About Mark Winter / Chicane

Cartoonist. Artist. Illustrator. Oh, and autograph hunter.

Drawing: Burt Bacharach and Dionne Warwick

Posted on August 3, 2013 by Mark Winter / Chicane

Burt Bacharach and lyricist Hal David are amongst the greatest composing duos of all time. One of their most memorable songs was Raindrops Keep Falling On My Head from the film Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, for which they won the Oscar, BAFTA, Golden Globe and Grammy Awards.

A number of their hits were written especially for Grammy winner Dionne Warwick, including Walk On By, Alfie, I Say A Little Prayer and Do You Know The Way To San Jose. She ranks amongst the 40 biggest hit makers of the entire rock and pop era. She’s second only to Aretha Franklin as the most charted female vocalist of all time, with 56 of her singles making the Billboard Hot 100 between 1962-1998.

In September 1995 she performed in New Zealand, including Auckland’s Aotea Centre, where she signed my sketch. Burt Bacharach was scheduled to do a New Zealand tour in early 2007 with the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra, but broke his collar bone and was unable to travel. Dionne Warwick replaced him, saying “That’s what friends are for”.

It was to be her final performance visit to the country. Burt rescheduled for July later that year, the ‘ultra cool cult hero of the contemporary music set’ played a number of gigs, including Auckland’s Vector Arena with the Auckland Philharmonic Orchestra.

I was in Auckland at the time, but couldn’t go to the concert. I was, however, very keen to get his ‘graph, but only had half and hour, so did a lightning fast sketch based on a poster pic of him at the Vector Arena and left it at the stage door with a note and a return envelope. It was returned, signed, along with a signed copy of his “At This Time” CD.

Drawing: Leonard Cohen

Posted on August 2, 2013 by Mark Winter / Chicane

Canadian singer-songwriter, musician, poet and novelist Leonard Cohen was on the third leg of his 2008-2009 World Tour when he visited New Zealand in 2009. He signed this sketch for me at the TBS Arena in Wellington after his concert on the 21 January.

Drawing: Cliff Richard

Posted on August 1, 2013 by Mark Winter / Chicane

The Peter Pan of Pop started life as Harry Rodger Webb before becoming Cliff Richard and a career spanning over 50 years. He is the third top selling singles artist in UK history, selling 21 million units and 250 million worldwide.

As part of his “Hit List Tour” in 1995, Sir Cliff played New Zealand in January/February. While in Dunedin he freely walked around in the southern city wearing a T shirt with “No, I just look like him” printed on the front. He signed my sketch at his hotel.

Drawing: Windsor Davies

Posted on July 31, 2013 by Mark Winter / Chicane

I’ve had the good fortune to meet Windsor Davies on two occasions, both in Invercargill, New Zealand.

In 1986 , he performed at the city’s Civic Theatre in Ray Cooney’s Run For Your Wife with Robin Askwith and Geoffrey Hughes. He returned in 1994 with the Cinderella production in 1994.

On both occasions the cast attended mayoral functions after the opening nights. I drew this quick sketch of Windsor as his character, Baron Hardup at the latter. He signed it, referencing our previous meeting, in typical Batter Sergeant Major Williams ‘speak’ from TV’s It Ain’t Half Hot Mum with one of his classic statements. You can imagine his deep, distinctive Welsh voice saying it.

Drawing: Sir Peter Ustinov

Posted on July 30, 2013 by Mark Winter / Chicane

One of the people I had always wanted to to meet was Sir Peter Ustinov – actor, writer, noted wit and raconteur. In July 1990 I was privileged to see his one man show at the Civic Theatre in Invercargill, New Zealand and meet him afterwards.

In an interview, Sir Peter mentioned the Invercargill incident, “in a theatre that smelled of a furniture depository and made it very clear that it wasn’t very often used. Suddenly in the middle of my performance all the lights went out, including the exit signs.”

He continued performing in the dark, and got more laughs. He compensated for the lack of being seen by verbally expressing his actions in a more descriptive manner. After 20 minutes, the lights came back on, “I was dying for them to fail again,” Sir Peter said.

The interview was in 1992 – two years after the performance, when time allowed him to view the incident in a more positive way. But on the night his mood was colder than the Winter’s evening. At the time I was Deputy Mayor, and hosted a function for Sir Peter after his show. As you could imagine, he was not in a good frame of mind and his sense of humour had vanished. It took some coaxing by our City Manager, Richard King, to get him to the Mayoral Lounge, next to the Theatre.

Once there he was very charming. I asked him to sign my caricature. He looked at it for a while, then quipped, “yes, that’s me.”

My wife, Senga, had given birth to our son Ben the day before, so I asked him to add on “and wee Ben” to the inscription. He duly obliged, with ‘Ben’ in much smaller script. His sense of humour was restored, but no one mentioned the unscheduled black-out.

Cartoon: Billy Connolly

Posted on July 29, 2013 by Mark Winter / Chicane

In February 2004 “The Big Yin” Billy Connolly played a gig in my home town of Invercargill, New Zealand. I was involved in Koru Care, which was an organisation established by Air New Zealand staff to provide holidays for terminally ill children. One of my pet projects, incorporating my ‘graph-ic vice’ was asking well known people to produce a doodle using a circle. The intention was to produce a book, entitle Celebrity Circles to assist our fundraising.

Anyway, back to Billy. He’s staying at the Ascot Park Hotel. On the day of his show, The Southland Times published this toon:

I thought I would drop a copy of it to Billy to sign for me, along with a blank circle and an invitation to participate in the Koru Care project. The show was brill, and a couple of days later I received a package with my signed cartoon, and a drawing for Koru Care.

Buoyed by this success, I was spurred to try again and to ask him to write the book’s intro as well. Soon enough, this arrived in the mail, which made my day: Continue reading →

Drawing: Sir Garfield Sobers

Posted on July 28, 2013 by Mark Winter / Chicane

Sir Garfield (also known as Gary or Garry, as the man himself signs) Sobers played for the West Indies cricket team form 1954 -1977 and is considered one of the games great all rounders. His legendary status was secured on 31 August 1968 when he was the first player to hit six 6s in one over of a first class match, captaining Nottinghamshire against Glamorgan in Swansea.

A prolific scorer, but not a great signer. I was keen to obtain a Sobers sig.

I remember discussing this with the great New Zealand opener Glenn Turner, who knew Sir Garry and played in a few invitational XI teams with him. He told me, it just wasn’t in his DNA. While others gladly accommodated the fans, he ignored them. And so, the story begins. Bear with me.

The West Indies were touring New Zealand in the summer of 1994/95. The second and final test match was at Wellington’s Basin Reserve. Glenn was part of the commentary team, alongside one Joseph ‘Reds’ Perreira, the Caribbean commentating icon.

Glenn contacted me to say Reds was a close friend of Sir Garry and could get his autograph on my sketch. All I needed to do was get it to Glenn at the venue. First problem: The West Indies knocked over the Kiwis early, winning a close match by an innings and 322 runs. Reds left for the airport before the courier (who was delayed – but that’s another story) could deliver my package. A kind cricket official raced it out to Wellington airport in time to catch Reds before his flight to Australia. That was 13 February 1995.

In April 1999, I received my sketch, signed by Sir Garry and the attached letter from Reds, which explained the reason for the lengthy exercise. It was a long innings, but well worth the wait.

Cartoon: The Eight of Clubs

Posted on July 27, 2013 by Mark Winter / Chicane

A new card design for the Eight of Clubs, from a project a few years ago

Drawing: Kathleen Turner and Bill Irwin in Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?

Posted on July 26, 2013 by Mark Winter / Chicane

Kathleen Turner is the voice of the animated bunny Jessica Rabbit – Roger’s voluptuous wife. She is best remembered for the classic line “I’m not bad, I’m just drawn that way,” in 1988. In 2005 she played the role of Martha (I’m not bad, I just act that way) in the Broadway revival of Edward Albee’s Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? Bill Irwin played George, opposite her. Both were nominated for a Tony Award, with Bill winning the coveted prize. The production transferred to London’s Apollo Theatre the following year. Kathleen was certainly a big drawcard with sell out performances. I sent this sketch to the theatre. It was returned, signed by both, with a nice note from Bill thanking me. So I guess, I’m not bad… I just draw that way!

Drawing: Johnny Depp

Posted on July 25, 2013 by Mark Winter / Chicane

John Christopher Depp II, abbreviated to ‘Johnny‘, is not short of a bob or two. His films have grossed over $3.1 billion alone at the US Box Office, and $7.6 billion worldwide. He is reported to be the highest paid actor of all time.

I sketched this quick portrait, which he signed on his walk about in the current British heatwave at the UK premiere of The Lone Ranger at the Odeon Theatre in London’s Leicester Square. With his wealth, he could do a sequel entitled The Loan Arranger….