love your ink drawings. I would still be swearing heavily at the blot on the carpet. I loved Summerwater.
Such a lovely full post!
Wasn't Summerwater brilliant? I have loved all her books and I am looking forward to the one just out. Apparently Channel 4 are making a film of Summerwater, but it isn't clear when it will be released yet.
Doesn't it just. A new carpet must be got as there is no hiding it! I am so pleased you liked the drawings, I felt very nervous showing them, as they are so different, but I am enjoying pen and ink , apart from the obvious draw back!
Exactly what I was going to say, June! A lovely read, Deborah, and I love Sarah Moss’s novels.
Thank you very much, Wendy! I don't understand why her novels are never up for prizes.
Good point!
"I decided that there was little point in lamenting what was lost and that instead I should embrace the lack of control. Using a dip pen, a brush and a pot of black ink, I opened a new sketchbook, sat in my garden and began again."
I so appreciate you and your blog and am greatly inspired, thoroughly enjoying seeing the many sketchbooks today. Having a mild stroke on the last day of March this year, only my non-dominant left hand was affected but I had been drawing with that hand exclusively for the previous two years. Although I can't hold a pen or pencil as before, I've developed some workarounds with that hand and am delighted with the results. I've not utilized sketchbooks before but have been making a simple drawing daily of a ceramic cat for a little over a month now.
Thank you, Deborah!
I am so sorry to hear that. What I have learned is that it has allowed me to draw in a way that is less inhibited. The lack of control can work in our favour as it makes us commit quickly and that helps us be more fluent. By also drawing with your non-dominant hand ( a technique that is often used for starting drawing) helps us access the creative side to our brain. But, of course, it is hugely frustrating, when you want to do something and it is not possible.
Keep going, and use a sketchbook, it feels much less precious and, as you have already found, the results can be surprising.
Thank you very much for your lovely, supportive comment, it was so heartening to read and I wish you the very best with your art.
Your new drawings are wonderful, Deborah—sorry about the rug blots—and I loved this post. So many interesting rabbit holes to go down. I may spend the rest of the week exploring them. Thank you!
Thank you very much, that is so heartening to hear. Enjoy the rabbit holes, there are lots to discover!
What a wonderful post, and so interesting about the sketchbooks. I absolutely love your ink drawings, they are really effective - and I do admire you for keeping on going despite all the difficulties. What a shame about the carpet! Light coloured carpets do seem to attract accidents - years ago my mum had a new cream carpet in the living room and the very next day she dropped a full teapot on it - it was never the same again, and had to have a rug put over the top of the enormous stain!
Thank you very much, Amy. I am really enjoying them and who knows where they will lead.
After scrubbing at the carpet for some while, I realized that no matter what I did, it wasn't going to go away! Sadly a rug would cover the blot, but not the footsteps all across the room!😂
I like the new drawings too, and it's great that you're exploring new ways to "make your mark", and not falling into despondency and inertia. Bodies are amazing things but can be so disruptive when they're not doing what you expect them to and you have got used to! Shame about the carpet!!
I confess that there are times when I am furious at the changes, and how it has happened so quickly, but I am also very aware that I really need to make best use of the time so I really need to accept it and do what I can, when I can. I am so glad you like them.
The carpet is oatmeal, so you can imagine the impact...
Another feast for mind and eye, so much in here Deborah. Your new work is beautiful despite the limits on your capacity to draw,thanks for sharing new pages. So much resonates,but will pick up re your ref to Penelope Lively & Golsoncott (edge of Brendons hills,not far from here,Bridgwater)- imagine you know her aunt,Rachel Reckitt was an artist. Would make for an absorbing newsletter piece -Museum of Somerset (Taunton)did retrospective last autumn,including sculptural work in iron&wood.Again working in 'obscurity'but a powerful artist &woman, & key figure in PL's life, thanks Deborah
Thank you very much, Jo. I only know of Rachel Reckitts in relation to Penelope Lively and she is certainly someone I would love to investigate. I have seen just a few pieces of her work - there seems little online, but I will look at the Museum of Somerset and see where that leads. Thank you.
I am so pleased you like the work. It is quite a departure but I quite like the fact that I don't have much control as it stops me fussing!
The loose drawings in ink are wonderful— so sorry to hear about the ink spill, though. The dearth of women’s sketchbooks to be found is perhaps not surprising, but it’s disheartening, while every scrap of contemporary male artists is treated as museum- and collection-worthy. Thank you for sharing this research and what you’ve found.
I am glad you like the drawings - that is so heartening!
I just hadn't registered how few women's sketchbooks are available to be seen, and, as you say, there is no shortage of the same from male artists. It is very frustrating.
I thought as I was writing it how Francis Bacon's entire studio was taken and replicated exactly and Henry Moore's...I can't think of a female equivalent, with the exception of Barbara Hepworth.
What a fascinating read Deborah, your detailed research is to be commended, I really enjoy your posts and thank you for the trip down memory lane. I remember watching when the boat comes in as a child in the 70’s and I started singing the theme song in my head x
That theme tune! You have started it playing in my mind all over again!
I found it so frustrating that there are not examples to be found, as there must be some. Thank you very much for reading it x
In my mind too! Bet it will be there all evening now.
It is still going!
Deborah Vass
I might have a version if it exists I as have lots of North East & Northumberland Vinyl Albums. I log them but not the Tracks.
The one person who will definitely know is My Favourite Folk Singer ( Don't tell the Others ) Rachel Unthank of The Unthanks & will sing you a version herself.
Ivar Gabot
Philosopher Pauper and a Poet.
I would love to hear her sing it! Even after 51 episodes I never tired of it and the lyrics perfectly mirror the trajectory of the plot.
Deborah Vass
-
You Will NOT Believe this but :-
I bought two vinyl albums on Saturday and featured on my Blog
Cleadon Library - Beuk O'The Daze -Thursday 26th June 2025
-
The American Cowboy Square Dance Book
Jimmy Classin, Carl Hertzag
( It's a Ruse to attract our Cousins Overseas - Rest are Scottish Country Dances )
Hoping for a response from the Songs below and the one I feature in my Signature below
Other ( Fellow ) Poet's Thoughts :-
-
Hotspur Harry / Three Lions Might
Other ( Fellow ) Poet's Thoughts :-
-
Odin's Daughter / Norse God's Wrath
INTERESTING POINT :-
If you View my Blog you will see the Album other than Come Scottish Dancing
SIDE ONE TRACK ONE
Arranged by A Butterworth OP55
Notes mention commonly known as " When the boats come in " - Not Proper Title.
A jolly tune to keep the children quiet - the verses portray a family of alcohol addicts and it is well that the child is too young to understand the words
Recording BBC Radio Newcastle
Engineers Don Gill and John Moore
Chief Secretary at the time WW Maddison ( To the Choir which my next door neighbour when young Mr L R belonged -Mr L R Lecturer in Steam Turbine Technology at Marine & Tech - Probably knew James Mitchell )
-
I'll add the correct Song title to my Blog later ( I had Over 178,000 Views on SLinked-In in Two Years until Barred by " The English Teacher-Sir " Now CEO XTC-QC out of Petty Spite - Now I get exited over One TRUE View or comment )
-
I never watched it but my nephew Loved it and I knew a Wardrobe lad from my village - Byker Grove - Over the River . Ant & Dec started here I believe ?
Boys from the Black Stuff - Alan Bleasdale possibly set Liverpool . Kes - Ken Loach film - Make you Weep - I have a brother like his. Any Ken Loach film he did one few years go Very Famous about Life on the Dole.
Called " I , Danial Blake " just checked - Not Seen. " Old Oak " more recent - Migrants living in Easington possibly ?? .
Best Ever Film Documentary Style / Semi-Autobiographical about Miners Strike and Sea Coal. Chri Killip photographer.
I Loved it and can still see Scenes in my mind. I'll just research as I have notes from another blog but I have Huge Excel File. Laing Art Gallery sell his Photography Books . It will come to me but it's early and I must see to mother's Meds.
Just checked it is called " Seacoal " Channel 4 ( 1985) .
Check out Amber Film and Photography collective. Went to showing on Shipyards recently at Washington Arts Centre.
Another of my Favourites - Pete Postlethwaite starred in film where he is a Contractor painting Electricity Pylons and hooks up with much younger woman ( Obviously ) whom he gives a painting job.
Think he starred in Brassed Off with Ewan MacGregor.
Obviously " Auf Weidersehen Pet "
Get Carter.
-
Final Point
The Unthanks email on website - They are one group who reply genuinely to All correspondence.
I sent 1641 Beggin' Song Rewritten for 2020 to All Folk Acts I followed and paid Vast Amounts to see Live. £800 for Three day trips to London.
-
Other ( Fellow ) Poet's Thoughts :-
-
Lockdown in Camden Town/Why Graft when you have the Craft
-
Stick in the Wheel & The Young Uns reacted " Disgracefully " ( So hilarious ) but Adrian McNally - Rachel's husband and main Music expert wrote a very lengthy reply detailing why selling " Limited edition " merch extras ( And they raised £40k in Covid ) wasn't Beggin' .
I researched Rachel's song about Isabella Coke Ovens as requested at gig - Who Isabella was ? ( Wife of Director of Coal Mine Company but need Volume Two of Book on Coal Mining for more detail . )
Think they are touring soon. Go on Unthanks Singing Weekend and Rachel will definitely Sing your request there I presume !!!
-
Other ( Fellow ) Poet's Thoughts :-
-
Le Poete / Irish T'inker
-
Rodin's Thinker
Irish T'inker
Represent Intellect
Le Poete - Respect !
-
Lyrics by © HughofDurham@Gmail.com
© BardofCleadon@Gmail.com
-
Ivar Gabot
Chartered Management Accountant
Lowest Paid Qualified Accountant for The Empress for over Twenty Years
( & THE BEST )
Philosopher Pauper and a Poet
Chilled Skilled Wordsmith
One Hundred and Sixty-Two Songs since Lockdown
One Hundred and Eighty-Eight in Total
Cleadon Library - Not a Business but a Mission to Educate the World One Book at a Time
You’re welcome x
I wouldn’t guess your lovely drawings are the work of an artist with arthritis. Keep going! My father, also an artist with arthritis, adapted his style as you are doing. When he couldn’t hold a brush, he used a palette knife, creating beautiful work in his last years. Thank you for the sketchbooks—yours and theirs.
Rona, that is so heartening to hear, thank you. Finding a different approach has made such a difference rather than trying to do something that just highlighted my inability. Thank you for reading it and your kind words x
This post is such a treasure trove. Hepworth's notes were fascinating and your sketches are lovely! I also loved Summerwater and fondly remember When the Boat Comes In from my childhood.
Thank you, Jeffrey. I loved deciphering Hepworth's notes and found it fascinating that her focus was very much on colour.
Dear Deborah, thank you for another great piece. I have trouble writing a comment because (as I invariably read these posts when I am on my own) I talk to them directly (often out loud). I think that my brain believes that I’ve already done a reply when of course I haven’t! 😂
Sketchbooks are wonderful, beautiful, fascinating things. I love to see them, the sketchbooks of David Hockney, Henry Moore, etc. The sketchbooks of Evelyn Dunbar are a happy survival, when so much of women artists work simply vanishes (both sketchbooks and art). It is an interesting area to pursue. I began to keep a sketchbook following my recuperation from my first bout of Rheumatoid Arthritis and quickly began to both number the book and to write a date of when I did what. They are not brilliant (to say the least) but they are precious to me because as you state they contain your life. My early ones often feature fellow train travellers to and from work, or people waiting for trains. One of the joys of Wakefield Westgate train station were the young dance students from the nearby Capa College - it was not unlike the ‘kids from Fame’(1980s television!) and trying to capture their constant movement was fun but challenging.
I was so sorry to hear about the situation with your hands but cheered (out loud) when I read about your way forward and then marvelled at the beautiful of your new work. I am so glad that you braved showing it to your readers. It reminds me a bit of John Piper’s work. I love it ! Please keep us all posted with your continuing progress.
Reading matter - I have just purchased Voyaging Out (wonderful Minstergate Bookshop, York) and am hoping that this ends my own dry reading spell.
Many thanks once again Deborah for your posts and also to all the people who leave such lovely interesting comments. ❤️
Best wishes
Ruth
Thank you, Ruth, I know exactly what you mean about thinking you have replied!
When you keep a sketchbook for yourself, you are free to draw whatever you like and the outcome matters much less than the process. It cements what you see too. I love the thought of you surreptitiously drawing your fellow travellers and the dance students - I now have the theme tune running round my head!
I am glad you like the drawings. I love John PIper and have been playing about with his collages this week, which are fascinating. There is a lovely film of him from an old South Bank Show and he was such a dear man, quite unlike his rather severe appearance.
I hope you enjoy Voyaging Out. I have read alot of disappointing books of late which is why I returned to some trusted favourites! x
How fascinating to see such different approaches to sketching in the work of the artists you featured here! I also wanted to say how beautiful your ink drawings are - the blot was unfortunate, but perhaps could be seen as part of the path of creativity...
I think that is a very good way to look at it! Thank you very much, I am so pleased you liked the drawings, and will keep going, but definitely outdoors now!
I am so sorry about your hands. That sounds awful in so many ways. But Deborah, your new work, with them, is wonderful! Like others writing here I am so glad to have seen it, and hope very much that you will share more of it, if you are willing. I would actively look forward to seeing it.
Am I alone in thinking that inky footsteps on a studio floor is wonderfully romantic? I rather like the idea of a permanent mark like that. I don’t paint, but I write using fountain pens, and there is a large inky blot on one of my favorite duvet covers, from writing in bed many years ago with a pen that suddenly began to leak. When I unpacked that duvet cover after many years the blot brought such a sense of memory and, oddly, connection and continuity. [Apologies — on reread, it’s a living room floor, not a studio floor. Oh no. But even so, there is something romantic about an ink blot made by an artist at work, at least if one is only picturing it.)
On women artists’s sketchbooks, I wonder if the holdings of the Skissernas museum (“The Sketch museum” in English) might be worth exploring?
https://skissernasmuseum.se/en/collection/explore-the-collection/
You may have to keep returning to the menu at the top of the website to get each page in English.
They focus on sketches by makers of public art, so maybe not relevant, but just in case.
A better first page — and I see that it mentions many women —
https://skissernasmuseum.se/en/about/skissernas-museum/