Thursday, 8 July 2010

Home frae home

While doing some important (ahem) research for the Nine Trades project, I dug out a few Broons books from my substantial collection of annuals, and found this nice little image of the but an' ben. It's a classic from around 1967, drawn by the original Broons and Oor Wullie artist, Dudley D Watkins. You don't often get to see the whole house, and I know I'm going to sound like a bit of a nerd here but the shape of it occasionally changes – sometimes there are two chimneys, other times just one. If I'm to recreate an almost full-size model of the but an' ben entirely out of newspaper in the McManus Gallery, as planned, I'll need to find out exactly what the interior is like, too. This obviously means an awful lot more research. In the next few days I will be holed up in the studio with a stack of annuals, a large pot of tea and a sketchbook. It's hard work, but someone's got to do it.