Painting Live Music

We are so lucky to have the excellent Cafe#9 just 5 minutes walk away from our house. It's only small but it has such a lovely atmosphere. Very bohemian, very relaxed, very friendly.

Any regular readers will know though, that what makes it even more perfect, is the music. I have been spending more and more evenings there, sketching the performances, and recently was invited to take part in a couple of recording sessions.

This was of course, rather exciting. Jonny, the owner of the café, thought it would be fun to record albums for up and coming bands he is impressed with. Having watched me paint and draw my way through so many gigs, he commissioned me to sit in on the recording sessions with my sketchbook.

The idea was for me to just do what I normally do, but the extra challenge was for me to create a piece of artwork which could be used as an album cover. I might once have found this a little daunting but, having sketched so many events during my residency, knowing with each that the results would need to work, being part of a larger piece of artwork, I felt pretty brave about the idea.

All these sketches are from those sessions. The first session was with singer / songwriter Liam Walker, with session musicians making up the band. The second one was recording Gregory S. Davies, painted above. He was also performing with the local session musicians: the person below on the piano, Finn, is also on a guitar at the top, the glockenspiel at the bottom and playing the red double-base. Talented fella!

We haven't actually had any finished CDs out the other end yet. The illustrations are with the designer. I'll show you when they're done.