| Often,
we pass a doorway and ask ourselves, "I wonder who lives there - or
who has, in the past, lived there?" Doorways can be a spark to the
imagination - this book, Desperate Doorways is both an art book and a
story book. Inside you will find 25 pen and wash paintings of doorways,
many in need of refurbishment and each with an accompanying short story to
get your imagination going. You may want to finish the story or make up
your own using the artwork as a starting point - and do this with your
children or grandchildren. as an exercise in storytelling. At the end of
the book is a tutorial on how the doors are sketched and painted with
notes on materials and tools used and notes on how I come up with the
accompanying short stories. Hopefully, this book will be the spark to
start your own adventures into art and storytelling.
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| And here are 4 examples taken from the 25 in the book - | ||||||||||
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BUTTERCUPS & DAISIES |
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CHILDREN LOST I had a life once – a life full of colour and gaiety and laughter – of little children full of excitement pushing me open to find new adventures in the sun – children who came home again, hours later, tired, exhausted and full of stories of fighting pirates and climbing trees – exhausted but happy and giggly as they pushed me open to breath in the aroma of freshly baked bread and fluffy little cakes. And then the clatter as they tramped up the stairs to bed, tired and exhausted to enter a world of slumbering dreams, their noisy chatter replaced with the faint sound of snores and murmurs as they drifted into the magic world of misty imaginings. I miss them and their giggles – it’s been a long time - from before the war to after the war and beyond – perhaps they did not survive that terrible conflict – taken off to some stinking ghetto – I hope they did survive somewhere - I miss their giggles. |
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A MAN OF SUBSTANCE This ancient and venerable doorway is probably quite famous but for a moment, let us imagine one of those who, many centuries ago, resided behind its magnificence. A local magistrate perhaps – portly in his silken, though food stained robes, expecting deference and yet having to suffer the ankle-biters who skip and laugh behind him as he stumbles out of this magnificent door and hobbles and flaps down the street. Perhaps he ties to look ‘above it all’ – the daily embarrassment of having to kick-off the populace of dirty little urchins who seem to hide and wait for him to exit his high status door and then to pounce on him like a bunch of chattering and laughing monkeys out to do nothing but ridicule him. A man of substance, status - a man of privilege - but also a man of painful gout! |
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OLD SAM AND HIS ROTGUT Old Sam lives here – Old Sam and his scruffy pooch, ‘Boy’. Old Sam opens his door maybe, just once a week and usually late on a Friday night, when few are about. Having descended the steps he and Boy trudge and waddle down the hill to the local corner store in a town that, like Sam and Boy, has seen better days. If you ask, he always says “I’m goin’ fer ma supplies” and you might expect him to carry back bags of groceries - but no, it’s always two bottles of rotgut and a bag of rough shag. As they wend their way down hill, Old Sam struggles to cough up phlegm and eject it onto the path. No one knows how he feeds himself or Boy but at the same time each week, they wend their way down to the store and back again – and whilst they do that, waddling, spitting and trudging, all seems right in this town. |
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Desperate Doorways can be purchased in 3 formats:- |
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