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The Review - FEATURE
Published: 15 November 2007

Quentin Blake improvises in front of a live audience

Make tracks for the new Arrivals lounge

THOSE gravitating towards the resplendent new St Pancras International this Saturday may find an elderly gentleman nearby, chapped by the November chill, scribbling furiously on an oversized roll of paper.
The artist in question is Quentin Blake, the much-loved illustrator of more than 300 children’s books, who is undertaking a drawing challenge of some considerable scale.
Using giant marker pens and oil pastels, Mr Blake intends to cover more than a dozen metres of scroll with his flights of imagination in front of a live audience as part of the Arrivals festival, in celebration of the Eurostar’s new destination.
“If I’m running out of ideas I might invite a few suggestions,” he says. “When I’m drawing properly I prefer people not looking at me work but this is a bit of performance.”
“If I make a mistake I’ll say it’s a mistake. I probably shan’t try to draw the Eurostar, just in case. Whatever I draw I shall make up as I go along. It’s not the same kind of quality control but it turns out quite well. Hopefully we can get an element of continuity into it.”
The frantic improvisation session is just the tip of the iceberg of music, dance and artistic events hitting King’s Cross over the next 10 days.
From French brass band Les Grooms’s fanfare for the first train on Wednesday evening to the surreal orchestral manoeuvres of Pierre Baston, Parisian hipsters Klub des Loosers and world-renowned jazz pianist Nikki Yeoh playing the station, Arrivals aims to set the artistic precedent for an area widely touted as a new cultural hub when it’s development begins in earnest next year.
Performers from across Europe will continue to flock to the festival the following week with circus spectaculars from ETA (Estimated Time of Arrival), a night of avant-garde films in the Gymnasium building, visual contributions from Isaac Julien and Minnie Weisz (sister of actress Rachel) to name but a few.
SIMON WROE

• The Arrivals Festival runs until November 25.
More details at www. arrivals2007.org.uk

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