Monthly Archives: May 2017

On Saturday we were invited to draw at the launch party of this new Prague-based audio visual collective.In the afternoon at VILA Štvanice (above) there was a picnic with music outside the theatre, continuing until late in the night with more live music, DJs and installations both inside the theatre and outside on the grass and among the trees. We set up the Tagtool to cover the whole of the building with the entrance to the bar in the centre and once it got really dark I began to draw.As there was virtually no ambient lighting affecting this side of the building and the only illumination for people sitting outside was coming from the laser and led light installations on the grass and among the trees in the park, it was not difficult to produce dramatic effects with the Tagtool. But as well as drawing in full colour I also worked in black and white, making the building almost disappear in the darkness.At the start of the evening the live music was outside  but later the action moved inside the theatre, although many people remained drinking at the tables outside the bar and sitting on the grass among the led lights and laser installations.Both the weather and the location were ideal for drawing and the relaxed party atmosphere meant that I could draw at my own pace and also stop from time to time and join the party. Some people who hadn’t seen the Tagtool before came and wanted to know about it. Because they were interested in having a demonstration, instead of packing up and going home, we had a late night impromptu ‘have a go’ session! I was sorry that we didn’t have our Tagtool mini with us as most people were right-handed and it’s not easy to draw ‘cross handed’. Unfortunately I don’t have any photos from this fun session but at the very end of the night I took the two photos below….One of the party-goers had drawn a kaleidoscope of colours over the whole building. Then I drew this black silhouette on top of his drawing and he posed with his arms in the air while his friends took photos for him – great fun and a very nice ending to a great evening!

It’s catch up time for the blog! On Friday 12 May we were in Kozarišče, Slovenia, at Grad Snežnik. I was Tagtool drawing outdoors, not on the castle itself (as at the Floating Castle Festival) but at an evening concert that was held in front of an adjacent building where refreshments are served for visitors at the weekend.It was great to be back at this lovely location, even for just a day!

Then on Sunday 14 May we were in Hungary….Here I was drawing at a performance by the music group Grad Gori as part of the Five Churches Festival, Győr–Újváros in the beautiful Synagogue of Győr.

So – one weekend but two very different locations and also very different types of music! In Slovenia my drawing was to accompany instrumental jazz improvisations, while the songs in Grad Gori’s concert, entitled ‘Under God’s Sky’, took their inspiration from old Slovenian and Swedish tales. Here are some more images to end this posting. The first four are from the concert in Slovenia….…and below, three images from the concert in the Synagogue of Győr.

For some time I have been looking for an opportunity to combine Tagtool drawing with a dance performance so I was really happy to be able to work with Kateřina Eva Lanči at her dance studio in Drozdov. We had two intensive practice sessions at Drozdov, in the first she danced alone and for the second her partner was Václav Kovář.  Here are two photos from our first session… Kateřina chose the playlist for this session and it was interesting for me to have some different music to accompany my drawing.  For the second session we had live music by Turkish musicians, Fezayafirar, with whom I have worked on previous occasions but unfortunately I don’t have any photos for the blog. Then on 5 May we had a performance all together in Prague at the interesting old theatre, Venuše ve Švehlovce. For this public performance the musicians were located on the stage behind the seating for the audience….….while the dancers occupied the auditorium with the drawing covering the whole of this space, floor, walls and balcony, sometimes illuminating or sometimes obscuring the dancers.Venuše is  an ideal venue for this kind of collaborative performance and we spent one whole day working together in the space while Dima and Lukas took a lot of video. Dima will edit this video later but meantime here are some more photos to end this posting.