Firstly, please let me apologise for my lack of response to your enquiries, and for the delay in updates on my blog. As you will hear in the interview I give below the past few years and seen me journey through some pretty troubled times. For those of you still waiting on responses, I promise that I will get back to you eventually, but it would be greatly appreciated if you could please bear with me as I start to get things moving again.

In the press

Following a recent exhibition of my drawings at The Minster Tavern in Ely, I found my story had made it into several of the local papers. As a result of this I was contacted by BBC Radio Cambridgeshire for an interview on Louise Hulland’s Sunday morning breakfast show which you can listen to below. Two interviews were broadcast on her show that day, so I recorded them both and stitched them together.

The past 3-4 years have been a bit of a nightmare for me. I’ve had to deal with a major heart attack, three angioplasty heart operations, the loss of my house, the ending of a relationship, finding myself homeless, losing the majority of my possessions, suffering depression, anxiety, and to top it all, last year, a quadruple heart bypass. However, not being one for giving up easily, I decided to share my story in an interview with Louise Hulland of BBC Radio Cambridgeshire in the hope that anyone out there who is also struggling with life as I have done can see that there is a light at the end of the tunnel, and it’s definitely not an oncoming train!

Click to enlarge

Ian McKendrick’s background

I had been a hobby watercolourist for many years, but following my initial heart attack in 2013 my doctor advised I should take up studying a new challenge as part of my therapeutic recovery. I had been in contact with Cindy Wider of DrawPJ who offered me a place on her awesome online drawing course which I gratefully accepted.

Taking the course was a spiritually and technically enlightening experience and it gave me a totally new perspective on how I observe what I see. The course also gave me the experience and knowledge necessary to confidently recreate what I see by using a myriad of pencilling and drawing techniques. Find out more about Cindy Wider’s amazing DrawPJ drawing course by clicking here >>

Following my quadruple heart bypass in October 2015 I found it too painful and difficult to draw. This meant that I had to stop drawing conventionally as it was far too painful to move my drawing board around, or even to use an eraser for any length of time. Luckily, a friend, who I had helped out several years previously, went out and bought me the latest iPad Pro, an Apple Pencil and keyboard which I’ve since been using this to create my drawings. I have found this much easier as everything can be manipulated with my fingertips and I can draw for hours on end without any pain at all. I draw using the Procreate app which you can find by clicking here >>

Connect with Ian McKendrick

A selection of Ian McKendrick’s drawings

The interview

Listen to Ian McKendricks Interview with BBC Cambridgeshire March 2017 on AudioBoom

If you need help

Next Steps

If you found this interview interesting, inspiring, revealing or helpful then please share your thoughts using the reply box below – Thanks