Meet arts trail’s youngest recruit

A BOY of 11 will be the youngest artist ever to be featured in the Henley Arts Trail after rediscovering his passion for drawing during lockdown.

Freddie Bennett, who lives in Henley, started drawing again during the first lockdown in March and now has an Instagram account for displaying his art with more than 200 followers.

He said lockdown had enabled him to take his passion more seriously. His work will now be displayed at the arts trail in July after it caught the attention of ​Jo Keiller, the trail’s co-ordinator.

Freddie, who attends the Oratory Prep School in Goring Heath, used to draw a lot of cartoon and manga-style sketches when he was younger and started drawing again during the coronavirus pandemic.

He attended a workshop at the Cartoon Museum in London two years ago that sparked his interest in cartoon-style drawings.

He said: “Lockdown gives me more time to focus on my art, whereas I had been focusing on other things before, so this has been great. I think I’ve always been good but I’m way better now. I started drawing a few years ago but it’s only recently I have got quite serious about it.”

Freddie, who lives with his parents Charlotte and Daniel, said his favourite things to draw were cartoons that were bright and colourful.

Mrs Bennett said: “The drawings are very colourful but he likes mixing between colour and black and white. He has refined it and it’s getting more complex and he’s blending more. Something switched in his brain to focus on his art and he was drawing every hour of every day during lockdown.”

The pair decided to create an Instagram account to display Freddie’s work to help him connect more with local artists and also inspire other people to follow their passions.

The account, called @fctb.art, already has 211 followers.

Mrs Bennett said: “It’s quite amazing to have so many followers and we only started the account after Christmas. Freddie felt brave enough to start it after nine months of drawing and wanted to join a lot of other local artists. I help manage it for him and that works quite well to protect him from being online.”

Mrs Bennett then reached out to the Henley Arts Trail to find out how else to connect Freddie to local artists and see if there were more workshops he could take part in.

After speaking to Miss Keiller, the trail organisers asked to see Freddie’s art and said they would be excited to give him a small exhibition this summer.

Mrs Bennett said: “The organiser was so excited about his work and they said they had never had someone this young before on the trail. They hope it’ll encourage other young people to get involved in art.”

Miss Keiller said: “He’s our youngest exhibitor to date and we are delighted to offer him a place and give him an opportunity to showcase his fantastic works of art. With such talent and passion at a young age he’ll be flying high when he’s older. Life has been very challenging for our younger generation over the past few months so it means a lot to give a young person an opportunity like this that will give focus and hopefully bring a little spark back with something to aim for and look forward to.”

Freddie, who has pinned a lot of his sketches on his bedroom wall, hopes that by displaying his art he will encourage other people to follow their passions.

He said: “I don’t want people to feel they have to do art like me but I want to encourage them to do whatever they like, such as cooking or writing.

“I hope my drawings can help encourage them and obviously practice makes perfect — if you keep going at it you will succeed and have fun at what you do.

“It doesn’t matter if you want to cook but can’t turn the oven on, you just need to love it.”

Freddie wants to pursue art in the future and hopes to get a scholarship one day at college or university level.

He said: “I like doing art as a subject in school but they teach more realistic drawings — I still enjoy it.”

The Henley Arts Trail is due to take place across the second and third weekends of July. It was originally set for the early May bank holiday weekend but was postponed due to the pandemic.