National Drawing Day 2020: 'Slow Looking'

For National Drawing Day this year on Saturday 16 May 2020, CCA Derry~Londonderry hosts artist Kiera O’Toole’s Slow Looking. Kiera invites you to draw with her. Chalk will be available to pick up on 16 May from the front door of the gallery at 10–12 Artillery Street, Derry~Londonderry from 10am until stocks run out (please keep a 2 metre distance from others and wear gloves/wash your hands after collecting the chalk).

If you are not local to the gallery you can still join in with your own drawing materials and if you don’t have chalk or pencils, draw and make lines with what you can find: pebbles, twigs, sand, be creative!

Think of other ways to make your mark on the world.

You can share your drawings with us by tagging @CCADLD on Instagram and Twitter and using the hashtags #nationaldrawingday #slowlooking #findingwonder. We’d love to see.

From the artist:

“In these unusual times, the universal activity of drawing can allow us to take the time to slow down and notice the wonder in your everyday environment. ‘Slow Looking’ is based on the idea that when we spend time observing our environment, we can become present in the moment.

Drawing is a way of being present.

This project is not about technical drawing skills but it is about making your mark in and on the world. So, I am inviting you to draw with me!

On 16 May 2020, when you are walking around outside or sitting in your garden, I invite you to notice what is around you. What can you observe? What makes you stop and wonder? Is it a crack in the walls, the shadows of plants or the sound of birds as they fly overhead?

Using a piece of chalk, make your mark. Will you fill in the cracks? Trace the shadows or draw the sounds you hear? Find different ways you can draw on the world around you.

Find your wonder and tell us how drawing has changed your experience of your environment?”

Click here to learn more about the full list of participants and activities happening across Ireland for National Drawing Day 2020.