Drawing on the Outside group bringing men together through art

Drawing on the Outside group bringing men together through art

Drawing on the Outside is a programme of making sessions for men, a space for socialising and drawing together. 

The group has been meeting in St Mary’s Church Hall off Wessex Lane, and in Swaythling Train Station in Mansbridge since September. The informal and relaxed sessions are open to men, with no previous experience of drawing and making necessary. 

The printed banner is a collective mural made up of digital images of the original drawings made by the group.  

The drawings were created using pencil, charcoal, home-made oak gall ink, pencil crayon, felt tips and coloured inks, inspired by natural materials collected by the group from local outside spaces as well as photographs taken in nearby Riverside Park. 

The process of creating the mural involved the group laying out the drawings on the church hall floor and spending an afternoon together discussing, selecting and positioning the work inside the footprint of the banner, which was then translated into a digital print. 

The artworks you can see in the mural were made by David, Chris, Jo, Katie, Kirk, Matthew, Mike and Sarah. 

An exhibition of work by the group is on display at October Books, Portswood, until Sunday, March 4.

The group will continue into the summer with plans to run sessions outdoors.If you would like further information about the project or would like to come along to one of the sessions, please get in touch with Katie & Sarah at drawingontheoutside@gmail.com

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