Patchings Festival last month was packed with fun and interest, and it was wonderful to watch so many children enjoying hands-on sessions, not worrying about spoiling good paper or wasting art materials – just enjoying the action of drawing and painting, and focusing on the moment. Back at home I took out a stack of pristine sketchbooks, which I haven’t been able to resist buying over the years, and pondered on why I can’t bring myself to use them while I have a box filled with drawings made on scraps of paper and the backs of envelopes. These sketchbooks are simply too good to spoil! What if the first drawing doesn’t work out? What if the paper doesn’t take the medium? Watching the children attacking those pieces of paper with such relish inspired me to mark the first page of one of my favourite books, albeit with more restraint. The drawing wasn’t so bad and with the first page full, I turned to the next page with an easier heart.
I love sketchbooks – and especially looking at how professional artists fill them. I was particularly pleased to see Steve Strode’s sketches and images from his journals this month (pages 27 to 29). Steve has presented his latest project over the past couple of issues of LP – documenting the Mersey shoreline close to his home in Liverpool. He encourages us to fill our sketchbooks with photographs, images and colour swatches as well as daily drawings and colour work. Steve even finds the surfaces of bottles, driftwood and stones found on his walks acceptable as painting surfaces. You may not be able to take out your paints and easel today, but there’s no reason why a page from a little sketchbook resting on a knee can’t be filled using the Biro you picked up to make your shopping list. I think the lesson here is for us all to practise being artists, allowing ourselves the time to be creative and have fun, as well as honing skills and techniques.