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…
Tag: sketchbook
Sketchbook Sunday
My sketchbooks have, up until recently, mainly been used for observational sketches. For sketches of things seen in the world around me. Turning to painting, I am more and more focused on the interior life of things and places, on feelings and rhythm, on experiences and sensations I find more and more difficult to put…
A story about immersion and subtraction
or: What I gleaned from spending 5 wonderful days painting under the supervision of Liz Hough at St. Ives School of Painting, a visual report: Becoming nature — The first step has to do with immersing oneself into what is already there; walk around, sit down, feel the wind, notice the short glimpses of bright…
Sunday poem on a Saturday
Lighthouse Keeping – Seas pleat winds keen fogs deepen ships lean no doubt, and the lighthouse keeper keeps a light for those left out. It is intimate and remote both for the keeper and those afloat. Kay Ryan (from my sketchbook)
Still here
— sketching my way into autumn, having great fun mixing gouache & watercolours on my sketchbook pages
Completely ordinary and unremarkable
— portrait of a washing line
The Artichoke
Artichoke: That vegetable of which one has more at the finish than at the start of dinner. ~Lord Chesterfield Artichokes are young, unopened thistle buds from the daisy family. If left to mature, the flowers can reach up to 5 feet in height. They are descendants of a similar thistle plant known as the cardoon,…
Have no fear!
Have no fear of perfection – you’ll never reach it. ― Salvador Dalí In a recent post, the Australian urban sketcher Liz Steel, presents her motivation for keeping a daily sketchbook in a very simple and elegant way, she says: My main reason for sketching regularly is to keep a visual journal of my life (…
Art and Fear
Making art can feel dangerous and revealing. Making art is dangerous and revealing. Making art precipitates self-doubt, stirring deep waters that lay between what you know you should be, and what you fear you might be. I guess I mentioned this before, but I’ll say it again: Art and Fear: Observations on the Perils (and Rewards)…
The perpetual nature journal
Just the other day I was pondering upon how to combine my interest for nature; for mindlessly walking around in the world looking at things that grow, flower and wither, for discovering beauty all around – and my love for sketching. And then, almost as reply to a request, I discovered the unusual talented Lara Call Gastinger…
