The Carpathian villages of Romania are places where horses and carts are still more useful than cars. So when a charity working for their preservation wanted a visual record of local life, it plumped not for a photographer with a digital camera but an artist dipping pen into ink.

The resulting exhibition by George Butler, ranging from intimate portraits of men wielding scythes to panoramas of livestock markets, can be seen from today [Tuesday October 28] at the Romanian Cultural Institute in London.

The 100-or-so villages, scattered along the southern range of the Carpathian Mountains (Transylvanian Alps), date from the 12th century, and are among the last vestiges of European medieval planning and culture, but they are threatened by development and a pace of change that has quickened since the end of communism and Romania’s entry (in 2007) into the European Union.

The Global Heritage Fund UK and the Anglo-Romanian Trust for Traditional Architecture are working with villagers and government to preserve the villages and revive traditional and sustainable building crafts.

Butler, 29, who is based in London, specialises in travel and current affairs and has worked in recent years in Syria and Lebanon. He spent two months in Romania: in October last year, to capture preparations for winter, and then May this year for the start of the hay harvest.

First he stayed in the village of Richis, in a valley that was terraced for vines by the Romans. The second time he walked for a week, setting out each day with drawing kit and picnic to tramp the two hours or so between one village and the next.

His real brief was to document the architecture, but he got distracted. “I was, as always, blown away by the people, and what they were doing and how they were doing it. The second time I went, the buildings become the context for the things that were going on: scything by hand, collecting water from the well, milking cows and goats – all the daily village life.”



George Butler spent two months in Romania (Picture: George Butler)

His work, he hopes, will help in the preservation of the best aspects of that life. “The rest of Europe is so far ahead of them that we’re almost trying to get back to the things they’ve got: ecologically sound houses, local materials, locally sourced produce. I couldn’t convince the locals of this – I suppose the grass is always greener – but if we could learn something from them and them from us, perhaps somewhere in the middle there’s a more sustainable world.”



He captured a culture that is increasingly under threat (Picture: George Butler)

Essentials

“Capturing Carpathia” is at the Romanian Cultural Institute, 1 Belgrave Square, London SW1X 8PH from Tuesday October 28 until Friday November 7. Open 9am to 5pm, weekdays only. All the art will be for sale, and 50 per cent of the profits will go to the Global Heritage Fund UK.

At the same address on October 29, from 6.45pm to 8.15, George Butler will be in conversation with William Blacker, author of Along the Enchanted Way: A Romanian Story. Tickets, at £10 each, are available from Eventbrite (bit.ly/1tEhaVu).

For more about George Butler’s work, see georgebutler.org.



His drawings can be seen at the Romanian Cultural Institute until November 7 (Picture: George Butler)