“PEACE ARTIST, XAVIER PICK”

In 2008, British artist and armed services member Xavier Pick was chosen to be the official “war” artist in Iraq, producing thousands of sketches, photographs, and film footage in an effort to try to reconcile the war and understand what we were doing for the Iraqi people. After learning about this fascinating artist and in brief conversation with him, I believe the term “peace” artist might be a more befitting title. 

Like most artists, Pick is an observer of life; and like some artists, he is a consummate documentarian, chronicling not only life during conflict and wartime, reconciliation and peace, but life in general. He prefers his sketchbook over a camera because he sees it as non-confrontational; people are curious and drawn into the process. For some 15 years, a page or two a day, his thoughts, ideas and perceptions of the world around him have been meticulously sketched into these notebooks. He relays that the books, to him have been “a passport to many worlds; a living portfolio for others to see who you are.” I personally believe the sketches have given him a keen insight into his subject matter that is perhaps far deeper than what a photograph could have yielded. 

The backstreets, skyline and pulse of London nightlife appears to come alive on these canvases. What struck me most upon first seeing the work was the obscure rooftop views. In so many of the pieces you feel as if you are perched over the city, viewing it through his eyes, the subjective perspective of an artist who wants you to not only see and feel the sights in front of him, but also experience exactly what he is observing at the time.  “The life-states that we experience are diverse. We can feel hunger and sadness on a beautiful sunny day in the park, and a rainy miserable evening in winter we may be filled with great compassion and calm. A place is just a mirror to our feelings.” 

Working around Piccadilly Circus, often through the night, he describes a part of the city that never sleeps, and it is obvious storytelling is a common thread throughout his body of work. From the painting “London Bridge,” he writes… ”Steve is at number 14. He is a road sweeper by day while his wife sells pie and mash with jellied eels. They have three children who they love very much. They are very happy that I am painting their view, the kids’ bikes and their door. The eldest son wants to be an artist and shows me his Spider Man cartoons. There is Guys Hospital in the background from where their daughter has just come out, they explain their flat is damp and that’s why she lost one of her kidneys. Nothing really makes sense at the moment, except the love that this family has. Desire and possessions mean nothing when there is so much talk about war. The graffiti says it all, ‘NO WAR, NO GREED.’

 The paintings are an intricate blending of sketches, words, and ideas transformed through mixed-media montage. The scenes he designs, digitally photographs, and in his studio reworks to create the final effect. 

You can find him at the Sanctum Soho Hotel in London, where he is a resident artist, and always with journals in hand. “If I get stuck on what to do next, I'll go on a sketchbook drawing adventure, unsure where it will take me.” 

Pick is a graduate of the Royal College of Art. For more on this sentient artist,