Havelock Walk Artists Studios Open Day

If you’re a Forest Hill local, I suspect you were strolling along the cobbled mews of Havelock Walk this past weekend and if you weren’t, you certainly missed out.  

This year over 250 artists opened their doors to the public as part of the Dulwich Festival and Havelock Walk certainly delivered!  A hidden gem in an incongruous setting, it felt like a scene from Alice in Wonderland and I certainly felt like I had fallen down the Rabbit Hole.  I could almost hear the artists whispering ‘ would you like an adventure now, or shall we have our tea first.’

Entering the artists creative space was definitely a sight to behold and it was evident that each piece of art had been meticulously curated for our pleasure and what a pleasure it was. Having something this unique right on my doorstep made feel really proud to be a Forest Hill resident.

This year Rob Lowe, who works under the pseudonym Supermundane, created the mural as you enter Havelock Walk.  I was fortunate enough to have a quick chat with him on the day.  Turns out it took him four days to create the mural and it will there for a whole year.  I think it’s pretty cool, don’t you? 

Rob is an artist, graphic designer, art director, typographer and an illustrator.  Is there anything he can’t do I hear you asking.  Well yes actually, come to think of it, his dancing technique could do with some work (long story but if you were there on the day you’d know what I mean).  Rob, if you are reading this, I’m just kidding but maybe invest in a belt.  It took my husband all of 10 minutes to buy something and we couldn’t be happier with our purchase.

I was also lucky enough to catch up with the lovely Liz Atkin, who I have secretly stalked on social media for ages.  The story behind her compulsive charcoal free drawings is captivating and an ingenious way for her to deal with Dermatillomania or Compulsive Skin Picking.  I asked her why she put a time limit on her drawings and it’s all down to how much time she has between train stops. A one minute drawing gives her enough time to complete the drawing before the commuters get off the train.  Once Liz has done a drawing she photographs it to keep a record of it before handing it over to a lucky commuter and she is up to the 15 000 mark!  Liz can do up to 60 charcoal drawings in a day!  While we were chatting Liz did a charcoal drawing for me too! If you’ve received a drawing from Liz it would be great if you would post a photo of it in the comments below and perhaps a little story of where you bumped in to Liz.

On a side note, we’ve been renovating our house for the past two years and the lounge is almost finished so we’ve been looking for something to hang on our wall.  Cue a fantastic painting by the very talented Philippa Tunstill. Her paintings are ‘a continuous exploration of spatial ideas through colour / surface texture which is applied and manipulated to produce intense interactive little dramas’ sounds like a summary of an average day being married to my husband.  It’s bold in colour with clean lines and perfect symmetry.  I can’t wait for it to be hanging on my wall at home!

There were so many more artists involved on the day that I haven’t mentioned but if you’d like to connect with any of them I’ve listed their Instagram handles below:

• @David_Mach
• @liz_atkin
• @supermundane
• @lenrayn
• @chisholm.e
• @etchstudio23
• @emilyforgot
• @thumbdesigns
• @beep_studio
• @placeinprint
• @hellovon
• @oliver.morrisjones
• @sscolson
• @andybrightman
• @lightindustries
• @wayneparkerphoto
• @philippatunstill

If you managed to visit this year, what did you enjoy most about the day?