One of the many
pleasures of blogging is the discoveries to which it can give rise. Last November,
just before I went for my cataract surgery, I did a post about Bonfire Night as I remembered it from childhood.
In her comment,
my next-to-youngest sister, who comments under the name of PolkaDot, promised
to send me a scan of some sketches she had made one Bonfire Night when I was at
university. This she soon did and I so enjoyed them that she sent me other drawings
she had done as homework while studying art for O-Level.
Now one of the
things I’ve never been able to hide is that the gene for artistic talent, handed
down from our mother in particular, completely passed me by. My three younger
sisters all showed considerable artistic talent, two of them studying it for A-Level and one (my next sister) at
degree level. PolkaDot’s talent and inclination was particularly for
architecture, which she went on to study at university.
I can’t draw a
straight line without a ruler, and, sketched by my hand, a cow looks very like a
dog, and vice-versa. I've been told many times that, with time and patience, most people can be taught to
draw, but I still maintain I have the drawing equivalent of
tone-deafness, which means I've always been filled with admiration for those who can
draw and paint.
Apart from the
two Bonfire Night sketches, the drawings my sister sent me are mainly of our childhood
home and its setting on the edge of the Lancashire moors and I’m sure they will
give you as much pleasure as they have given me. Remember when you look at them
that she was 15 or 16 years old at the time she drew them and
captured so well the people and places I knew and loved.
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| My mother watching the bonfire flames |
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| Looking down past the farm towards our cottage |
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| Our kitchen - the heart of the home |
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| Bury Fold, Darwen - 17th century farmhouse |
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| The quiet little village where I grew up |
I, too, have no artistic talent -- it all went to my sister! Commiserations. What a treasure these drawing are -- they must really take you back to another time... And I do believe I recognize that particular village ;-)
ReplyDeleteIt's weird how that happens, Broad. The drawing gene just completely missed me. :-) I really love these as they give such a faithful impression of my childhood home and surroundings. Yes, I thought you might spot the village. It's still very recognisable. :-)
DeleteWhat a beautifully illustrated potted history. Your sister is very talented. So far as I am concerned anyone who can draw is some kind of genius.
ReplyDeleteMy talents remain undiscovered, I'm sure they're there somewhere, it's just taking a while for them to manifest themselves.
Those drawings are really something special. They have a very real feel to them and it is almost possible to see that vanished period of your family history..
It is, isn't it, Ray? I really do envy those who can draw well. Such a lovely skill to have. The drawings don't need much in the way of words to set the scene for my childhood. They were made in the mid 60s, but things hadn't changed much from when we moved there when I was 6
DeleteAs for your talents, anyone with a fine voice who sings the kind of music you do, can NOT call herself untalented. We just can't draw. :-)
.
They really are superb! But I do think you'd be able to draw - don't be too hard on yourself. There's a lovely book by Cat Bennet which might appeal...
ReplyDeletehttps://www.findhornpress.com/self-help-16/the-confident-creative-301.html
Thanks, Anny. I think so too. Many thanks also for the link,. It's a lovely idea, but my guess is that if I couldn't learn to draw as a child with a good art teacher, I'm not very likely to do so now with an arthritic thumb. I think I'll stick to music. :-)
DeleteI'm so glad you showed these to us...not only has your sister a real talent for drawing but it gives a picture of part of your childhood.
ReplyDeleteI can't draw either. The only vaguely successful thing I could do was when our long suffering art teacher told us to put the point of a pencil on our paper, then look at the subject and, not looking at the paper, 'take the line for a walk'.
Surprising how those efforts did reflect the subject, but why that should be I don't know.
And I'm glad you enjoyed them so much, Helen. I've been meaning to put them in a post ever since my sister sent them to me and said I could use them. They are so evocative.
DeleteI'm glad i'm not alone in the "can't draw" corner. My poor art teacher tried everything he knew, but none of it worked. Mind you, I don't remember him telling me to take the line for a walk, so I must try that and see if I can possibly achieve a more recognisable image. You never know....
Perpetua, these are really nice sketches. Thanks for sharing them. They are all very good, but for some reason, I really like the *kitchen* one.
ReplyDeleteI'm so glad you like them, Rian. I know you paint in watercolours, so have the knowledge to appreciate them. The kitchen one takes me straight back to home life in the 50s and early 60s. Our house was very small for a family of 6, so every square foot had to be well used. We girls each had one of the drawers in that chest for our things. :-)
DeleteThese sketches are wonderful - the one with the sparkler at the bonfire is probalby my favourite. Thank you for sharing them.
ReplyDeleteGlad you like them, Catriona. The child with the sparkler is my youngest sister who must have been about 9 when that sketch was made. :-)
DeleteHello Perpetua,
ReplyDeleteWell, we can certainly be added to the camp of non-drawers. It is so liberating, though, don't you think when one just gives up trying, leaves it to others and enjoys artists at work instead.
Your sister really does have a talent, so very evident from this young age. The compositions are delightful and do give a very real sense of place. We loved the Morphy Richards fridge!! These drawings really do recreate the past so well. You must feel very touched by them as surely you can well remember these very scenes being lived out for real. Lovely!
It looks like I'm in good company, Jane and Lance. I would love to be able to draw, but, like you, have accepted that it's just not for me. But I very much appreciate the skill in others.
DeleteI always loved the drawings my sisters produced, but these are particularly special for the reasons you give. They represent scenes from my childhood and I find them far more evocative and touching than any photograph of the same scene could be. The kitchen is just as I remember it - compact, and with few appliances by modern standards, but we enjoyed many excellent meals there. I actually remember when we got our first fridge. Before then perishables were kept in the meat safe in the cellar.
These are wonderful pictures! I especially love the kitchen scene, and the one of your mum by the bonfire. Your sister is quite talented. Like you Perpetua, I totally missed the artistic gene. I can barely manage stick figures, and have always wanted to be able to draw.
ReplyDeleteJoin the non-drawers club, Kristie. :-) I'm glad you enjoyed them. The kitchen scene seems to have struck a chord with many people, perhaps because it's so beautifully observed. The one of my mother, with the headscarf she always wore in such circumstances, brings her back to me so vividly.
DeleteDear Perpetua - I love these sketches by Polk Dot, and on a personal note it must be a particular pleasure for you to have the one of your mother caught sitting watching the bonfire flames.
ReplyDeleteA charming vintage feel to the one of the kitchen - I am presuming that is the stairway going up in the corner!
Thanks, Rosemary. They really are lovely drawings and, as you say, the one of my mother has a very special significance for me. Because I was away at university when it was made, I didn't see it until my sister emailed it to me last November, over 30 years after my mother's death.
DeleteYou're quite right about the staircase in the corner. Our house was originally a two-up, two-down cottage with the staircase (with a door at its foot) leading out of the front room and the kitchen tucked in behind. In later years my mother made big changes, but this is as I remember it from my childhood.
Thank you for sharing these wonderful pictures. I so wish I had not been blessed with two left hands when it comes to drawing - and, for that matter, two left feet when it comes to playing football and dancing!
ReplyDeleteLovely to see you, BP. I'm so glad you enjoyed my sister's drawings. Welcome to our non-drawers club. I've never tried playing football, but I'm not a good dancer either. :-)
DeleteLike all your previous commenters, I too enjoyed these sketches by PolkaDot. The one of your mother watching the bonfire is particularly evocative.
ReplyDeleteI used to have some artistic talent. I still have an oil painting that I did when I was 15 or 16, which hangs in our bedroom. Several people when they see the painting, suggest that I should start painting again. But these days, I lack the confidence to do so. Fortunately, I did pass on something of my limited artistic talent to my children, as they both hold university degrees in artistic subjects - my daughter in Art & Design - textiles, & my son in Illustration.
I'm glad you enjoyed them, Ricky, and I agree that the one of my mother really conjures up the scene at our family bonfire.
DeleteOf course I'm very aware that your son is artistically gifted, having so much appreciated his skilled caricatures. :-) However I didn't know your daughter has similar gifts, nor that they inherited them from you..Gifts like that don't vanish with age, so you really must think about taking up painting again when you retire. Plenty of time then to reburnish your skills.
Your sister is very talented. 'Fraid, I can't draw a straight line either but I think these pictures are really lovely.
ReplyDeleteHuman beings so seem to divide into those who can draw and those who can't, Molly. :-) i'm glad you enjoyed my sister's talent.
DeleteI, too, have missed out on being able to draw and paint - at school I was entered for O-Level Art, but restricted to the topics of Calligraphy, History of Art and, because I had to do something including drawing, Flower painting. By the time the term before the exams came up, the Art mistress and I decided that my entry would be withdrawn - I couldn't draw flowers to save my life!! And calligraphy was a bit problematic too - earlier in my schooldays I was told that I 'wrote like a cow with a poker'!! (That was when I was about 7, having changed schools and therefore writing techniques!) But Polka Dot is really talented - I love all the pictures, and what a wonderful aide-memoire they are for you all. And you have so many other talents yourself - you may not have done as much with your voice as your sister(s?), but you can still sing well, even with the restrictions (I suspect you've got the same problem as I have - too many anaesthetic tubes pushed rather carelessly past your vocal chords during operations). And that doesn't take account of your writing gifts - or pastoral ones....... etc.
ReplyDeleteAt least you were thought good enough to be entered for O-Level art, Helva, even if you were finally withdrawn. With me the possibility was never even considered. :-) My handwriting isn't good either. Sigh....
DeleteBut i have always loved the fact my sisters can draw and paint, which is why I'm so please people like PolkaDot's drawings so much. At least I got some of the musical genes, though not to the same degree as my sisters. I learned violin to Grade 4 and found great pleasure in choral singing at university. My voice was damaged by heavy doses of inhaled steroids after a bad asthma attack in 2000 and the lower register has never recovered. Sigh.... At school my talents were linguistic, hence the degree in languages. :-)
These are wonderful! Your sister is so talented. I like to draw but I'm not especially good. My husband draws well and I enjoy watching him draw, it's interesting to observe. Thank you for sharing these lovely drawings.
ReplyDeleteThanks, Jennifer. I'm so glad you appreciate them. I love the fact that both you and your husband draw. Any chance of seeing some of your sketches one day? You're right about how interesting it is to watch someone drawing with skill. I used to love watching my sisters, even if I couldn't so it myself.
DeleteThe drawings are wonderful, and capture a glimpse into a past when life was so different from that of today. I specially like the one of your Mother, she is captured so well:) These drawings almost belong to a Museum!
ReplyDeleteShirley, that's one of the reasons I like these drawing so much. They immediately conjure the place where I grew up, instead of my having to rely on my increasingly fuzzy memory. The drawing of my mother is so true to life, even to the fact that back then she still wore skirts, even in the winter, Trousers came later for her. :-)
DeleteThe sketches are amazing! Thank you for sharing them.
ReplyDeleteGlad you enjoyed them. They are definitely too good to keep to myself.
DeleteWow, incredible. The kitchen drawing and the one of your mom watching the bonfire are my favorites.
ReplyDeleteThanks. :-) Those two seem to be the general favourites and I can see why. There is something so personal about them both, which touches others too.
DeleteWhat lovely drawings. I am also in the "can't draw" camp. Find it hard to draw a stick man - my brother (Cro) got all the artistic genes.
ReplyDeleteYou too, Susan? It's a shame these things can't be shared out evenly. :-) Glad you liked the drawings.
DeleteI am delighted to see these lovely drawings, Perpetua. Your sister is truly talented, and it is a treat to enjoy scenes from your childhood, too. I can't draw either, and I always admire the talents of those who can translate what they observe into drawings or paintings. PolkaDot has a very pleasing style, and I really love the first one--your mother watching the bonfire. I love the interior of the kitchen, too. I'm so glad you shared these. ox
ReplyDeleteI'm glad you like them so much Debra. To me they are much more evocative than photos of the same scenes would have been and that is true both of the landscape scenes and of the more domestic ones. My mother watching the bonfire and the kitchen are definitely the favourites. :-) Because I was away at university when my sister drew these, I saw them for the first time when she emailed them to me last autumn. Now | treasure them.
DeleteThank you so much for sharing these beautiful, personal and delightful sketches! PolkaDot really captures the essence of Bonfire Night and her sketches of your home town are so very evocative. I think even if you have no real talent for drawing yourself, it must be wonderful to have others in the family who can. I was always hopeless - and it's only since I discovered Zentangle that I have been able to enjoy 'drawing' at all. Bet you could do that!
ReplyDeleteAxx
I love the Bonfire Night ones too, Annie. They take me right back to those wonderful childhood evenings I blogged about,,when i saw my mother sit just like that and my little sister with her sparklers. I must have looked just like that at the same age. :-)
DeleteI have no talent for drawing whatsoever, but love the fact that my sisters do. Given that my arthritic right thumb makes holding a pen or pencil for long rather difficult, I doubt I'll be doing any kind of drawing in the future either.Thank goodness for keyboards. :-)
I hope your sister kept up with her sketching - such a lovely way to capture past times.
ReplyDeleteYes, she does still draw and and paint for pleasure, as witness the lovely little watercolours she did of our French house a couple of summers ago.
Deletehttp://perpetually-in-transit.blogspot.co.uk/2011/08/gosh-august-already.html
What wonderful sketches by PolkaDot, Perpetua, and you must be thrilled to have them. For me also, the kitchen one is very appealing and beautifully executed, and the beautiful one of your mother is lovely and evocative. I did draw and paint in earlier years, and did pastel portraits of our three children. However have not done it for over 20 years and have concentrated on music and other things. Now I wish I had thought of recording my childhood home; it must be fantastic to have these drawings.
ReplyDeleteThey are super, Patricia, and I'm so pleased my sister scanned them for me. The kitchen one shows me the room I remember so well from my childhood and my mother sitting there with her headscarf and boots was an integral part of Bonfire Night as I knew it. How lovely to have those pastel portraits of your children - definitely something to treasure. Have you never been tempted to take up your drawing and painting again now that you've retired? Given your other activities it might be hard to squeeze them in, but I bet you haven't lost the skill entirely.
DeleteWow these are great. I have a real lack of skill when it comes to drawing and I'm in awe of those who CAN draw. I love the detail in these drawings. What a lovely reminder of your childhood home.
ReplyDeleteThanks, Sian. Our non-drawers club is getting bigger and bigger. :-) The detail is wonderful, especially in the kitchen drawing which takes me straight back to childhood. This is where we all learned to cook and bake. :-)
DeleteThese are really lovely Perpetua. I wish I had my brother's gift for painting. I was good at Art at school, but mostly with practical stuff like printing fabrics and making things out of clay, but I would love to be able to draw or paint like this.
ReplyDelete(posting with Google Chrome because it seems that IE is the problem I have with Blogger at the moment)
Yay, you made it, Ayak! I'm glad you like them, as I think they are wonderful. There are many ways of being artistic as you know from experience, but I've always wished I could draw. In terms of creating things, I have to be content with knitting. :-) Your brother's painting are super and I'd love to see more if you can twist his arm to let you.
DeleteDear Perpetua, your sister is so talented and how much pleasure you must get from seeing these sketches that bring back to you your childhood and also proclaim one of the creative gifts of your sister. And it's a gift she's sharing with you now, which is what I think being an artist is all about. Peace.
ReplyDeleteYou're absolutely right, Dee. I love the sketches and the the memories they evoke and I'm also very proud of my sister's skill and talent. I'm so glad she sent them to me and it's been good to share them with my blogging friends.
DeleteThose are really exceptional sketches for a teenager. The talent for architecture shines through, but she has also captured the essence of the people, hasn't she? I hope that she has kept her pleasure in drawing over the years. These are sketches which must be very precious to you and your family - thank you for sharing the pleasure with us.
ReplyDeleteI think so too, DB. I was away at university by the time she was doing these sketches, so it's taken over 40 years for me to see them. I love the fact that her skill goes beyond the buildings and the sketches of people are very personal and evocative. I can still remember my little sister wearing that duffle coat and my mother never went anywhere without a headscarf in her pocket.
DeleteI know this village; it is the one I always read about, with a warm, cozy kitchen where I would be most at home, and so evocative of what my mind imagined your Bon Fire night might be. These are lovely and filled with such inborn talent, Perpetua. Thank you for sharing these sketches of Polka Dot's and a visual depiction of a childhood you have so vividly written about.
ReplyDeleteHere's to sisters the wide world over.
Sisters are the best, Penny! All mine are talented in their different ways, but unfortunately it wasn't possible for us to capture musical talent in a permanent form back then. So these drawings are particularly special, both as an example of my sister's gift and as an evocation of the beloved people and places of my childhood.
DeleteLovely sketches by your sister Perpetua - she's so talented and how great to have real live memories of your childhood through her drawings. Sorry this is so late - I'm trying to catch up with all my reading. Do you find it takes absolutely ages to read and comment on all the lovely comments you get - I certainly do but I wouldn't not do it. I don't know how you find the time to reply to all your comments - I just about keep up with reading! Lovely post.
ReplyDeletePatricia x
Glad you enjoyed the post, Patricia. It's very satisfying to be able to show in my sister's lovely rimages what I try to describe in words in some of my posts.
DeleteNever worry about taking time to get round to commenting here. It's just nice to hear from you. Yes, reading and replying to comments takes a fair bit of time some days, especially as the numbers have increased, but I find it time well spent as I love the sense of conversation the comments can create. I couldn't possibly hope to do it if I posted as often as some bloggers do - every day or couple of days - but at one or two posts a week I fit it in and find it both enjoyable and worthwhile.
The ability to draw and to capture simple,yet poignant scenes of childhood still locked up and waiting to be shared is a true gift! I'm amazed at what some people can do. I too have no talent in this area, while my younger brother excels in it.
ReplyDeleteIt is indeed a gift, Rosaria, and one I wish I shared with my sisters. As it is all I can do is value and enjoy it in them and where possible share that enjoyment with others. It's interesting that you too have missed out on the artistic genes which have manifested themselves in a sibling.
DeleteThese are excellent drawings. I hope your sister continues with her work.
ReplyDeleteI think so too, Friko. Yes, she does still sketch and paint and did a couple of lovely little watercolours of our French cottage on one of her visits.
DeleteYour sister is so talented! I'm like you: couldn't draw anything recognizable if my life depended on it! But I have such admiration for people who are artistically inclined. How wonderful it must be to revisit your childhood home and village through your sister's eyes!
ReplyDeleteI've enjoyed it so much, Kathy, which is why I wanted to share my sister's drawings, both for their own sake and because the illustrate what i write about my childhood. Our club for the artistically challenged is getting bigger and bigger. :-)
DeleteMy goodness, what amazing talent. The drawings are really beautiful. I am desperately trying to catch up on missed blogs, it is good to find out what everyone has been up to while I've been circumnavigating the globe. Hope all is well with you. Jx
ReplyDeleteWelcome home, Janice. It's good to see you back commenting:-) Yes, my sister is very talented and I'm so glad you enjoyed her drawings. Enjoy your catching-up. We've all been very busy ion your absence. :-)
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