‘Drawing is BORING!’ announced my 5-year-old, about 2 minutes into our arrival at The Big Draw’s Big Splash at King’s Place, N1.
It’s not so much that he hates art (although he’d much rather kick a ball around), just that sometimes he acts like a moody teenager in a pre-schooler’s body.
A preenager? Sounds about right.
So while the 2-year-old and mama got busy with a drawing exercise – a self-portrait to go up on an online gallery as a sort of ‘visual census’ of London – Ezra was scowling in the corner.
However, vanity got the best of him as he soon grabbed paper and pencil and drew several different versions of himself, all wild hair, dotty eyes and big U-turned mouth.
The Big Draw’s Big Splash launched the annual Big Draw art festival, and was introduced by top kids’ illustrator Quentin Blake (he came by tugboat). There were free workshops throughout the day, from making comics to building paper boats.
Most of the sessions were booked out but we managed to get into the Doodle Cook Recipe workshop with Parisian-based artist/author Hervé Tullet.
He had adults and kids on the ground, armed with coloured markers, doodling on massive blank sheets of paper to the sounds of a live band. When the music changed, he would make us switch position, close our eyes and keep on drawing.
We made a beautiful mess and had an absolute blast.
Afterwards Tullet autographed two of his books for the boys with signature flair.
High on art, my mini Pollocks wanted to get on the floating studio where passengers had been sketching along the canal. Sadly the wind was playing up, so they moored the studio but the babes had fun climbing aboard in life jackets.
The Big Draw’s Big Splash was a brilliant day out for families and managed to coax out the artist in all of us, even my stroppy little ‘preen’.
On the Spot
Sean and Teddy, 21 months
‘My lady heard about this event in the paper and it seemed like something interesting to do on a Sunday. We’ve been having a great time doing quite a few of the workshops. My boys loved making African masks!’
Visit www.bigdraw.org/bigdraw for more Big Draw events happening around town throughout October
