Art / News
Artist’s relief after year spent on one piece
Bristol artist Anouk Mercier is celebrating after finishing her latest masterpiece, a highly detailed landscape drawing which has taken her a whole year to complete.
Anouk’s 60cm by 50cm picture, entitled Route des Lindarets, features a serene waterfall created with graphite pencil and is inspired by her vast collection of postcards, many of which were bought in her native France.
Speaking at her Jamaica Street studio the 31-year-old, who lives in nearby Kingsdown, told Bristol 24/7 that she’s learning to allow longer periods of time to work on more detailed pieces.
“The year before last I was working to a deadline and toward the end I was drawing for 15 hours a day, non-stop for three weeks,” she said “It’s best to work on them and just be able to break.”
On telling friends and family about her year-long project, Anouk joked: “People usually think that I’m crazy for launching into something so detailed.
“I always think without belittling what I do that most people could do what I do if they had the patience.”
Despite this however, Anouk, a graduate of UWE, has revealed that she’s not the most patient person herself and expressed her relief at finally finishing the artwork.
“I’m actually surprisingly a really impatient person in life, maybe my art sucks out all my patience.
“When it finally is finished I finally get the satisfaction of seeing my idea alive but the delay from having the idea to seeing it on paper is a year.”
Anouk, who is also a tutor at the Bristol Drawing School and co-founder of the Bristol Drawing Club, has even been shortlisted for the prestigious Jerwood Drawing Prize for this piece of work.
The final selection comprises 58 artists whittled down from more than 3,000 applicants. The winner will be awarded with £8,000 but the Stokes Croft-based artist has admitted she’s not thinking that far ahead yet.
“I’ve nearly even forgotten there is a prize. Just being part of the shortlist and the touring exhibition is so exciting.”
The winner of the Jerwood Drawing Prize will be announced on September 15, with work from the prize being exhibited around the UK shortly after.
To check out more of Anouk’s work, visit www.anoukmercier.com.