Witney
Cartoon Town
While I was drawing this a woman came up alongside me. She was carrying several plastic shopping bags, one with the Helen Douglas House logo on it.
I took my head phones off.
'Which house you drawing?' she said.
'That one there,' I said, pointing to the one I was sitting right in front of.
'Hmm,' she said.
Then she walked on down the road.
But suddenly, just as I was putting my head phones back on she turned back to me and shouted, 'How much?'
'I don't do them for the home owner,' I shouted in return, 'I do it for pleasure,'
'Hmm. Okay,' she said, 'see you.'
'Yeh.' I said.
Early evening
While I was drawing this nothing really happened until I was almost finished and the sun was going and my back was getting cold, when a man reversed along the road behind me, stopped, leaned out his van window and said, 'I have to tell ya, I really like that drawing you're doing,'
'Thanks,' I said.
'Do you sell them, do it for a job?' he asked me.
'I'm making them into prints to sell,' I told him.
Then he held up an estate agent brochure which featured a lovely looking beige house with a lovely looking vivid green garden.
'I'm going to buy this house,' he said, 'I'd like you to draw it,'
'Okay,' I said.
Then the man leaned even further out of his van window and gave me his business card.
'Email me.' he said.
'Okay, I will.' I said.
So when I got home, I emailed him.
Yellow house
I said about half an hour.
Just then the owner of the house reversed into the driveway in his car.
'That always happens,' I said looking up at the man who was watching me.
About 45 minutes later the same man came back, this time he had a plastic supermarket bag in his hand. I was imagining it had beer in it.
'Still here?' he said.
'Nearly finished,' I said, 'I'm cold,'
While I was packing up my stuff the man said, ' I wish I could do that,'
He was pointing at my picture.
'You can I said. I wasn't born being able to draw,'
'Go over and see if he'll buy it,' he said.
'Who? The man mowing the lawn?'
The man who'd earlier reversed into the driveway was now mowing the lawn and he had a foul look on his face.
'No,' said the man who wished he could draw, 'Pete, him who lives next door, in that left side one. Go and ask him when he comes home.'
Twin houses
While I was drawing this house 2 women stopped walking and stood behind me. I had my head phones in so I ignored them until one spoke up- 'You look like you're enjoying that,'
'Yes,' I said, 'I really like drawing,'
As she walked off I heard her say to the other woman, 'How would you know where to start doing something like that?'
Then, as usual, someone pulled into the driveway of the house I was drawing.
The driver got out just as another woman delivered a catalogue to the house, the house on the left.
They started speaking to each other but I had my head phones back in by this time so I didn't hear what they said.
A while later 2 men pulled up in front of the house in a van. The one who got out of the passenger side semi-smiled at me but didn't come over to see what I was doing.
I know someone in the house was curious though, because as I'd sat down to begin the drawing I'd seen the curtains in the down stairs windows twitching.
Telephone pole
While I was drawing this house a guy stopped next to me and said,' Can you draw, like, animals?'
'I don't usually draw them, but I could have a go,' I said, 'what animal have you got you want drawn?'
'I've got a little staffi at home,' he said, 'and I'd like a drawing of her,'
'Sure,' I said, 'you want pastels or pencil or...?'
I left the question open, hoping he wouldn't say oils.
'I don't mind, really,' he said, so I took a business card out and gave it to him.
'Send me an email,' I said.
'Okay, cool,' he said.
'Put staffi in the subject so I don't think it's spam,' I told him and he said okay, cool, again.
Standlake
While I was drawing this, the view from just behind the bench outside of the Standlake shop, a woman reversed out of her driveway, across the road and into the shop car park, leaned out of her window and cried out, 'My girls have been pestering me awfully for a look at what you've been painting,'
I picked up my little easel and held it aloft so the children could see from the back of the car.
'Marvelous, well done, thumbs up,' said the woman and then drove off.
'All terribly posh.' said Cathy as she watched the family drive away.
Red garage
While I was drawing nothing really happened.
Half a house
When I was drawing this the woman who lived in the house pulled in the driveway in a little red car, like a Ford fiesta or something like that.
I waved her a little wave and she smiled at me and then opened the back door of her car and a little boy got out and then a little girl.
They all went inside without coming to have a look at what I was doing.
In reality, there should then have been a red Ford fiesta parked in front of the gate but I didn't have time to do it because it began to rain.
Cul de Sac
While I was drawing this a guy came up and told me I was going to ruin my back from the cold.
'You'll suffer when you're old, won't she Joyce?!' he said to a woman with him.
Then the man whose house it was pulled into the driveway, got out of the car and closed the gates. I hate it when that happens.
Him and his wife came over and started talking to me.
He had a hearing aid and she had a handbag.
'Nice, nice, nice,' they were saying.
I said thanks back about 10 times and told him if I had an exhibition I'd slip an invite in his letterbox.
Before they'd come home a man came out of the church next to the house. Assuming he was a priest, I gave him the cold shoulder.
Brownish house
While I was drawing this house a woman came over to see what I was doing.
'What are you doing?' she said.
'Drawing that house,' I told her.
'Is it a job?' she said.
'No,' I just like drawing houses,' I said.
'Oh, right,' she said.
Then I didn't say anything.
After a moment or two later she said - 'Right, I'll leave you to it,' as if she was the one employing me and had just interrupted me by bringing me a cup of tea.
The end - go back to lebusque.com
September 2009
Disclaimer - Prints may not be EXACTLY like the colours you see here and don't come with an orange border.
All images copyright 2009 T Le Busque
If you want to use some images, contact me and ask nicely.