Monday 24 September 2012

The warmth of Liz Simcock

Last night Liz Simcock gave us all a warm welcome on a miserable night in TW1. She was a pleasure to draw with her beautiful long neck and charming conversational style. The audience sang along with vigor during at least a third of her tunes including a reluctant Tim, the 'Face in the crowd' who I drew this week.

Although we missed Gerry, Sue Graves MC'ed and played a spritely support with Steve Poole.

Throughout my residency I'm trying to draw all the volunteers and this week I put 'Sound Paul' into my sketching pad.

Check out the slideshow right to see what I've done so far.

Alban

Monday 17 September 2012

'I met Eric Brace'

Its a steep learning curve for me, since I've come from the depths of the jazz world but the art residency has got off to a great start at Twickfolk. Sometimes I'm at a loss about the background of the musicians I draw but I've been luckily enough meet some cool people who have helped me along the way. One such person was Ana Veraart, who kindly agreed to write something about Eric Brace for the me and blog....

I met Eric Brace in 1983. We worked together in a posh restaurant. I was making my way through college; Eric was supporting his passion, music. I was lucky enough to be present for the birth of Numbers Up, his first band of considerable note.

Eric has an easy manner in front of a crowd or wirh an audience of one. I suspect this confidence comes from a lack of pretense and a real sense of joy he feels in doing what he loves.

His clear, warm voice draws you in and his music brings you back for more. At the risk of sounding cliche, Eric is music. His love and respect for the art is in the very fabric of his being.

He gets giddy meeting his musical heroes and elated and honored when met with the opportunity to play with them. I remember attending a Marshall Crenshaw concert with Eric. Even though, Crenshaw was at a high point in his career, the college auditorium was fairly empty. Eric indulged me and we sat near the back, but Eric could not contain himself. Before the first break, he was at the edge of the stage letting the music wash over him. Or, at least I thought that was what he was doing. At the break, he introduced himself to Marshall and a few band members. He asked them intelligent, thoughtful questions about their music. It was not just admiration or entertainment as I had thought. The band recognized a kindred spirit and took a longer break to share and talk with him.

That was Eric then and, although I have not seen Eric in sometime, I suspect that is still Eric today --always room for more friends, more joy, and more music.

Congratulations, old friend on a well-deserved Grammy nomination this year.

Cheers, Ana Veraart

A big thank you to Ana, a print/poster of the Eric is on its way to her.
Alban


Wednesday 5 September 2012

Animated Willy Porter at Twickfolk

I hope it's represented in my drawing how much I enjoyed this week's performance by Willy Porter, and just how lively he was. He was bouyant and inventive with his lyrics, delivery and guitar. Often askewing the microphone to respond more directly with the audience.

As an artist he was good to draw with fine long fingers and a face, like a cartoon thermometer, that turned a scarlet red when his voice was in full force.

As ever all the paintings are in the file/slideshow to the right.

Alban

Monday 3 September 2012

Jack Harris at Twickfolk

We kicked off the art residency last night at Twickfolk with Jack Harris and Willy Porter.
Jack is an exciting writer and performer. I particularly enjoyed his narratives and songs 'Rider', 'Big umbrella' and 'Drowned house', but it was 'The first time I thought about it' that stood out.
Here's a link to the tune on You tube

His website is - http://www.jackharrismusic.com/index.html

I'll update the site in the next few days with a few words about the lively Willy Porter and the colour portraits.

Alban