52 weeks of sketching – 2017-2018 . . .

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As a professional commercial designer, I found myself spending almost the entire working week sitting at my desk in our George Street studio in front of the computer, eating lunch at the same desk. I needed to break the cycle. But how? After an inspirational visit to the Royal Scottish Academy Summer Exhibition in 2017, I hatched a plan. Get out of the studio one lunchtime a week for a whole year, and do a sketch of whatever took my fancy. And to make things interesting, set a maximum time limit of 15 minutes per sketch, no more. Oh, and no rubbing out.

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With no client to satisfy, and no ambition beyond the therapeutic process itself, the journey began. Tentative at first, growing more liberated and free by the week. “I draw what I feel, not what I see” was my mantra. Friends and colleagues were encouraging, and all of a sudden the year passed, all 52 sketches were completed – who’d have thought it? An exhibition seemed to be the next logical step. I approached White Stuff in George Street as I had been to a number of exhibitions there and remembered the beautiful space on the second floor – I also have a fond attachment to the White Stuff building, being a frequent shopper when it was Grays Hardware Shop. Since my Design Agency was in George Street, and many of the sketches are of George Street and surroundings, exhibiting there seemed very appropriate – Claire, the Deputy Managing Director at White Stuff and her team have been incredibly supportive – I can’t thank them enough for helping to make this happen.

Since the whole idea was never intended to be about making money, I decided the purest conclusion was to donate all profits from selling the original sketches at the exhibition to a worthy cause. Since my 91-year old father was suffering from Alzheimer’s Dementia at the time, a terrible disease, I chose Alzheimer’s Research UK in the hope that some good may come from the donation which would benefit all in the future.”

“Completely unplanned at the outset of the project, the exhibition was a success beyond anything I could have imagined – over 30 of the original sketches were sold at the exhibition, generating a profit of over £7,000, which I donated in its entirety to Alzheimer’s Research UK.”

“We are so grateful to have the support of Andrew at his art exhibition. There are around 7000 people in Edinburgh and 70,000 people in Scotland with dementia and the condition has a devastating effect on families.
Alzheimer’s and the other forms of dementia are now one of society’s biggest medical challenges, but overcoming them isn’t impossible. Our mission is to make life-changing breakthroughs possible for people with dementia and fantastic fundraising efforts such as Andrew’s, are vital in helping us achieve this, both through raising vital funds and helping to spread awareness of the condition”.

Kyle Lockhart, Alzheimer’s Research UK Regional Fundraising Officer for Scotland

Andrew (centre) presenting a cheque for £7,014.48 to Kyle Lockhart of Alzheimer’s Research UK, assisted by Claire Mackenzie, General Manager of White Stuff, Edinburgh, who supported the project by allowing their entire second floor to be used for the exhibition of all 52 sketches.

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Get the ’52 in 52′ series 1 book, featuring all 52 sketches of Edinburgh and beyond…

Now in it’s third edition, this lovely hardback book with forward by Andrew Glidden is available to buy only from this website, making an excellent gift or coffee table book. 21cm square, printed on 170gsm satin art paper. Each sketch is accompanied by Andrew’s notes on the day.
Each copy can be personally signed.

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