Artist At Home // Lucy Mahon
We’ve just added new Lucy Mahon pieces to our Originals collection, inspired by swimming days! They are enough to leave us wishing for the August bank holiday to be filled with sunshine and swimming. View the FOUR new one-off original pieces here first and also, have a read about what Lucy has been getting up to lately as she is our featured ‘Artist At Home’ this month…
Holding Hands by Lucy Mahon
One-off Original, £340 unframed
Hello, I’m Lucy Mahon and I’m a London based artist and illustrator. My lockdown studio was the sunny front room of my East London flat. I’ve worked at home since last summer so I’d had a bit of time to get used to it.
Post lockdown easing, I moved into a new studio not too far from home. I needed more space to store my work and I’ve now got a tall desk I can stand at while drawing. It also means I don’t have to constantly clean pastel dust off white floorboards…
My second pastel collection, ‘Swimming Days’. They’re reminders of the joys and comforts of outdoor swimming. Lidos, sea swimming, ponds and pools.
Blue Sea Swimmers by Lucy Mahon
One-off Original, £580 unframed
Swimming, coffee, seeing family. Hanging out with friends on our terrace. Pre-lockdown, it would have been Broadway Market on Saturday and Columbia Road Market on Sunday. Some wine at our local. And whatever show we’re into – right now it’s RAMY season 2.
I’m usually a non-fiction fan… I loved ‘To Pixar and Beyond’, written by the company’s ex-CFO, and ‘Shoe Dog’, by Phil Knight. For architecture and research, ‘The Mid Century Modern Architecture Travel Guide’ by Sam Lubell & Darren Bradley are great, as is ‘William Krisel’s Palm Springs’ by Heidi Creighton and Chris Menrad.
Definitely. Pre lockdown, the majority of my work was black and white and line based, with varying degrees of composure and looseness. Very much driven by travel and architecture. By chance I got my first set of soft pastels just before lock-down. I drew at least one pastel a day, sticking them up on my walls as I went. It ended up being a kind of daily diary; they featured mostly simple things, but those things were now my daily highlights. What I had for lunch, what I saw on my walk, what I was dreaming of doing or something my mum had told me on the phone. The colourful daily pastels gave me joy that made me pour myself into new work, taking on larger scale pieces which ultimately became my first pastel collection (‘Wildflowers’).
At The Reservoir by Lucy Mahon
One-off Original, £620 unframed
I adore Jess Rose Bird’s work and we recently did a swap – her use of line and colour is incredible. It’s been great to work with Dave Buonaguidi; we both used to work in advertising and met at Print Club, then ended up doing some big Californian collab prints.
Slowdown And Snooze by Jessica Rose Bird
One-off Original, £380 unframed
I went to Whitstable this weekend for some fresh air, bike rides and sea swims. When it’s safe & allowed, I’ll be jumping on a plane to LA to see my big sister, brother in law and my tiny new niece. Until then, it’s daily facetimes and virtual cuddles.
I’m really enjoying Michelle and Barack Obama’s Summer 2020 playlist on Spotify. As a huge Office fan, the ‘Office Ladies’ podcast is a joy to my ears every Wednesday.
Pond Dip by Lucy Mahon
One-off Original, £270 unframed
