Glasgow banter
(Interior of the Merchant Hall: Glasgow, Scotland)
July was an extreme month of work – I have been blessed until then with an ability to balance these posts and shuffle them with the rest of my work. I am back. Hopefully I’ll manage to keep you updated a bit more often! I have had many complaints so I should take this opportunity to redeem myself.
My work takes me to many different places, though I generally draw and click from home on a freelance basis – often enough I am called to meetings, lunches, offices and cafes to discuss or complete work. This is a photograph of the Merchant Hall in Glasgow, not generally open to the public. As far as I gathered from the gentleman on the left (who I believe is a custodian of this venue) the hall is used from anything to social dinners, concerts, Mason’s meetings and meets for various Glasgow based organisations. This gentleman was full of the classic brand of Glaswegian craic or banter*. He regaled us with tales of the Hall since he began working there years before; whisky tastings gone awry, near misses with fires, and the greatest of all working class commentary – that the higher class or richer the patrons of the hall, the more canapés are mulched into the carpet and the more inebriated they become before they are forcefully ejected. As an aside, a similar line is usually reserved by Glasgow folk for people from nearby Edinburgh; Glaswegians take liberties in blaming Edinburgh’s inhabitants for poor behaviour when in Glasgow and a snobbishness that is equally as unfair as the boorishness Glaswegians are culpable for when visiting Edinburgh. I see it as a healthy rivalry that causes more amusement to me than harm.
On the right is my employer for those few days. In order to assist me with the work, he offered to take me on a tour of the hall and its beautiful ante-rooms. Of course, I took ample opportunity to record the moments I was present in the stunning hall. The walls are dotted with smart, hand painted wooden receipts of all the money given to or bequeathed to this hall, right down to the last pennies. There is also a plaque to a ‘mortification’ that took place here. It is all very archaic, wonderful and opulent. The main hall has a jolly ceiling of a fresh, minty pistachio colour with yellow highlights, the rest of it lined in mahogany and gilt. There is an impressive chandelier, numerous well conceived, very old and very large portraits, presumably of patrons and the merchants themselves. Here was a perfect place to experience the medieval wealth of Glasgow’s mercantile past – not always visible to the untrained eye in Glasgow’s often seemingly dreary grid of streets.
I’m very lucky that my job allows me almost to not only be an illustrator, but also an explorer and constant work experience benefactor. Each job I do provides yet another learning curve, a fresh set of employers and a new challenge. It wouldn’t suit you, perhaps – sometimes in the weeks of sparse work, I don’t feel like it suits me either – but for now, I revel in the upheaval and constant change. I’m sure I will crave a pension and stability at some point in the not too distant future, but why should I do it now when there are so many other places to explore and all the new people I can work for? At least you can appreciate that without this recent influx of work, I couldn’t show you this hall… Not much recompense, I grant you, but it’s something!
* Both of these words describe a ready chatter akin to gossip or entertaining conversation, often one sided, but always amusing.
– Today Rosie is coming back from her third trip to Carlisle in as many weeks and will be celebrating the completion of her one hundredth ‘Daily Drawing’ in Glasgow, Scotland. Click here to see it –
