My Sketchbooks

Sketching for me until recently, has been sitting outside somewhere inspirational and capturing something of the scene in front of me.  We have a lovely local sketch group here in Koroni, and meet up weekly (pre-Covid that is!) in a different village, or beach taverna and I work on developing my sketching style, but in all honestly I really just splash paint about trying to do a loose portrayal of something.

 

When I’m travelling however, I tend to pull out the sketchbook when we’re sitting in a cafe, or I might decide to visit a particular place with the sole purpose of sketching.  I have in the past too, incorporated some of sketches into my collage paintings, using them to help tell the story of where I was at the time.

More recently however, I have started working in large sketchbooks, primarily using up paint after a session in the studio, and then using that as a background for an On Location sketch. I love the way the randomly applied paint seems to happily accept the ink sketch over the top, and turn it into something interesting, but also capturing the scene in front of me.

My sketches in the galleries below tell the tale of some of the places I’ve sat and absorbed my surroundings…

 

I’m now also spending time ‘playing’ in sketchbooks in the studio, trying different compositions, getting ideas for abstract works, new marks and palettes. I am sharing some of these below as well.

Abstract Play

Often I’ll wander down to the beach and stand at the water’s edge and splash some inks onto sheets of paper, pick up a stick or bit of beach debris to draw with, then back into the studio, where I tear these ‘sketches’ up and make abstract collages in my sketchbook. The secret is to remember it’s all play, and not a finished piece!