While I was drawing this 2 men stopped, at different times, to talk to me.

While I was drawing this 2 men stopped, at different times, to talk to me.
The first one, who was carrying 2 plastic shopping bags, wearing flip flops and shorts and sporting a pony tail, complimented me on the drawing.
'Hey,' he said, interrupting me so I had to take the headphones from my ear holes, which made me slightly annoyed, 'I just wanted to tell you that you really captured that, like, you know, you really got it,'
I told him thank you and that I very much appreciated his compliments.
'Well, I better let you get back to it,' he said.
'Okay, thanks,' I said, feeling very happy that he was now leaving me alone.

Then, about half an hour later, with my patience levels shriveled to zero by the relentless sun, I was interrupted again by a buckled shadow casting itself across my drawing.
I looked up and saw another man with a pony tail.
This one was wearing a baseball cap, also, and some kind of American football sweater and was hunched over, the cane he leaned on seemingly keeping him upright.
Looking into his face I saw that he was drunk and he had sores all across his face, as if he has been attacked by someone with long fingernails.
He leaned down toward me and said something I couldn't hear, forcing me to take my headphones out which made me want to scream FUCK THE FUCK OFF YOU DRUNKEN FUCK, I AM FUCKING MOLTEN UNDER THIS SUN AND I WANT TO GO HOME AND SIT INSIDE WHERE FUCKERS LIKE YOU WON'T DISTURB ME.
But I did not.
I just asked him to repeat what he had said.
And what he'd said was- 'That's really gorgeous. You really are so talented. Bless you.'
Then, feeling like an utter bitch for having such vicious thoughts, I thanked the man and smiled and said 'Well, I'd best get back to it, I'm really hot out here and I'd like to get home,'
'Of course you would,' said the scratched-up buckled drunk man, 'yes, of course you would.'

What was she doing in the garden?

While I was drawing this a woman approached the house, opened and went in through the gate, turning right into the garden.

I could see her behind the hedge, flashes of the colour of her clothing between the leaves, doing I did not know what.

Then, after only a couple of minutes the women came back out of the gate, looked left and right, and then walked off, tucking her shirt in her trousers and tidying herself as she walked, leaving me to wonder if she had entered the garden, which might not have been hers, to have a wee.

While I was drawing this an ugly pug-style dog approached me from behind and made a feeble growl....

While I was drawing this an ugly pug-style dog approached me from behind and made a feeble growl.

The dog and I stared each other but then it seemed to get bored and turned and left.

Just as turned back to the house I was drawing, a large SUV pulled up in front of it.

I watched a woman get out of the driver's seat, look in my direction and walk off down the street.

I was slightly annoyed because there was more than ample place in front of and behind her car for her to have parked her modern-day swollen chariot of glass, metal and plastic.

I had my headphones on and was listening to Rebecca Ferguson singing love songs and I was in a rather good mood which I didn't want to spoil, so instead of getting pissed off I just drew around the car, so to speak, and invented what I could not see.

While I was drawing this a young woman stops and starts to talk to me.

While I was drawing this a young woman stops and starts to talk to me.
When I look around to respond I she she has a very pretty curly-haired toddler, with very snotty nose, with her.
The mother tells me the toddlers name is Matilda and so I offer Matilda the chance to handle one of my pastels and make some toddler-like marks on my paper, while her mother and I talk.
It eventuates that the mum is from Germany, Stuttgart, and the dad is from Mexico, both of them trained musicians who have just come back from Europe to San Diego, via Tijuana.
We talk a bit about the food in America and then she offers me some pie.
'It's an American recipe, my first try at one,' she says, 'and it has peanut butter in it.'
'Doesn't everything have peanut butter in it?' I say, and as baffled culinary outsiders, we both laugh,
We talk on a bit about how much we like San Diego, what her husband and her hope to do job-wise, and that Matilda is learning English, Spanish and German.
I tell the mum I am learning Spanish and she tells me hers is very bad.
Then, after Matilda runs up off the street, the mum chases her, bringing her back and telling me the child is tired.
I give the mum, Anita, my business card and she tells me how much her husband wants a tattoo.
'I can sort him out,' I tell her, and then we both decide it has been a fortuitous and pleasant meeting and that we will get together again for sure.
'I'm happy to meet lots of people,' I say, 'I could be here for months and I am taking the opportunity to meet people and get lots of art done.
Then, parting, I tell her, as she is a classically trained musician and all, that I have a dulcimer at home and she should come around and have a look at it.
'Great', she says, 'let's meet again,'
'For sure.' I call out, turning back to my view and drawing, hoping to finish before another ridiculously inflated SUV pulls up in front of the house and blocks my view.

 Go to my shop and see my art and buy

White San Diego House-Approx A4 Original soft pastel on black paper £100.00

While I was drawing this a very tall SUV pulled up, hesitantly, in front of the house.
Then, for probably 7 very tense minutes, while the car crept up and down the street, I thought my drawing session was over.
But eventually, the driver seemed to settle down and decided to park just beyond my view.
I watched the driver, a very short woman with very long permed-looking hair get out.
For a few moments she stood at the car door, looking down and then up and then down and then up the street.
By this time I had put my pastels down and I was frowning, wondering what sort of internal challenge was facing the poor woman.
Eventually, bored by her indecision, I went back to my drawing and didn't even notice when later on she drove off.

 

Blue house in Golden Hill, San Diego

While I was drawing this a man wearing a pork-pie hat and carrying an armful of cardboard boxes came up and stood in front of me.
I looked up at him and took my head phones off.
'Hello,' I said.
'Hello,' he said back to me, 'That's a really nice drawing, do you, um, you know, uh, would you, like, uh draw other houses?'
'Like a commission?' I said.
'Yeh,' he said.
'Yeh,' I said and I gave him my business card.
I asked him if he lived nearby.
He said yes, he did, and pointed out a red house.
I told him that if I was to draw it, I would draw it in afternoon light from the other side of the road, to catch the light and shadow.Then, what he said next left me with the idea that he was being forced to move out of his red house because of some kind of break up.
'What's your name?' I said, eventually and he told me it was Toby.
"Email me,' I said, thinking that he looked like the kind of guy I'd like to have a coffee with regardless of whether we went through with the commission or not.
My encounter with Toby had left me so cheery that not even the pile of dried dog shit I noticed that (as I turned to get water from my bag) I was almost sat in could have spoiled my mood.

A4 size, pastels on black paper

See and buy this drawing in my shop

Hawaii.
Drawing of the edge of a lot that will eventually be cleared for building.
It’s a subdivision that looks more like a jungle with intermittent housing.

First drawing from Hawaii.
I’ve got a hardcover book and I’m going to fill it with pastels.
This is a palm tree at the poolside.
I was listening to Adele while I drew this.
‘But there’s a side to you that I never knew, never knew…’
I’ve been thinking today about how it’s not where you live that makes happiness, it’s who you live with.
I was unhappy living in Witney for 7 years of the 9 years I was there.
For the last 2 I was really happy.
Working out who I lived with those last 2 years made me understand who helped me feel happiness.
Who I lived with for the other 7 made me understand where the unhappiness came from.
I miss those people I lived with and hung out with and loved in the last 2 years.
Especially The Kiddo.
And you too, Sherroi!

When the sun comes out, so do the pastels.
The first pastel of the season is a portrait of a plant my friend Andrew gave me.
I thank Andrew for the plant.
Who I should thank for the sun is not clear.