Postscript
My drawing “live” method is necessarily transactional. Even if that means just eye-contact and a nod, from the performer, I need their permission to feel right. I have never had the desire to draw voyeuristically and find the feigned nonchalance of the posed sitter unbearable. Part of my transaction with the model is a promise to send a copy of the drawing (if they want it) and during Folk Week I caught up with a backlog of promises that included drawings of a band called Gizmo.
We were lucky enough to catch a rare performance at Churchill’s Tavern in Ramsgate, incidentally the same location of my first ever blog post. They come under my favourite genre: Progressive Rock and their performance on thatwarm June night was beyond awesome producing in me a shivery trance-like state that can precede what feels like automatic drawing. I cannot articulate why I choose one person over another, but can only say that when I use instinct and let myself be drawn naturally to someone, then it works out best. If I am pressured for any reason to paint someone I am not drawn to (usually vanity or pride) then it doesn’t work.
I was drawn to a guitarist in Gizmo partly because of his calm stillness, while his guitar was speaking a wild language of its own. My pencil did the same thing…almost without help from me, the other figures grew out of that one. Afterwards a lady (Betty McCartney) seemed keen to have a copy of the drawing explaining that he (the guitarist) had been ill and appeared to be supporting him.
So I was glad to get the picture photographed and sent a copy to Betty (the guitarist’s stepmother) and a couple of days later I was shocked to receive her reply. Here is the letter, reproduced here with kind permission from Martin’s family.
Hi Ruth,
Thank you so much for sending the sketch to me. Unfortunately, you may not have heard that Martin passed away on 12th July. It was all very quick at the end and very heartbreaking
for everyone. He was a super person, leaving behind a legacy of music, and wonderful
memories for us all. […]
I cant tell you how pleased everyone will be that we now have the
sketch. Jane has had a wide circle of people on facebook, trying to find out who you
are as The Churchill was his last gig and everyone was talking about your sketch!!. It is
excellent and as I said at the time, you have caught the essence of the man perfectly.
Once again thank you so much. By the way, Martin was also an artist as is his Dad, Gerry.
With much thanks and kind regards,
Betty McCartney
Martin was just forty-nine, a wonderful musician and accomplished artist. He leaves a wife and two sons Dominic twenty and Felix six. The strange thing is, as I said in my letter to Betty, that it is an odd thing to do, focusing on a stranger for over an hour. In one sense I did not know him at all and yet there is this connection through the drawing, now poignantly highlighted by death’s full stop. It also makes me realise that everything we do however small has a consequence and Betty’s use of the word “essence” rings loud in my head-that is what I am always searching for-this thing that cannot be defined in any academic way and often gets me into trouble…it drives me on.
Martin Reed 1964-2013
