Sketchbook

Sketchbooks are a valuable part of my practice, for information gathering, to observe or better understand something, to explore or work out an idea or pattern. This section shows occasional sketchbook pages that have, or may influence my practice, or be an end in themselves.

January 2021 and I committed myself to the Sketchbook Project run by the Brooklyn Art Library. The Sketchbook Project is the world’s largest library of artists’ books and is crowd sources from every corner of the globe. My sketchbook focussed on my times spent in Venice.

November, back into lockdown but allowed outside. Travel not necessary is discouraged. The parks and nearby nature reserve became this months inspiration to draw every day.

September, still out of lockdown, I went out and went into Winchester Cathedral, allowing myself no more than 20-30 minutes per sketch.

For August 2020 I joined the online group #drawingaugust. A cheerful community, a great mix of style and content. I returned to trees, beginning to build up an awareness and understanding of trees that I hope will develop into a deeper body of work.

Lockdown uplifted, this month, July, I drew every day from water in the water meadows and from rivers in Yorkshire and Northumberland.

Lockdown continued. This month I drew every day from the built environment of Winchester.

Lockdown continued. I continued to make a specific drawing every day. This time looking at the shells, driftwood, feathers and roots gathered years ago by the children, now gathering dust, but too precious to be discarded. Drawing them helped me re-celebrate them, re-examine them, remember why we treasured them in the first place.

Lockdown affected my practice. It made me think and look locally. I began to follow artists who make a drawing everyday, alongside drawing everyday. On my obligatory hourly exercise walk, not lingering, not engaging with people, I resolved to draw a tree each day, or at least part of a tree as they moved into spring foliage through the month of April. Here are the results.