Saatchi Steps

People sunning themselves as they ate their lunches on the steps of the Saatchi gallery last Thursday.

Spring is most definitely here.

I ate an apple.

And the current exhibition on Hermes that is there is brilliant, if anyone is of a mind to go. 

Oh Frabjous Day

Callooh Callay.

I have a shiny new scanner my son.

Now I have some catching up to do.

Found a great spot to catch people in the National Gallery last friday. It was cold and raining and I was in Soho with an hour in hand before a meeting. In such moments, and in such a place, you could do a lot worse than the National Gallery. A LOT worse. But I am way too boring for that. so....

This guy was part of a very animated group discussing their cameras.

I liked how the cube stool he was sitting on got all squooooshed under his weight.

Festival steps

These two were sitting and chatting on the steps of Festival Hall the other week.

Didn't quite get her leg right.

She moved it.

Pins and needles, probably.

The sandwich lads 356 - 358

Watched some students on their lunch break. The lads sat in one group, and ate their sandwiches and burgers, the girls sat a little further apart, and picked at cakes.

Then one girl crossed the divide, joined the boys, to show them some poster she had. A pioneer.

One boy looked at what she was showing them. The rest just wolfed their sandwiches.

And so it will always be.

355 - kitchen foil

This guy was half sitting in the same Oberweis cafe, trying to eat a sandwich, whilst also gainfully keeping his baby entertained with a roll of kitchen foil.

He would get two hurried bites, and a slurp of coffee, and the baby would hurl the kitchen foil out onto the floor. He would stoop to reach it, wave it at the baby until the baby reached for it. Then grab another bite. It was the fastest sandwich ever eaten.

twist to listen

Two women, on their lunch break, sitting and talking, or rather one talking and one following intently. I liked how she had sat sideways and was leaning in to follow every point.

Men never listen that focused, we are always too busy thinking what we are going to say next to trump the other person, to actually register what they are saying to us. Conversation, for women, is inclusive and empathic, for men it is information and status.

Am off on the road for the next few days, and not sure when the internet will rise up to meet me. So until then...

Supermarket lunches.

Two work mates sitting on the ( somewhat dry and dusty at that time, but by now hopefully rain relieved ) grass in Hanover square one lunch-time. And another plastic fork.

How did we get to be such alfresco grazers ? We roam the great Plains of Sainsburys, we pick our way through the forests of Waitrose, to forage and gather our daily ciabatta.

I know I use my local Tescos like a larder. And go there almost every day to decide what to eat. I would undoubtedly waste away if they closed down. It would take a considerable amount of time, but waste I would. In the end.

2 sketches of City Workers

In this kind of weather offices everywhere empty themselves onto any available green space ( or brown space, or even grey space ) at lunch time. Suit jackets get shrugged off, ties loosened, chicken wraps unwrapped.

I always envy people who get to wear smart clothes to work, although I know everyone who does would tell me I would hate it. To be certain that what you had on wouldn't be covered in paint, or plaster, ( or worse ) by the end of the day would be nice, just for once. I have never worn a tie to work in my life. 

Museum sketch

Another from the British Museum wander. Three students taking a break from learning, to sit and chat over sandwiches and bottled water. Enjoyed the detritus of their meal, the banana skin, and it was good that they sat long enough that I could get all three. Although they didn't strike me as in any hurry to move. Earlier, in the Mexican print exhibition, there was a cluster of (say it in your best wobbly voice ) " young people", all huddled on the bench in the middle of the gallery, cocooned in bulky black parkas, and fiddling with their mobile phones, pulling up footage of each other, and then sharing it around, trying to outdo each other in what Apps they had, and not one of them giving even a second glance at the exhibits. In the darkened gallery each of their faces were lit from the blue glow of their phones. like overweight fireflies.

Should have sketched them, but would have been too obvious. I like to be as invisible as possible when I sketch, it is a skill I have been working on for a long time. Not unlike game hunters in a forest, you know when you will be too visible, camouflage required.

Not sure if this will count as 1 sketch, or 3 people. Already building in a bit of leeway here.

City lunch sketch

From an old sketchbook.

Was on a location recce in the city, and whilst I waited for the rest of the group to turn up, sat in the square behind Liverpool street station, and watched the office workers spill out to sit in the sun for lunch. A free life drawing class.

I don't often seem to manage to sketch the whole pose, so was very pleased how this one turned out.

She was chatting with her friend, and eating a Pret-a-manger sandwich. I got the sense she didn't actually work in the city, and was just lunching with her friend, who did.