I have always been fascinated by Quentin Blake’s view of the world. Superficially we have some things in common. Like me, he is 5’7”. He was born in Sidcup, Kent, which is the place I was brought up for part of my childhood. Unlike me, he has never married and never had children, and yet his grasp of the whole dynamic of relationships from a child’s perspective is always clear to see.
Quentin Blake studied English at Cambridge. He then did a postgraduate teaching diploma at the University of London, followed by life-classes at Chelsea Art School. He was still at school, aged 16, when his first drawings were published in Punch, and he has made his living primarily as an illustrator, but also as a teacher. He taught at the Royal College of Art for 20 years.
This joyful illustrator has two homes, one in Kensington, close to the museums and publishing houses, and another in Hastings. Both houses have studios attached. In fact he lives just a short walk from the Hastings Contemporary Gallery in the Old Town part of Hastings, and I find myself wondering if I might bump into him one day. No doubt, I would be too starstruck to know what to say to him!
Although best known for his collaboration with the author Roald Dahl, he has affected millions of people across the world with his creativity. Whatever media he uses, his work is always engaging.
Before becoming the Hastings Contemporary, the gallery in Hastings was known as the Jerwood Gallery. It was in this guise that I saw an exhibition of Quentin Blake’s on the theme of journeys. It was full of drawings of different modes of travel. I find I can quickly become immersed in his creative world; it can feel like a safe place to escape to. His interpretation of life and the humorous way he often shows it is, for me, always compelling. At the same time, he is not afraid to tackle life’s tough themes such as the vulnerability of refugees.
Quentin Blake was born in 1932 and does not heavily engage in social media. He does not have a strong presence on YouTube - in the space of an hour, you can watch all his videos. Unlike David Hockney, he has not embraced the iPad, but he has embraced the pencil. After crayons, pencils are often the first drawing tools you give to children. A pencil may not have the same strength or contrast as a piece of charcoal or ink which means it has often been ignored by artists. Quentin Blake, however, always uses the medium to suit the subject. When he uses pens, there is a scratchiness about his work giving us a sense of movement. He seems to be of the ‘less is more’ school of illustration. There is always space in his artwork. His work is rarely negative (sadness is not the same as negativity) and frequently full of fun. Whether he is working as an individual (see ‘Mr Magnolia’ or ‘In search of Cockatoos’) or collaborating with another author, the result is always startling and fresh.
One of the first programmes I loved was Tony Hart’s Vision On which I watched in the 1960s, and Quentin Blake follows in that tradition of bringing art to a wide audience and continually surprising us. Anything could happen during Vision On, just as the character of Morph (who still makes me laugh) took on a life of his own. The story lines of Wallace and Gromit similarly have a captivating innocence which contrasts sharply with the harshness of the world we deal with daily on the News.
Quentin Blake reminds me that we all need to connect with our childlike creativity. Those days when the sun was drawn firmly up in the corner, the grass was along the bottom of the page and smoke was coming out of the chimney. After two close bereavements the year before last, I am encouraged to be reminded by Quentin Blake that, despite the sadness, there is still so much fun to be had in the world.
Perhaps one of the qualities that inspires me about Quentin Blake is his exuberance and energy, even in old age. Last year (when I believe he was 91) he designed a book badge to be awarded to Blue Peter readers aged 5 to 15 who draw a scene from a book they have enjoyed, or write in to share their thoughts about a story they have relished. In the same year he also collaborated with the Wetland Trusts around the UK. He has illustrated trails around wetlands to encourage families to come out and explore them - a project called ‘Drawn to Water’ which included an art competition for children. He has auctioned off his work, both for his own charitable foundation providing specialist nurses for children with complex health conditions and for the charity ‘Freedom from Torture’. This strain of compassion runs alongside the exuberance which shows itself in projects like ‘The Great British Colouring Book’. When Robert Jenrick, the immigration minister, ordered that a welcoming mural be painted over at a detention centre, Quentin Blake and other cartoonists reacted ‘with anger and dismay’ by producing an uplifting colouring book featuring UK-wide themes. These included football, the weather, a full English breakfast, a Welsh dragon and the Loch Ness monster. This same year he drew the image to celebrate the first ‘National Illustration Day’, and I could go on ……
Perhaps Melanie McDonagh of the Daily Telegraph summed it up well when she said,
“Blake is beyond brilliant. I have never met a child who didn’t love Quentin Blake.”
See more at www.quentinblake.com and www.qbcentre.org.uk
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