Precocious Drawings of Youth – Part One

I have not always drawn the funny, ridiculous or absurd…in fact I think I was a very serious minded lad in my younger days... an angry young so and so fed constantly on a diet of Pink Floyd, Joy Division, The Cure, The Smiths…I think you get the post teenage angst thingy!

I have quite a collection of drawings I did in my early twenties and I will be uploading a few here from time to time…. I will also try to arrange them by theme, or stylistically if that fails.

So here’s a tentative first batch of drawings … all between twenty-five and thirty years old and practically antiques in their own right! What that says about the artist is another thing altogether…

A short description of each is in order I guess, n’est ce-pas?

Edinburgh Castle 1981 – I remember my first trip abroad in 1981. I took my first ever flight to London on the afternoon of Princess’s Diana’s wedding. The three-week trip took us up to Scotland and I did a thumbnail sketch of Edinburgh Castle which I later drew again in this sketch.

Wied Liemu 1981 – I was always carrying a miniscule sketchbook around in those days and the formula here is exactly as above – rough sketch on site and drawing at home. Still love this one.

Battersea Power Station 1984 – I actually drew this one on site on one of my frequent visits to London in those early Air Malta seriously-discounted-tickets days (long, long gone…). I was of course familiar with this now famous edifice from Pink Floyd’s Animals album. Always considered this building as a temple to energy and I guess it was in fact designed with something like that in mind…

Addolorata Cemetery 1984 – Also drawn on site from the edge of Garibaldi Road. I also remember clearly I was in the company of Raymond Azzopardi (now an accomplished and respected wood sculptor) when I did this.

Wied Liemu 1984 – A reworking of the 1981 drawing. I was here using a technique involving non-permanent ink and wax. The wax (not melted!) was actually a candle with which I treated the paper before giving the paper itself a wash. I like the effect created – but for the life of me I cannot remember who taught me this….

Beirut 1984 – Same technique as in the previous drawing but with a totally different subject. The civil war in Lebanon was raging at the time and this drawing may have been inspired by a news photo, but again too much time has passed and I do not quite remember how the image originated.

Self Portrait 1985 – Talk about precocious drawings. Enough said!