Childhood brain imprints

I have hundreds: the kitchen of our Muswell Hill flat and its old green enamel gas stove, the purple bathroom walls, the interior of the local greengrocer's, the walk to school; garden marigolds and hollyhocks, Mum's ancient piano covered with piles of music, her hoards of newspapers and books, amongst which were her small volumes of Gerard Hoffnung's wonderful musical cartoons.

   

 

I must have thumbed through these hundreds of time, my gaze resting on a few of my very favourites, such as the ones above. I was always drawing but mainly animals, objects and fantastical creations, but I think the essence of Hoffnung must have sunk in as in more recent years I've started sketching people, not very accurately but rapidly, trying to catch within a few lines a character, a facial expression, crossed legs, hunched or attentively upright. 

Often the drawings don't really capture what I am witnessing but occasionally they do. I was pleased with this one of three musician friends in Mark's gamelan group. It was only about a minute and a half but I think it borrowed that moment in time - their distinctive respective hair cuts - or not - beards; the bell like musical sounds, and the intense heat of that afternoon under shady trees in the garden of the Max Ernst museum a few kilometres from where we live.