Globe West Calendar: Drawing Together

Globe West Calendar | Nancy Shohet West GLOBE CORRESPONDENT  MARCH 08, 2015

Scout K. Austin and Kellie Weeks, Untitled No. 58, pastel and charcoal, 44 x 30

DRAWING TOGETHER Though they have always been close friends and colleagues for years, Scout Austin and Kellie Weeks have always deployed very different styles and techniques as artists.

"I work in a very intuitive way and Scout more typically approaches a project with the image of a landscape or dreamscape already in mind," Weeks said.

They put their heads–and talents–together to create "1+1+1: Collaborative Dreamscapes," a series of pastel and charcoal drawings on exhibit at the Fountain Street Fine Art Gallery in Framingham.

Inspiration for the project came during a joint excursion to Boston's Institute of Contemporary Art last year. "We were looking at a series of drawings by the South African artist William Kentridge," recalled Austin, who works from her studio in her Framingham home. "They were very large pieces, and I started thinking that it would be cool to try making really big drawings, but I don't have the studio space."

Scout K. Austin and Kellie Weeks, Untitled No. 19, pastel and charcoal, 30 x 44

Weeks, who lives in Fitchburg but rents a studio in West Concord, had the wall space needed to work on large-scale pieces, and the two agreed to try creating art together. 

"Starting out, we were both wondering how we would feel about someone else working on our drawing," Austin recalled. "And we were worried about each other's feelings."

Nonetheless, they worked out a system. "We would each begin a drawing and then after a set amount of time, maybe five or ten minutes, we would switch and work on the opposite piece," Weeks said. "We kept switching until we felt the drawing was finished."

The exhibition runs through April 3 at Fountain Street Fine Art Gallery, 59 Fountain St., Framingham. For hours and more information, call 508-879-4200 or go to www.fsfaboston.com.

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