Harry Magee


Doing evening classes in Ingram Street
Clip Title Doing evening classes in Ingram Street
Interviewee Name Harry Magee
Interviewee Role Joined the Ingram Street workshop after doing an evening class and later involved with the organisation's Board.
Interviewer Name Kerry Patterson
Interview Date 31 October 2019
Clip Length 2 minutes 24 seconds

Transcription


HM: At the time I was working as a technical illustrator, doing exploded views and cutaway drawings of engineering subject matter, reading engineer’s drawings and turning them into perspective views, and er… in my spare time as relief from that I was doing scratchy, scratchy pen and ink drawings, mainly of castles and architectural subject matter. And I just so happened to notice a, an advertisement in the, a classified advertisement in the Glasgow Herald, saying, “an evening class in etching”. I thought, “that’s scratchy drawing isn’t it?” Thinking, Rembrandt, and people like [James McNeill] Whistler, and I’m doing scratchy drawing, I’ll have a go at that. So, this’ll be about 1978? And er, on the dually appointed time, I went along, went up the stairs to the top floor of Ingram Street. And opened these, huge metal doors, they were, and entered this Aladdin’s Cave of printing machines. I just…. I was seduced! And have been ever since! [laughs] So, yes! So I started an evening class in etching and er, as I was doing my scratching away at the hard ground I looked up and there was Johnny Taylor and Clive Sutton taking an evening class in screenprinting. People were squeegee-ing big shapes of colour, and “Oooh!” that looks interesting… So once I’d finished the etching class I moved onto screenprinting. And whilst I was doing the screenprinting class, I looked over and there was Dominic Snyder who was doing a lithography class. Metal plates, people doing dark, dark, chalky drawings – I thought “Oooh, must have a go at that!” I think I then did a wood engraving class with Gwyneth Leech, and after that came back to, er… etching.