I’ve been working systematically in sketchbooks for nearly 4 years, starting out doing urban sketching, which I like a lot! (My background as an architecture student in the late 1980’ probably unconsciously steered me in this direction when I now, many years later, wanted to take up art).

Wanting a stronger sense of authenticity in my art, I am gradually leaving the world as a place of common understanding, logic & sense, behind. Depicting places in the external world as seen & felt is no longer the most important challenge to me. My new world is a world existing in a different sphere, a world of rhythm and inexplicable feelings, of random meetings and collisions. It’s difficult to leave a known world behind. I enjoy making nice, easy recognizable pictures. But to make my work mine, I know I must leave my comfort zone.

For three weeks now I’ve been following Karen Stamper’s online course Free up your sketchbook and grow, I’m halfway through the course & it has already exceeded all my expectations. It has turned out to be just what I need at this stage of my development.

In Karen’s course we are working in concertina sketchbooks. Here is a short film of mine, in the midst of its creation.