Being brave & drawing in public

Gardener's shed, London, October 2006

I'm not brave and I don't draw in public but I've just been reading an old article on Danny Gregory's website and it reminded me of an artist I met in London when I was there in October.

My little blister and I had just done a 2 hour walking tour (where I took the above photo) and were absolutely shattered. We staggered into the nearest coffee house (can't remember the name but it was lovely) and got sustenance. The only available seats were at the long bench in the front window, next to a young woman who was sketching in her journal.

We were both absolutely fascinated and impressed with what she was creating. She was drawing the building opposite in a long, narrow Moleskin so that the building took up the full length of both pages. After a while she hauled out another journal and started a different perspective of the same building.

Eventually I interrupted her to talk to her and I felt very self conscious about doing so. I didn't want her to feel as though I was snooping but I just wanted to let her know that I thought what she was doing was brilliant and that even better, she was just drawing while she was having coffee. It turned out she was a law clerk (I think, can't quite remember) and was on a break before heading back to work.

One of the commenters on Danny's post mentioned that when he's out drawing, so many people assume that you're either a full time artist or arts student. I had completely forgotten about this women until reading that post but I remember being surprised that she was wearing a suit. First impressions and assumptions - so often wrong.