Oh, it’s been an evening of frustration. I’ve been trying to find some reference photos of the Sunderland College of Art and Design back in the 1950s. Dad’s time studying in Sunderland was when he really began to see himself as an artist and began to hone his craft.
He often talked about the gorgeous surroundings (the school at the time was located in a grand manor house) and, in particular, the plant-filled conservatory where he and his fellow students spent hours drawing.
As a result of my fruitless online hunt for images of said conservatory, I haven’t finished what I had hoped would be a panel (or series of panels) of a young ‘Will’ as he was known back then, working away on a plant portrait. I was hoping that by some miracle I’d stumble across a photo of a group of intense youngsters, drawing boards on their laps, surrounded by ferns and succulents but alas, I’m not having much luck.
I found some conservatory photos - but modern and not quite like the one he described so fondly. I finally managed to find a couple of email addresses at the University of Sunderland (as the school is now known) and sent off a query asking where I might find some archival photos. Fingers crossed the recipients may be able to point me in the right direction.
As for Dad, perhaps because of those early pleasant experiences, he never got tired of drawing plants and there are many leaves, stems, stalks, and flowers from plants of all kinds in the pages of his sketchbooks.
In his studio I came across this file folder which contained:
I assume he had plans to draw it or make a linocut print… I don’t have all his sketchbooks here with me, but when I next go back to the coast I’ll have a look to see if he ever drew this particular leaf.
I’m thinking that would be a good drawing exercise for me - and, I could include it in a panel somewhere on a page of ‘Favourite Subjects.’ But, not tonight - I’ve also been going around in circles, looking in vain through the drawings I do have here for some fun plant drawings to share with you. Most of what I do have close at hand are his sketches of our Camino trip as that was going to be one of the first sections I was going to tackle.
As it turns out, I’m finding myself meandering in and out of all kinds of alleyways and secret gardens as I explore not only his life and art but my own journey into unfamiliar creative territory. It’s funny, when I started this project, I created a general outline with some sections broken down into scenes. As it turns out, though, the path through this story is leading me where it will and I’m just following along, seeing where I wind up.
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