Unusually I’ve made two trips ‘abroad’ this last month – and both have been to pick up campervans! No, we’re not going into the motorhome business, it’s just things didn’t quite pan out as I’d have hoped. But the enforced excursions have allowed me to reassess my travel sketching materials, and it’s amazing at just how little (both in terms of media and scale) it’s necessary to take. I decided that a tiny sketchbook about A6 (6”x4”), cutdown pencil, tiny fieldbox of watercolours and a pair of compact binoculars ought to suffice for most conditions. The set fits easily into a jacket pocket.
I suppose the purpose of taking a tiny kit like this with me has more to do with me ‘needing’ access to drawing media than the desire to create anything meaningful whilst on the road. Regardless, it has meant that I’ve found myself making drawings of the most unlikely things and in unusual circumstances. All of the landscapes are made immediately and take less than 5 seconds to do. The form a narrative more about my own state of consciousness than the physical geomorphology in front of me.
Trip 1 – By boat, rail and car from Orkney to Nottingham, via Aberdeen, Yorkshire and back through East Lothian.
The drawings show scenes from the overnight ferry to Aberdeen, 14th/ 15 th October.
I was collected from Nottingham by the person selling the campervan. We arrived at his house where the van was sitting on the driveway. ‘That’s it’ he said ‘I’ll just get the keys’. Don’t fecking bother’ I replied, ‘I wouldn’t touch it with a bargepole’.
What had been described as a van in good condition with one or two minor rust spots was in fact a pile of corroding rubbish and I explained this to the guy using vernacular terms which I’m sure left him in no doubt as to my disappointment. I had made what would end up being a 1200 mile round trip to collect this thing! Not happy.
But my minor irritation was placed firmly into context on the return journey.
These drawings made from the train on the return trip, 15th October.
These tiny sketches were initiated as we ground to an unscheduled halt at 4:30 in the afternoon. We had been stationary for several minutes when the steward informed us the delay was caused by a person being hit by a train at Darlington (accident or suicide, I’m not sure).
Some of the drawings have an element of text which is just as important as the drawn lines. I’ll subtitle where it’s illegible.
edit: The text in the 4th image reads:
The importance of timetables.
We run our lives by them.
We get places by following them.
Did the dead person on the tracks wait for a particular train?
Did they watch the place-names in lights and think - 'I'll get that train'.
A person dead on the tracks,
People alive on the train.
'Selfish bugger' - I'm going to miss my connection.
A person dead.
The tracks are cleared.
