Charlie Mackesy exhibition encourages kindness after pandemic experiences

The exhibition features about 60 original artworks in ink and paint for sale alongside the floor-to-ceiling murals at Sotheby’s cafe.

Author and illustrator Charlie Mackesy with his exhibition ‘Look How Far We’ve Come’ at Sotheby’s in London. (Aaron Chown/PA) (PA Wire)

Charlie Mackesy, author and illustrator of the bestselling The Boy, The Mole, The Fox And The Horse, said his latest exhibition encourages people to say “well done” for coming out of the Covid-19 pandemic.

Mackesy, 60, has captured the world of his award-winning book for the showcase featuring 60 original artworks in ink and paint for sale alongside murals illustrating the friendship and conversations between the four titular characters.

He said he lost “quite a lot of weight” painting the floor-to-ceiling murals at Sotheby’s London, transforming its Story Cafe at New Bond Street.

He told the PA news agency the title of his exhibition, Look How Far We’ve Come, originated from his book, but drew comparisons with the message he wanted to share about the pandemic.

“It was a page in the first book, where the boy says ‘We’ve got such a long way to go’ but I think it does relate to where we are now,” he said.

“I think the idea was to link things in the book to our situation now. We have come a long way. The general sense of the show is to show drawings that were about encouraging us to say ‘well done’, I don’t think people say well done enough these days.

“We should be telling each other ‘well done’ having gone through what we have (during the pandemic). We’re all very quick to speed on to the next thing and get back to a new normal, but I think there’s a lot to process.

“I think the fallout, the aftermath, the processing of all of this, it’s going to take a very long time, and I think we’re so desperately keen, completely rightly, to try to get back to whatever normal is, it’s sometimes dangerous not to sort of face a little about what we’ve been through and process it.

“I think if I’d have been 10 and hadn’t been at school for long periods of time and if I was terrified about giving my granny the virus, they take their toll. Isolation and fear, they’re big things and I think we all experienced that.”

After its publication in 2019, The Boy, The Mole, The Fox And The Horse was named Book of the Year by Waterstones and was shortlisted for the British Book Awards’ non-fiction lifestyle book of the year.

Mackesy said he was “surprised” by the outpouring of love for his illustrations and found himself “feeling excited” at the prospect of creating something that will help people.

He told PA: “To be truthful, it is quite surreal, it’s still quite a surprise.

“I suppose for me it’s really lovely if you find yourself in a position where you’ve done something that gives people a sense of belonging or hope, or more comfort in their own skin or encourages them in some way. It’s a wonderful thing and I’ll always be glad.”

Mackesy said he has always wanted to “inculcate words into drawings”.

He said: “It’s a strange thing because when I draw them they’re not prescriptive, I don’t want to engineer them so that people feel a certain way. I just try to be as honest as I can with the words and leave it there.

“I think people take away from it things I’ll never know, but I hope they enjoy it, I hope some of the words lift them. Perhaps it can catalyse conversations or connect them with themselves or with each other a bit more.

“I think it’s always a dream, if you hear that someone has been moved by something.

“Ever since I was a child, I’ve always felt that drawings could potentially cheer people up. When I was a kid I used to pass cartoons around the classroom just to get people to laugh.”

Mackesy said his motive with art has always been for people to feel differently “hopefully for the good” after they have finished looking at it.

Speaking about the exhibition, he added: “I’ve always liked seeing drawings in spaces, I remember seeing a drawing that had been printed out and put on a lamp-post in California when the pandemic was at its worst, and I got a huge thrill out of just people sticking them in places and them existing in a sort of domestic… the idea of drinking a cup of tea and seeing a drawing just scribbled on the wall.

“I really liked that and I suppose this is just a slightly grander side of that. I remember getting to the cafe thinking this is a huge space. I think they were quite shocked that I’d done them so big.

“I don’t think they were expecting big pictures but why not try and fill the space if you can.”

Mackesy, who previously worked with the late South African president Nelson Mandela on a lithograph project, The Unity Series, is also working on an animated short film adaptation of the book.

The selling exhibition of his work and the transformation of Sotheby’s Story Cafe will be on view until January 13.