Tuesday 29 November 2011

365 Doodles - Day 332 - RCA Secret Special

I can now reveal the three postcards that I did for this year's RCA Secret Auction. Every year, artists are invited to donate these original artworks that are then sold off to raise much needed funds for the Royal College of Art. The mix of artists includes current RCA students, working artists like me and more than a few celebrity names. The idea is that the cards are anonymous and cost £45 each; you don't know whose work you're buying so you could find yourself with a Stevyn Colgan or, if luck is with you, a Tracey Emin, Grayson Perry, Manolo Blahnick, Nick Park or Yoko Ono (they all took part this year). Here are my three:




They are Cards 625 (Page 13 of online catalogue), 1524 (31) and 2566 (52). All three are quick watercolour pencil sketches of people I've seen in real life. The large chap was eating chicken in Regents Park and inspired not only this doodle but a full painting in acrylics (see it here). The lady pensioner was someone I saw in Ayr, Scotland in 2006. She was struggling to stay standing up and eat an ice cream during a gale on the seafront. The gale won. The third card is of an absolutely huge bloke I saw not so long ago in Notting Hill. I'd just had lunch with writer and director Graham Linehan and was walking back to the tube station when this guy - he must have been 6ft 6ins easily - came walking along the road with his Staffy on a lead. Well, I say walking. Mincing is was the word. He was very camp and the incongruity of the whole image made me smile. I have no doubt at all that, if he wanted to, he could crush most homophobes' skulls like an egg. The Union Flag cap sleeved T-shirt - so often misused by racists to represent their foul agenda - was the icing on the cake.

I enjoyed taking part this year and was honoured to be asked.

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