Travel, Maps & Memories

With our movements and travel limited right now, our thoughts turn to the places we’ve visited or visit regularly. How we long for a (pre-covid) packed commuter train, or the ability to watch cheerful revellers on the late night Friday Metro. This Shieldfield Draws Together theme invites us to illustrate the places we go regularly, or visit most often in our minds, and map out the happy memories associated with them. In the future, where will we travel together and what new memories will we create? 

Feel free to draw whatever springs to mind, but below are some ideas to get started

Yourself

• If you could travel anywhere in the world for one day, where would it be. What would you bring back as a souvenir? Draw your souvenir or your route of travel
• Are you missing your everyday commute or journey to see friends? Print a map off from OS maps, and turn your map into a collage, with drawings of your favourite landmarks and notes about your memories of the places along the way.
• Draw a ‘memory map’ of your childhood. Start by writing or drawing your earliest memory, then draw a line to the next thing that pops into your head and begin another drawing. It doesn’t have to include specific dates, just an amble through what you most remember as a child. You could use a piece of lining paper or wallpaper for a large drawing, or an A4 sheet to create a compact snapshot of your memories.

Shieldfield (or your local community)

• If you could travel anywhere and bring something back for Shieldfield, what would it be? It could be a thing, an idea, a plan or a person
• If you could plan a day trip for Shieldfield’s community:
  • Where would you go?
  • How would you get there? Would you simply drive, or all travel aboard a hot air balloon?
  • Would you take food with you? A packet of mint humbugs or a luxurious picnic hamper with truffles and champagne?
  • Who would you meet when you got there?
  • Try drawing where you would go, your transport and who would go with you.

Submitting your drawing

Email a photograph of your drawing and your name to gemma@saw-newcastle.org, putting “Draws Together” in the subject heading, or keep hold of it until after the lockdown period and we will arrange collection. The drawings will be displayed on SAW’s website (with your first name and initial) in our Shieldfield Draws Together online gallery in order to encourage more art making.
You can submit drawings from any theme at any time. There is no deadline on different themes.