Feature: Josh Cedar’s work is currently on show at Flaxon Ptootch

Published: 17 November, 2011
by DAN CARRIER

Working as a telecoms engineer means Josh Cedar travels about – and he always takes a sketch book with him as he commutes to and from jobs.

“I work in a lot of different places and travel along a lot of different routes,” he says. “And instead of being half asleep on trains, it is much more interesting to do small studies of people. I draw them  quickly – I want to capture their movement.”

The sketches take five to 10 minutes and later he inks them in.

Josh has no formal training beyond an art O-Level, but he has always loved creating portraits, character studies, and cartoons, and he has been an occasional contributor to the New Journal over the years.

As well as using public transport for his subjects, he has discovered another space that offers opportunities for a group of still life subjects – the reading rooms of our public libraries.

Some of the work on display at his new exhibition at art gallery and hair salon, Flaxon Ptootch, is the product of Josh pulling up a chair in the Kentish Town and Camden Town branches and people-watching.

“The library is a great place to draw people,” he says. “I find these branches have a good community of older people who come and sit in the warmth and read the papers, and they make fascinating subjects.”

His subjects come from many places. At the Flaxon Ptootch show, one of the images is of a road sweeper who does the rounds of Kentish Town Road.  
Josh realised there was a good chance he might come past and see the pictures through the gallery’s window, so he let him know.

“He was very pleased and surprised to be included,” says Josh.

This sort of subject is in stark contrast to another stomping ground for the artist.

He often spends time in Liverpool Street Station and around the Bishopsgate area.

Here he waits for half an hour to capture a few studies as he is passing through.

And the subjects he has chosen are all City workers.

“I have drawn a lot of brokers and bankers,” he says. “It is like they all belong to a bizarre sub-cult.

“They look highly strung, they live in this macho-lunatic world, and appear to be a wealth-fixated group of people.  

“They are incredibly interesting to draw.”

• Josh Cedar’s work is currently on show at Flaxon Ptootch, hair salon and art gallery, 237, Kentish Town Road, NW5. 0207 267 5323.