Monthly Archives: March 2016

I was invited to make Tagtool drawings by Margaret Unknown, one of the members of Egotrip 27, a Berlin-based ‘traveling group of improvising beings currently on tour’. This event consisted of six separate improvised performances featuring noise and electronic music – and my drawing had to be totally improvised too, which was quite a challenge!  There was no raised stage at this venue.  The wide angle lens in the Epson projector covered both the wall behind the musicians and the floor in front of them which created a lot of interesting possibilities for drawing .

Below are some photos from the first performance of the evening…

…where, because the projection  area covered both wall and floor, I could ‘play’ with the illusion of some parts of the drawing being in front of the performer with the shadows in the background drawn on the wall.Each performance was only about twenty minutes long so I had to react very quickly.  As there wasn’t time to build up a lot of detailed imagery I chose to use a mix of abstract and figurative elements.  I began with transparent layers of red and black for the second performance…

…from which I developed this landscape on the wall behind the musicians.Below are photos of the performance by our friend Margaret Unknown.

A mirror was placed centre stage for this improvised theatre piece……and I ‘painted out’ the rest of the wall in order to focus on the performer.

Tagtool drawing provided the only light to the stage between performances. In the photo below, during one of the breaks between sets two musicians ‘tune up’ before I faded to black signaling that the next performance was about to begin.Back to black, red and white for the next improvisation…

…incorporating both real and drawn silhouettes in the drawing on the wall and selectively illuminating and hiding the performer within the drawing.

Below are photos of the instrumental trio who gave the last performance of the evening. First I laid down a textured background on the wall…… superimposed the two large figures…

…and ended by adding the small silhouettes in the background.Egotrip 27 is a most interesting collective and I had a great night of drawing at this performance.  They are currently on an eastern European tour and I really felt privileged to have this opportunity to provide the visuals for their performance in Prague.

I have often listened to Matt Elliott’s music while drawing in my studio but I have never heard  him play live, so it was a particular pleasure to be able to do some Tagtool drawing at this concert at A Maze in Tchaiovna. The basement concert room at this vegetarian/vegan restaurant and community hub in Prague was not large, but putting a white sheet over the small window above the stage provided a good background for drawing.I made the drawing above to show the Tagtool to Matt and discuss the idea of drawing during the performance. Although our Epson projector easily covered the whole alcove and stage from floor to ceiling, during the performance I kept the images fairly dark, only drawing on the rear wall behind the stage.  Dima took both photos and some video of the concert – the video was rather dark but I have lots of photos. Here is a selection…

The first drawing sequence ended in monochrome so I decided to introduce some warmer colour for the next song……returning to more sombre watery imagery for this ‘drowning song’.

Back again to monochrome……

…and then a return to colour for the last song.It was great to have this opportunity to hear Matt Elliott perform live.  After the concert Andy, who runs Tchaiovna, took up his fiddle and joined Matt on stage for an impromptu number and I did the drawing below.

Then some members of the audience wanted to know how the Tagtool worked so I did some more drawing……while in the bar the jam session went on till late.It was a most enjoyable evening – the perfect mix of music and good company!