Sketching beyond the "Challenge"
To practice any art, no matter how well or badly, is a way to make your soul grow. Kurt Vonnegut
During my 30 day Sketchbook Challenge I joked about taking my sketchbook into the wild. … The practice of the "challenge" offers a framework of discipline which is not a natural state for me. My creative practice usually looks more free form, following the whims of the muses, working in a variety of mediums, on a variety of projects at anyone time, and allowing myself to be pulled down the rabbit hole …
The Flower is...the eternal seductiveness of life.
The flower is the poetry of reproduction.
It is an example of the eternal seductiveness of life.
— Giraudoux
Producing this class has been a love affair- a love affair with each of the artists as I fell more and more in love with their work, a love affair with my garden in all it's winter glory, and a love affair with creating, with painting, with sketching, with pastels, with watercolours, with drawing- with the act of making art.
Final Reflections on the Sketchbook Challenge- last 10 days
I've come to the end of this challenge and while I've loved the practice, I'm also really looking forward to liberating this sketchbook from the table with the camera and setting it free into the wild as a sketchbook should be. I'm also looking forward to some art journaling and am wondering how to incorporate both practices into my limited time. I'm also curious to see how some of things I've played with in my sketchbook will emerge on the journal page…
Reflections on the Sketchbook Challenge- first 10 days
When I start these challenges I wonder about my sanity- committing to add something else to my already overflowing plate. Yet there is this way that the challenges push me to do a daily practice which I can not maintain daily except for these short stints. And with daily practice come growth, just a little, bit by bit growth, but it adds up; I don't see it daily but at the end of the 30 days there's a small body of work that stretched the muscles, found new ways and explored the edges.
Sketchbook Challenge- Day 1
I’ve begun another challenge- this time a Sketchbook Challenge.
Seems I like to start a new challenge when I’m life is getting busy, as if I won’t have time to show up to the blank page or canvas swept along by life. The challenge brings me to the page for practice, practice for practice’s sake, and experimentation, unencumbered by making a “piece”. ..