This is something of a rarity for me!
I’ve been pretty much teetotal for about five years now, for health reasons. I started taking a new medication a week or so ago, and ever since then I’ve been desperately craving Marmite, and a good dark beer. Sometimes you just have to give in to these things…
When I first moved to Reading in 1993, I made a lot of very good friends in my local Wychwood pub. Black Wych on draught was definitely my tipple of choice back then.
I’ve also painted the lovely lady a number of times. In 1994/5 I was roped in to paint all of the chalk boards in the pub, and the Black Wych was featured, of course. Many years later the boards were all updated by the brewery, but I was asked to come in and repaint the Wych. For a while she even featured on the back of my leather jacket but, due to an unfortunate paint mixing incident, there was a problem with the blue and her face peeled off. Oops!
All of the original Wychwood artwork was done by an extremely talented illustrator called Ed Org. He has a beautiful website called The Siren Gallery, where you can buy his prints.
Ed does the most extraordinarily detailed drawings, which are exquisite in both colour and black and white.
If you’re in the UK, I can heartily recommend seeing Ed’s work in person. The small pictures on the website don’t do it proper justice, as you can’t see the incredible attention to detail.
I have a print of Spellbound, a Sleeping Beauty story, and I see something new in it every time I look.