Equipped with his trusty medium black inked Bic Biro ballpoint pen, British artist Mark Powell draws absolutely incredible portraits of the beautiful weathered faces of older people that he sees onto the surfaces of vintage maps, newspapers, magazine covers and envelopes. This particular style came to Powell when he needed to downsize and found an “envelope that was sent from the trenches in World war one” and wanted to pair the ages together.
The soldier had sent it just before ‘going over the top’. With the likelihood that the soldier never returned i decided to draw what he may have looked like as an old man. And so it started. In an increasingly digital age i want to save as much as i can in the way of maps etc and ‘upcycle’ them. The pairing of elderly people and antique documents is a natural one. Both have an untold history upon the face of it.
