BUSY FRIDAY AFTERNOON

After a quiet morning, a small posse turned up and got down to some picture-making in the afternoon. Judith and Jenneth worked on their watercolours, Ray carried on with his pencil study of Tom's grand-children and the young team (jay, sanjey, mark and nathan) got down to designing some trainers.

Ray very kindly gifted his portrait to proud grandfather, Tom. Top bloke.

FRIDAY 9 APRIL

A quieter morning at the Eco-House, with just Robert in the art room. An opportunity to update the blog and various mundane tasks.

 Robert kindly brought one of his many 'how to draw' books. This one was specifically about portraiture, so he felt it might be useful for Tom, who's currently tackling a portrait of his two grand-daughters.

RAY'S WORK IN PROGRESS

Working on a slightly smaller scale than his Masonic Lodge Fresco, Ray is sending me his work on the Abbey as it progresses for some online advice, rather than carrying it into the eco-house every day. A few of the students have been tackling portraiture recently, so Ray emailed me one of his efforts.(see below.)

JUST ANOTHER TUESDAY

School holidays.
Kyle, Sanjey and Jay arrived to do some drawing. They're in Primary six at Linburn School and said they do a wee bit drawing, but would like to do more. Seems like they enjoy the class ok, in spite of being the youngest participants(apart from when my son, Harris comes in for a bit of doodling.) Highlight of my day was hearing their conversation with the oldest member of the class, Robert(85).
'Were you in the war, Robert?' asked Kyle.
'Yup, I was in the Second World War.' answered the octogenarian.
'What were the trenches like?' queried Kyle.

'Wrong war son.' retorted the elder statesman of the art room.

This anachronism aside, the boys were well captivated by Robert's details of really large guns and his ability to evade questions about killings. Boys, eh?

Judy arrived at the class with a tupperware box full of cupcakes by way of saying thanks to Tom for giving her some ready-stretched paper. Oh, the cameraderie of it all..

Tom tackled a portrait of his two grand-daughters.

Ray popped by, looking like he might again avoid starting a drawing, but was soon attempting to capture Tom's grand-daughters - in pencil, not literally.

Ray's brother Ian dropped in with a canvas and a promise that next visit he'd begin a Van Gogh-esque portrait. I arranged to pop by his house on Don Road to see some of the work he has on his walls.(see below.)

Brilliant stuff from Ian. I particularly like the two Coyotes and the Hubble Telescope image in the kitchen. I had a cup of tea, courtesy of Anne-Marie, Ian's partner and we discussed setting up a Flickr site for Ian's work.

RAY AND IAN

Local brothers, Ray and Ian,  are both self-taught artists who produce a prolific amount of work. The pair of them are going to start attending the classes. Below are examples of their work. Ray's painting of Dunfermline Abbey makes a brilliant mural down at the Masonic Lodge in Rosyth. Ian's copy of  a Hieronymus Bosch painting makes its wicked way from Don Road to its new owner.

Masonic Lodge Mural.

Hieronymus Bosch leaving Don Road

FRIDAY 26 MARCH

Gary Philp popped round first thing this morning. Ex-Inchkeith Drive resident Gary, discusses the finer points of artmaking current Inchkeith Drive man, Robert. (see below.)

Next in was Graham Jordan.(above) Graham lives in Almond Road an is a self confessed computer nerd. He popped round to chat about assisting me with the construction of my new website.

Lots of lively chat in the afternoon with a full classroom, looking through old Woodmill High School magazines and trying to remember names and faces from back in the day..

FRED

Fred Strachan, who began life in Bute Crescent, is a willing model for portrait drawing classes. With his George Clooney good looks, he proves a popular model with the ladies. Anne from the Eco-House has asked if she can take him home for some extra curricular modelling.