Daily sketchbook

Lockdown and home schooling have taken over life, but I have still been trying to work every day. At the moment, I’m keeping a ‘nature journal’ along with my eldest daughter, Harper.

All artists know that keeping your eye in is vital - it doesn’t necessarily matter what you’re drawing/painting as long as you keep ticking away. The work is doing the work. Back in the days before life, children and ‘proper’ jobs took over, I’d carry a sketchbook with me everywhere. Drawing was as natural as breathing, it was who I was and what I did. But time passes and life interferes and it’s taken me a while to get back to where I need to be going. Also, I’ve become a bit of a Pinterest addict (mostly for my house and garden) and some of those ‘journalling’ pins are so very pretty. But that’s often all they are, just surface, materials being played with to create something pretty for the wall. Lots of fluid acrylics at play. All good, but I need something more, there has to be some emotional and aesthetic depth, especially with the horrors of the world as they currently are. A simple escape from that is great, but I am also strongly pulled to comment and observe.

These drawings are predominantly for their own sake, but I’m also experimenting for an illustrated book project that has been ongoing for a while. Hopefully this is it kickstarting into reality!