The sea is getting colder and wilder.
So we go to the misty green river. To the quiet places with egrets and herons. Maybe, if we are lucky, catch a glimpse of iridescent blue as a kingfisher flies low across the water.
I came to the end of my main sketch book soon after I got home from Scilly. I work in sketchbooks a lot and usually have two or three open at once as often one is drying or being primed and I enjoy working across them all.
My sketch books are my playground and my sanctuary.
I collect colours, times, draw things I have found, play with words, thrash ideas about and write lists. And when everything else is too hectic and I am a bit lost I can always find a way with my books.
My favourite is the 16 x 21 cm Fabriano Classic Artist’s journal but I bought a Fabriano quadrato 16 x 16 cm as well this time. Square…
… and since I’ve had this new square book all I have drawn, painted and written about is swimming. The quadrato has become my swimming sketchbook and I have been putting them on my Facebook page in an album called ‘swimming in my sketchbook’
I am a sculptor so it may seem strange that my passion at the moment is trying to paint water. I am getting out in my garage, I am cutting up wood for frames, gathering and preparing to make new moulds and planning to pour some resins soon. The wheels are beginning to turn again out there.
But here in my sketchbook I will continue to wander freely and go where my heart takes me.