Going for the Burn...

graphite & putty eraser/30x20cm

Presenting the most recent of the ‘nostalgic’ drawings of former footballers of 1960s – 70s vintage.

The slightly bleached appearance of the drawing, lacking as it is in a great deal of tonal variety or subtlety, can be attributed in part - other than essential technical issues of the materials & process applied to its making - to the facts that the original photograph upon which, via a few degrees of separation, it is based appears to have been taken with the subject illuminated by flashlight, & also that its immediate source of reference is an enlarged photocopy, slightly degraded in image quality, of the original reproduction as found in the ‘Charles Buchan’s Soccer Gift Book’ 1970-71 edition, the particular ‘hauntological’ document, from a selection of recently acquired examples, that is serving as the inspiration & source of images for the project-as-progressing. Such a 'faded' aesthetic might aid the sense of nostalgia intended to be conveyed by the drawings, individually & also as a series of a certain period in time, 'historical' for all that it fairly recent.

The portrait subject of the drawing, Dennis Burnett, another member of the intriguing gallery featuring not necessarily the biggest stars of the day but rather those who operated in the more obscure &/or less glamorous reaches of the Football League, is one such player whose career encompassed such time as I began taking an interest in the game, circa 1974, up until that point being a stalwart of Millwall for a number of years but then transferring to Hull City & later on to Brighton.