The Joy of Sketch

Hi everybody,
A couple of weekends ago I joined the Watercolour NZ paint away weekend at Lake Brunner. Around 70? watercolour painters met up and painted together and had a great time. I am always flummoxed (lovely word) when faced by the perfection of a reflecting lake. My friend Lucy McCann once commented that sometimes it’s better just to enjoy perfection rather then trying to paint it! And she’s right. Many others managed to capture the mirror images of the beautiful kahikatea standing along the edges of the water, but I mainly just sat and enjoyed it. I realise that I’m quite often the person who paints the view looking the other way from a popular subject 🙂 I’m not sure what that says about me!

I did take lots of photos and sketched plenty of other things – falling down buildings, old cars …and came home with lots of ideas. Is there anyone else who likes sitting on footpaths ? No, I’m not staging a sit in protest, and am not (currently) homeless, but I do enjoy sketching from unusual spots!

Studio visitors always seem drawn (pardon the pun) to my sketchbooks. When I look back through them myself I’m taken by the freshness of what I’ve scribbled. I think it’s easier to catch the essence of something when you only have a few moments , leaving out anything that doesn’t help tell your story.
I’ve sketched on ferries, in cemeteries, woolsheds, footpaths, cafes and bus stops.

First impressions of anything tell you what’s important – gut instincts, I guess.

It might be a colour combo, an interesting shape, the way that light is hitting something. Rifling through my collection of sketchbooks I can spot all sorts of random things…anything from kitchen utensils to a dead kangaroo.

When you’re travelling, as so many are again, a sketchbook will help you record your experiences in a way quite different from photos. Often now we fire off photos all over the place then wonder later why we took them. But because your wee sketch is recording your reactions to something, colours, sounds, even smells – you will end up with quite a different thing from a photo of the same scene – because you’ve left out all the stuff that doesn’t matter .
Sketching can be as discreet and private as you like. You can sketch on a plane, at a cafe, in your car. No one else needs to see it if you choose to keep it to yourself.

They can be as simple or as elaborate as you like, too. Just a pencil and a wee book, or some coloured pencils and pens, or watercolour. Often I’ll just put down some colours to remind me , if I intend to paint from it later on.

I keep my materials and equipment simple. I’m especially enjoying a new wee DAS cats tongue watercolour brush which I recently bought from www. hobbyland.co.nz , which can do washes but also has a fine point for adding lines or details.

I often scribble notes beside my sketches, and glue in interesting bits and pieces , tickets, brochures etc.
You don’t need to be an experienced artist to keep a sketchbook, anyone can do it. Try it and see for yourself!
As we head towards winter I hope that you’ll take some time for yourself to be creative, in whatever way works for you – I always enjoy seeing what you’ve done.

I’ll be heading away in the next couple of months and will be sketching whilst traveling in Australia. The gallery will be closed while I’m away . We do have house sitter but I’m not going to ask them to do gallery duty 🙂 But you can still email me with any queries.
Please get in touch if there’s a particular aspect you’d like me to tackle in my blog and I’ll do my best,

Keep warm, and enjoy winter , Jan 🙂