I recently made a trip to Manchester, England on business. My company,
Powerhouse Animation, made a pilot episode of an animated version of the HUGELY successful live action TV show
Mrs Brown's Boys. One of my business partners, Bruce Tinnin, and I were flown by
BOCPix to screen the pilot to people from the BBC and Universal. We met the cast and crew in Manchester, where they were performing a series of sold-out shows of the stage version of the show.
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| Frank and Bruce with Brendan O'Carroll as Mrs. Brown |
After the show, Brendan O'Carroll (Mrs Brown) mentioned to the audience that we were there.
To backtrack slightly, we had an 8 hour layover in Newark, NJ, which gave me some time to break in the new
12 pan travel set of watercolors and
moleskine watercolor sketchbook.
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| Newark Airport |
I also did some quick ink sketches of the people and surroundings in another sketchbook.
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| Newark Airport |
We were put up in a two bedroom apartment. This was the view from the window, drawn with brown ink and a water brush.
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| Down Hanover Street |
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| Corner of Shudehill and Hanover |
We spent a few evenings in
Waxy O'Connor's Pub with some of the members of the cast, drinking Guinness and drawing in our sketchbooks. This is the best I could do after more Guinness passed through my system than at any time since I was at college. A terrific bunch of guys, and I hope to see them soon. One morning we took a train to Liverpool, and just about froze while painting along the Mersey after visiting the Cavern Club. Then it was back to Manchester and the pub.
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| On the train from Liverpool to Manchester |
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| Pepsi, Bugsy and Mike signed my drawings of them |
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| Waxy O'Connor's Pub customers |
On Saturday, we took the tram to
Heaton Park, where we painted until just before it started to rain.
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| Heaton Park |
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| photo by Bruce Tinnin |
