I’m collecting marks in my sketchbook. Marks, or motifs, as I (via Fiona Godfrey) have come to think of them. Making, collecting, contemplating – . Some feels like mine, others have to go – even if I love the look of them. I’m not satisfied with using my eyes only. The motifs have to connect…
Tag: sketchbook
Leaving my comfort zone
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…
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)…
