When Barnes local, Charles Leon, an international speaker on science and creative thinking and design, was forced to spend time at home in lockdown, he turned his skills to sketching the local area
Charles Leon has spent his career designing: stage sets for the likes of the National Theatre, moving on to film productions, and working on luxury hotels. He is passionate about design and its role in innovation, travelling across the world to speak at events.
But when lockdown stopped normal life, Charles took himself out in the early morning and started sketching his favourite local haunts.
‘I wanted to find something I could do on my own, without disturbing anyone else and be outdoors and that was sketching. It honed my drawing skills and helped me to reconnect with the area.’
‘I put some sketches on the Nextdoor app and within a few hours I’d had more than 150 Likes.’ He grew a following, with people loving his depictions of life in Barnes, Mortlake and East Sheen. The whole exercise is about seeing things you don’t normally look at. It’s a great way to notice the details in your local area.’
Charles originally set himself a challenge of 30 days of sketching, but many months on, his drawings have now become a book.
The book is £29.95, available locally and at charlesleon.uk
Find out about other local people here.