Characters come to life in pencil portrait exhibition

In the hands of artist Graeme Wilson, simple lines bring familiar faces to life.

His solo exhibition at Artsenta’s pop-up gallery on Monday will feature about two dozen of his works from this year. 

Wilson uses graphite pencil on paper to depict images of interest.

"I always work with pencil, I never use colour or shading, occasionally I use cross hatching."

Previously, he enjoyed drawing cityscapes and historic buildings in Europe and Dunedin.

In this exhibition, his work features portraits of artists including Elvis Costello, Paul McCartney and David Bowie.

"With the portraits, I have a more natural ability," he said..

"They just appeal to me, they all have strong characters and are known for certain things."

With a few strokes of a pencil, he is able to create drawings that have a distinctive clarity.

Wilson also finds inspiration by observing everyday life, using expressive sketching to capture the features of interesting local characters.

Another wellspring of creativity is historic paintings with a semi-religious aspect, such as a drawing of two men in historic garb he calls the "Two Thieves".

Wilson is a prolific artist who works at a brisk pace.

"If I am in the right head space it doesn’t take me too long at all, it might be 40 minutes.

"I have used two 60-leaf blocks of paper this year, and I have only wasted about six or seven pages."

He is excited but also nervous about sales for his exhibition.

"I don’t ask for a lot of money for my works, but I would like to have some success at sales."

Graeme Wilson’s exhibition opens at 2pm on Monday, November 4, at Artsenta’s pop-up gallery.

Artsenta is a creative space that supports tāngata whaiora, people seeking wellness, to be creative as part of their wellbeing journey.