10 x 10 Drawing the West End of London

I only found out about 10 x 10 a couple of days ago.  This is a project which enables 100 (ie 10 x 10) of the world's best artists, architects and designers to draw the City of London in order to raise funds for Article 25 - a charity which promotes shelter solutions for those without homes

The 25th article of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights asserts that adequate shelter and housing are fundamental to our human rights.

Article 25, the UK organisation, works to enable this right by building solutions to global problems.

Article 25 is an operational UK registered charity that designs, builds, and manages projects to provide better shelter wherever there is disaster, poverty, or need.

This is the second year that they have drawn London - this year they've focused on the West End - which was split into a 10 x 10 grid of squares. (Last year they drew the City of London)

The project focuses on a different area of the city each year, with a grid of 100 squares laid over the chosen area. The resulting squares are then allocated to the participants who create an original artwork based on the buildings and public space within it. These pieces of artwork form a collective snapshot of London from one-hundred personal view points, forming a unique showcase of British architectural heritage.

The Drawing Weekend - which happened this year on 15th September - is when the drawing takes place.  Here's a video of what happened.

These are the participants - I spotted two artists who I recently featured in 'Built" : recording and responding to the construction process - Patricia Cain, ("Soho Construction") Jeanette Barnes (No. 66 Lincoln’s Inn Field).

Jeanette Barnes drawing 66 Lincolns Inn Fields and cranes

Others include

• Norman Ackroyd "Study of September Sunlight"
• Sir Terry Farrell ("Courtyard: Comyn Ching and Comyn Ching"), 
• Lord Norman Foster "The British Museum - A Working Sketch"
• David Gentleman ("St. James’s Square")
• Sir Nicholas Grimshaw (Fitzrovia)
• Zaha Hadid ("Leicester Square")
• and Paul Smith ("360 Degrees")
• as well as an awful lot of architects and designers.

They've been having a public exhibition of the drawings at Somerset House which finished today. I had intended to go and see this but unfortunately missed as my (very wonky) right foot started misbehaving in a major way this morning and it was a struggle just to stay on my feet without falling over!

However you can still see:

• the exhibition of the artwork online until the live auction of 25 selected pieces which takes place at Somerset House at 7pm on 14th November 2012.
• buy the catalogue of the artwork - ordered according to designated square in the grid
• artwork on their Facebook page 10x10 London: Drawing the City

PS I was rather pleased to see that some of the people taking part tend to draw in a way which is not too dissimilar to Urban Sketchers (and Urban Sketchers London)!