Revolving Doors

Over the last few years I have grown to love #Hay-on-Wye, this quirky quixotic town. My initial introduction was through attendance of the #Hay-Literary-Festival held every year in May- an exhilarating 10 day dose of mental stimulation. I soon noticed a certain type was drawn to this town, both during and outside of festival season, and I instantly bonded with the ethos of this Mecca for non-conformists: a beacon for alternative thinkers, individualistic dressers and off the mainstream lifestyle setters.

It all began here…somewhere last summer 2021.

Warm afternoon, ordered my usual Guinness, sat on the benches outside the pub and started sketching. Cabin bag restrictions on my flight over from Malta meant I only had my drawing tools and thick brown wrapping paper, bought in a rush, at hand. What a serendipitous outcome! I was nonchalant about the drawing but the owner of the pub, Lois, came out to have a peek and showed such appreciation of the drawing, I promptly gave it to her. I thought nothing of it, it was just a drawing. However friends and family were wowing about it. I took their compliments with a pinch of salt. But a seed was planted. Their repeated words of appreciation triggered a vibration and threw me back to the very beginnings of my passion for artistic expression. Monotone drawing.

I had unwittingly taken myself full circle back to my very first attempts at drawing when I was in my early teens.

This is a later drawing, “Restless Spirit” one of the many portrait drawings done during my art career in the Arabian Gulf in the 1990s.

Back in Malta I reviewed my many sketches done over the years on the streets of Hay…

... and thought maybe, just maybe, I could develop them into interesting pieces of art which I might possibly present to a local art gallery. I worked on a style: the look of old stained drawings but with a quirky contemporary feel using mixed media. Coffee stains. Wine stains. Both of which are part of my daily consumption so no extra expense there! Plus acrylic washes. Then watercolour pens (#Tombow being my favourite) to loosely define the drawing, followed by permanent ink pen drawing. More flicks of #Liquitex acrylic ink blacks and whites to create blotchy effects. #Sharpie pens and #Faber-Castell permanent ink pens to reinforce outlines. Then a flat wash of acrylic paint to colour the sky areas and further reinforce by contrast the rough drawing texture of the scene.

In January I spotted a gallery in Hay, stepped in, was very impressed with their collection of art, and decided to show some of my work to the proprietors. Would they be interested to exhibit my work? The proprietors, charming and very approachable, said yes. I was delighted. I cannot quite describe how satisfying and rewarding it is to have my art exhibited in a town which I have over the years developed a deep emotional attachment to.