people - quick sketches

My grandfather loved to sketch people, he always did so with delicate humour and quirkiness.  He was constantly observing and drawing all around him. My grandmother used to say he would use any kind of paper which made it difficult to preserve his work. Some time it was what ever paper had been wraping the meat or cake she brought in!

This is a simple little sketch of my mom as a child. Though a humble quick little drawing, yet a wonderful one, with humour and his unmatched sens of observation.

Still life

No date or place written here and nothing I can recognize there exept perhaps for the vase which might be a little Valauris vase that came to me from my sister recently and Gege before that. I could be wrong. What is wonderful here is this gathering of personal and familiar objects that are like a subjective self portrait. A small glimpse into the soul of a man I have only faint memories of alive, but countless of accounts of him all strange, comical and wonderful.

From my mom's collection and mine

These are 3 great examples of how great M.J.W. was at sketching and putting down colours quickly. In the middle image you can see my grandma standing and looking towards him. This must date from when they were living on a river boat in France. I have a few photos of drawings from that era. The top one is a sketch of friends with my grandma on the very left and my aunt Martine on the right. It says "Mauritus 46" so is from the time they lived on Mauritus Island. The bottom one says "Menton, 1937" Menton is a small city on the Cote d'Azur. So they were still in France then. They left for Madagascar as the war started. My great grand father (we call him Grand-Pere) was established there and wrote to them telling them that since Monty was British, they had better get out of France before things got ugly. I guess having survived the 1st WW in the tranchees, He knew what he was talking about.

I especialy love here the rich tones of the sea between the 2 boats.