Drawing, Mindfulness and Connection

Art, meditation, painting, PhD

Is it too much to wonder if drawing can be an act of resistance against disconnection or a political act to create unity and peace through presence, mindfulness and interconnectivity?

22 NOV 2023

This last week I was going to write a piece about drawing and the role that it can play in mindfulness and ‘being present’, but on thinking about it that was put to one side slightly and the importance of drawing as an interconnectedness with all things came up.

How amazing it would be if the simple act of drawing could be used as a transformational process to bring people and their ecosystem (that which forms a network of relationship and interdependence i.e. everything) together?

What if drawing creates union?

What got me thinking

I do a lot of my PhD research about mindfulness, meditation and contemplation in relation to an art practice. It’s always a good excuse to go out and draw anyway; justifying the pleasure with some kind of ridiculous validating argument as if I can’t just have the pleasure. But anyway, in the name of research (!) I was on holiday in Portugal last week and set myself a little goal of painting or drawing to record the trip each day as I generally do when travelling, both as a diary and as something more. 

I took a little A5 sized sketchbook and a small pad of watercolour paper and carved niches of time out to use them throughout the trip.

For me, drawing in the landscape is part of a full participation in a location. I take photos, like the rest of us, but the difference between photographing and drawing is enormous. 

Michael Taussig, anthrolopologist and field notes maker, in his book “I Swear I Saw This: Drawings in Fieldwork Notebooks, Namely my own”, speaks of drawings: 

“folding organically into the writing in the notebook whereas a photograph lives in another sphere altogether, with technology, lying between you and the world”. 

He mentions John Berger’s thoughts, with his enigmatic notion that a photograph stops time, while the drawing encompasses it and encompassing is like enclosure. There is an intimacy that Berger finds between the drawer and the drawn, suggesting that drawing is like a conversation with the theme drawn likely to involve prolonged and total immersion. Here the idea is that the person becomes the drawing, you become so close to the object, until you are finally it as it were, the contours you have drawn marking the edge of what you have seen, but also the:

“edge of what you have become, an autobiographical record of one’s discovery of an event, scene, remembered, or imagined.” (Berger 2007:3)

Berger also says that drawing has something that painting, sculpture, installations and videos lack, and that is corporeality. (Berger 2007: 16).

I think mindfulness is a big part of it for me and I like to cultivate and exercise that skill when I can. Here are a couple of definitions of mindfulness:

“Mindfulness […] is generally defined to include focusing one’s attention in a nonjudgmental or accepting way on the experience occurring in the present moment [and] can be contrasted with states of mind in which attention is focused elsewhere, including preoccupation with memories, fantasies, plans, or worries, and behaving automatically without awareness of one’s actions.” (Baer et al. 2004: 191).

“Mindfulness is a process of regulating attention in order to bring a quality of non-elaborative awareness to current experience and a quality of relating to one’s experience within an orientation of curiosity, experiential openness, and acceptance.” (Bishop et al. 2004: 234).

There are two understandings of mindfulness: Western and Buddhist derived. A more Eastern-based idea of mindfulness (sati) is:

“Eastern mindfulness means having the ability to hang to current objects, to remember them, and not to lose sight of them through distraction, wandering attention, associative thinking, explaining away, or rejection.” (Weick & Sutcliffe (2006: 518)

You can see why this is a useful practice to cultivate! It is beneficial to be able to bring this skill to play in all sorts of life situations!

Benefits of mindfulness

The practice of mindfulness, through methods such as body scanning, meditation, and yoga, aims to achieve a state of “being-mode”, characterized by acceptance of change and non-attachment. (This is a confusing idea for Westerners – we can assume too easily that it has connotations of detachment which is not the same – let’s call non-attachment “caring non-attachment” instead because that is more useful). The goal is to master the mind, understand that human suffering is an illusion based on attachment to the nonexistent, and develop compassion and empathy for all beings.

Mindfulness improves mental skills and present-moment awareness by encouraging withdrawal from external factors that cause rumination, complex thinking, and emotional reactions. However, the idea of achieving a purely passive state of mind is paradoxical, as the mind is always interacting with the external environment. Despite this, mindfulness practitioners assert that the practice enhances the ability to remain internally focused and undisturbed by external phenomena.

You can see why sitting on a beautiful beach painting this on the island of Armona in Portugal can be argued for!

Mindfulness and Presence

Why are we drawn to being present? Could it be because the awareness of the body knows innately that being present is good for it? 

Could being in the present be connected with cultivating a sense of awe? (See my previous Substack on awe). 

We know scientifically that people who regularly encounter awe and acknowledge it have certain advantages.

But I got to thinking about what the present moment actually is? There is some literature about what a moment is. How small is it? One idea is that a moment is under six seconds, after which memory and prediction come into the picture. 

How deep is it? Does mindfulness give depth to a moment.

What is time anyway? (time is a human construction a space time modality, actually, it doesn’t exist but that is another book – see Deepak Chopra’s outpourings amongst others!).

And what actually is presence?

An experienced moment happens now, for a short extended moment but mental presence encloses a sequence of such moments for the representation of a unified experience of presence. Whereas the experienced moment forms an elementary unit, a temporally unified percept, mental presence involves the experience of a perceiving and feeling agent (“my self”) within a window of extended presence, a phenomenon that is based on working memory function.

“Working memory provides a temporal bridge between events – both those that are internally generated and environmentally presented – thereby conferring a sense of unity and continuity to conscious experience” (Goldman-Rakic, 1997).

My favourite two authors (not academic because so much more relatable!) on presence are Eckhart Tolle and Michael Singer. I read and reread these books (see links) and try to live the ideas there.

Maybe I can think of it this way: Archiving an event

This was a little sketch from Faro – I spent an hour sitting on a bench, fully enjoying the sun, smells, taste and sounds of the market on the marina whilst making this.

If a moment is nebulous in terms of definition then are we talking about an event? Am I archiving an event rather than being present? What is an event made up of? An event has a preparation, and moment, and a memory but can also be made up of smaller moments of consciousness or awareness, which add up to a sense of being present. 

How is drawing like yoga?

Honestly I don’t draw or paint in a headstand or the tree pose – that’s not what I mean! 

So, recording a feeling of interconnectedness through a medium of art materials is like experiencing the interconnection between my body and mind to something which is greater than me when practising yoga or meditation. In a physical sense, I place my awareness in my body when practising yoga and sense the interconnectedness of, for example, the breath and the position of the body, of which part of me is relaxed and which part of me is tense. When drawing outside I have pockets of attention like this, both of the inside of me (interoception) and outside of me in my (perceived) external environment.

Sometimes this interconnected quality of being feels very profound. I am connected to everything, everything is my ecology. The word ‘yoga’ comes from ‘yuj’ which means ‘union’. The mindful presence of being still and receptive in drawing is like the true meaning of yoga. A connection to my ecology which of course is THE ecology.

Drawing the beach – sensing the perceptions of my outer environment, sensing the perceptions of experimenting with materials and sensing my internal state. It’s what meditation is, it’s what yoga is.

Why do I sometimes feel the need to capture a past event from a photo?

Is it because I wanted to re-capture, relive, recover that sense of awe? I can mention here two examples. The first is a drawing made in Portugal of the experience of walking on the salt flats at Olhão which was about experiencing the sense of the light rather than that of form. The sense of the light was having an awe-inspiring affect on my body.

I used a photo to remind me of the awesome experience of light in the salt flats but the painting is not at all purely representational. 

The other example is the drawing made about the feeling of interconnectedness when swimming in the river at Dolanog. This went on to become a resolved painting. I will talk about that in another post. It was profound for me.

Drawing and flow state

How can drawing become an entry point into flow? Because drawing can be a form of voluntary play and play is an intentional portal into flow – more on this in another Substack too!

Sketching on an autumnal, orange ripening day in Ayamonte over the border in Spain.

If all of this has become too cerebral, how about this, as a more person to person connection arising from drawing outside last week:

Drawing and people connections

In around 2016 I met Mary Price (of Artist in the Shed on Instagram) on an art workshop in Brighton, tutored by the Australian artist Tracey Verdugo when she was on a world tour. Mary was sitting next to me during the weekend and over a Saturday night curry we made ourselves into friends, but only had an online friendship subsequently over the years, until just last year when we found ourselves in Olhǎo, Portugal at the same time. We spent a couple of happy days then out sketching together and drinking vinho verde of course!

This year she was to be in Olhǎo again at the same time as us. We organised more time to be spent out with sketchbooks and the day before we met up she had by chance encountered, in a cafe, another artist, Roz Beaver, who was travelling light around Portugal with her art materials. Over the next week or two we all bonded through drawing together, talking about art making, connections, and sharing life stories. We united through being in our true happy places, each of us connecting with our environment through drawing and painting in a deep and present way. We will remain friends wherever we are in the world through this true commonality and unity.

Roz, me and Mary – connected

So…

Is it too much to wonder if drawing can be an act of resistance against disconnection and a political act to create unity and peace through presence, mindfulness and interconnectivity?

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Some refs:

Taussig, Michael (2011), I Swear I Saw This: Drawings in Fieldwork Notebooks, Namely my own, Chicago: University of Chicago Press

Berger, John (2007), John Berger: Life Drawing, Ed. J. Savage, London: Occasional Press.

Let me know if you want the other citations – I need to go and have a custard cream now.

‘Sprezzatura’ – an exhibition

Art, Contemporary Women Artists, Events, exhibitions, painting

It’s action stations!

This week has been a full on one but it’s exciting. Two other artists in the studios have teamed up with me and we are going forward as a collective called ‘The Working Painters’. It’s a great boost to have a collaboration, and whereas I have generally worked a solitary bod I have really seen the power of working together this last few weeks. In the past we have loosely critted (is this a nice new word?) our work and thoughts together and now it’s time for a show of this year’s outputs.

Why now?

You know what? …. it’s hard to get gallery representation, or even work shown in the city art gallery where we work, and it’s sooooo easy to moan about that. So we decided to up the energy and organise a pop-up, renting the community hub which is a massive white ex-shop in the Mander Centre our city shopping mall here in Wolverhampton, England. The town is really down on its uppers, struggling to stay alive and the only thing we can do is to contribute to it with colour and hopefully inspiration for others to do the same. We want to buck the system!

Can we inspire?

We hope so – we want to show a way to beautifully curate on a limited budget to encourage others – individuals or groups – to have a go at doing the same. We are not having a catered Private View – but we are having one (!), and we are hanging in a way that others could replicate easily …. you’ll have to come to find out how.

‘Om Kara’ – Clare Wassermann – acrylic on paper – 73 x 73cm

About the title ‘Sprezzatura’

The exhibition title Sprezzatura typically means an appearance or style which assumes to be effortless but hides the endeavour involved in its creation. Many of the paintings exhibited here have been re-worked, painted back, painted over, scrubbed, rubbed, tonked, scratched, smudged, printed on, wrestled with and agonised over, and in fact the paintings often leave traces of these tussles. Some of the paintings came into being with less of a creative struggle as if not made by the artists at all. Nonetheless, the work of painting is always work, a matter of turning up and loading a brush. 

The artists

In a series of new work, Rachel Magdeburg has painted objects that have a personal resonance, and obliquely reference the practice, material techniques and processes of painting. Some of the pictorial imagery reveals a semantic playfulness, which is reinforced by the painting’s titles. Other paintings explore formal relationships within a work itself, and in relation to the motifs of other paintings. Rachel has just completed a doctorate in Fine Art and she is glad to be back to painting!

‘UnPalatable’ – Rachel Magdeburg – oil on board – 61 x 51cm.

Julia Burns’s recent large scale paintings employ a continuous dialogue, both intuitive and directed, with the very messy process of painting, along with a playful reference to a “mixtape” of Modernist and contemporary abstract painting, to create works that allude to the Urban landscape as an experience and an idea.

Julia Burns’s studio.

Clare Wassermann has been working with the symbolism of birds in her paintings as part of an ongoing investigation into the concept of liberation and alchemical transformation towards internal freedom as part of her PhD work.

‘River Swimming, Dolanog,’ Clare Wassermann – acrylic on paper, 120 x 79cm.

I you would like to purchase one of Clare’s pieces but can’t get to the exhibition 

There is an online catalogue here. Please get in touch to reserve your work – the beauty is there are no gallery fees so the work is affordable (subjective term I know!).
The work can be purchased online and posted at cost. Framing advice is available of course.

Please get in touch if you would like to purchase work by Julia or Rachel. Better still, come and meet us and see it in person. A catalogue will also be available online soon.

You can make quite a night of it!

You can go straight on to this if you come at the end of FridayEvery last Friday of the month, the doors of Wolverhampton Art Gallery will be opening after hours to welcome you in.

Each event will be inspired by current exhibitions. Expect live performances, music, workshops and curators talks throughout the gallery spaces.

Plus, the Glaze Café will be opening late to ensure you don’t go hungry or thirsty as you see your way into the night. Lates are adults-only, after-hours theme nights.

This Friday Lates is a double feature! Friday 27th & Saturday 28th October 6-9pm.

Friday 27th: there will be screening a documentary about the life and work of Derek Boshier.

Join British-Jamaican Artist and Educator, Exodus Crooks for an ink and collage workshop inspired by Derek Boshier’s Smile (1968). Throughout the workshop, participants will be invited to recreate an image they have on their phone, using found images, magazines and newspaper cut outs.

Info and booking here

How can we help you as an artist?

We are happy to work to mentor artists who would like to buck the system and put on their own show. We can offer advice and encouragement. Do get in touch with me if you think you would benefit from this service in the future.

And please do subscribe to my newsletter on Substack – I will be adding to it most weeks and I’d love your comments if you like!

Art manifestos and life manifestos

Art, daily practice, manifestos

painting currently on the studio wall and in early stages

What is an art manifesto?

Recently I was chatting with three art friends – we meet every few weeks online and are based in the U.S, Canada and the U.K. and our topic was ‘art manifestos’. Before our meetings we usually have a subject lined up that we would like to discuss so I felt I needed to do a little research first before attempting to write my own manifesto.

I discovered that an art manifesto is a public declaration of the intentions, motives, or views of an artist or artistic movement. Typically they refer to a system which, in the eye of the artist(s), needs reform – they are often a protest of the times. 

The first art manifesto of the 20th century was introduced with the Futurists in Italy in 1909, followed by the Cubists, Vorticists, Dadaists and the Surrealists: the period up to World War II created what are still the best known manifestos.

Subject matter is typically the need for revolution, freedom of speech (how relevant is THAT today …. yes indeed!) and the intention comes from the idea that art is a political tool. 

I like this one and am going to think about it further:

Artist Charles Thomson promoted the Crude Art Manifesto 1978.

This was posted by him in Maidstone Art College when he was a student. 21 years later he co-wrote the Stuckist manifestos with Billy Childish. Thomson was also a member of the punk-based band The Medway Poets. The manifesto rejects “department store” art and “elitist” gallery art, as well as sophistication and skill which are “easily obtainable … and are used both industrially and artistically to conceal a poverty of content.” The priority is stated to be “the exploration and expression of the human spirit”.

Childish and Thomson have issued several manifestos. The first one was The Stuckists, consisting of 20 points starting with “Stuckism is a quest for authenticity“.Remodernism, the other well-known manifesto of the movement, is a criticism of postmodernism; you can read it here …. something to wrap your head around in a moment of clarity!!

An inspiring example….

I do like this (sort of manifesto) from Richard Diebenkorn, which is clearer in terms of an intention set for a painting session. It’s called ‘Notes to myself on beginning a painting’ – it would be a useful thing to place on a studio wall:

My creative manifesto

So OK, I decided to create my own manifesto. It isn’t set in stone, I can change it and write new manifestos; I don’t want a manifesto to become a prison!! I wrote it in about half an hour because I thought the time restriction would be a way of finding my most immediate and therefore pressing values. 

Here it is:

An Art Manifesto – Clare Wassermann September 2023

There is no space for the divided self, the divided people, the divided planet.

We must adopt a friendliness to the idea of the unity of all to understand that we are an ecological system of each other and to ever come to peace.

My heArt entangles with your heArt.

My heArt heals yours if I will only let it, if you will only allow.

Your heArt can heal mine.

My Art can be a painting or a form made from my hands and mind, and might evoke something in you, or something beyond you, which you might want to explore with your heart and mind.

My symbols will not be yours but they could live in you for a while whilst you entertain them and breathe some of your breath into them.

You could be willing to see if your thoughts become less turbulent and settle in some place restful but inspiring, to a still point from where action could benefit you, someone else or other beings.

My art may generate new and helpful myths for the future and work upon the re-enchantment of human beings and human doings.

I am a process.

I discover my Self by making art.

I work on my Self through making art.

I save my Self from my self through making art.

My process affects others.

I am.

I renounce expectations

I leave (hyper) capitalism to others

I nurture the growth of my soul and those of others through curiosity, stillness and the wisdom of those who have been to useful places on their journeys.

I create with the intention of disrupting the status quo, of challenging the dominant narratives that keep us trapped in old ways of thinking and being. My art is a call to action, an invitation to join me in exploring new possibilities for ourselves and our world. It is my hope that we can create a more just, equitable, and sustainable future for all, meanwhile acknowledging the beauty we can behold in creation.

I create

because

I Am

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Could I take this further?

In writing this I realised that really this is my manifesto for life. I am going to try to live up to that.

I also realised that by the very act of writing I hold myself to linear thought in a way that I can’t when just musing in my head. I can write to think – it may seem obvious to you, but I am going to work on this more and see what comes out. I also know that I paint to think – a BIG part of my life. This realisation has been important in the impetus to create this Substack as a place for longer form writing

How about you?

So how about you?

Could you try writing a manifesto?

If it’s an art one – does it also reflect your life?

If a manifesto is too difficult a concept, then maybe just try a list of prompts for a month and put them in your sketchbook, on your fridge or on your Instagram, Facebook or somewhere to hold yourself accountable in some way.

How about this from Frederick Terral at Right Brain Terrain?

Frederick Terral’s manifesto

another place for a seasonal prompt:

I love to follow the seasons in art making, symbolism, ritual and to mark them with some kind of creative act. Here’s a wonderful artist’s review tool from one of my artist friends mentioned at the top of the post, Jacqueline Calladine (her Substack is here)Let me know what you think in a comment:Leave a comment

My instagram is here

and subscribe to my posts here: – next time I will have news of an exhibition I have as part of the three person ‘The Working Painters’ group.

Art Manifesto and exhibition details

Art, Events

An art manifesto is a public declaration of the intentions, motives, or views of an artist or artistic movement. Many arts groups have made manifestos creating new movements often rejecting previous movements and political views in the process. A group of four artist friends of mine decided to investigate more about this subject and in turn created their own personal manifestos. Here is mine which I can see is also a reflection of my Self and how my self wishes to be:

My Art Manifesto – September 2023

There is no space for the divided self, the divided people, the divided planet.

We must adopt a friendliness to the idea of the unity of all to understand that we are an ecological system of each other and to ever come to peace.

My heArt entangles with your heArt.

My heArt heals yours if I will only let it, if you will only allow.

Your heArt can heal mine.

My Art can be a painting or a form made from my hands and mind and might evoke something in you, or something beyond you, which you might want to explore with you heart and mind.

My symbols will not be yours but they could live in you for a while whilst you entertain them and breathe some of your breath into them.

You could be willing to see if your thoughts become less turbulent and settle in some place restful but inspiring, to a still point from where action could benefit you, someone else or other beings.

My art may generate new and helpful myths for the future and work upon the re-enchantment of human beings and human doings.

I am a process.

I discover my Self by making art.

I work on my Self through making art.

I save my Self from my self through making art.

My process affects others.

I am.

I renounce expectations

I leave hyper capitalism to others

I nurture the growth of my soul and those of others through curiosity, stillness and the wisdom of those who have been to useful places on their journeys.

I create with the intention of disrupting the status quo, of challenging the dominant narratives that keep us trapped in old ways of thinking and being. My art is a call to action, an invitation to join me in exploring new possibilities for ourselves and our world. It is my hope that we can create a more just, equitable, and sustainable future for all, meanwhile acknowledging the beauty we can behold in creation.

I create

because

I Am

by Clare Wassermann (18 x 29.5cm)

Exhibition

The ‘Working Painters’ group consists of Julia Burns, Rachel Magdeburg and Clare Wassermann.
We have an exhibition from October 28th-29th. It’s at the Community Hub which is a lovely large space in the Mander Centre, Wolverhampton – nearest entrance opposite Beatties.

There is a Private View from 4pm-6pm on 27th and the show is open from 10am – 4pm on the Saturday and Sunday.

There will be large and small works available to buy but we would love to see you to show what we have been working on this last year. Please do come.

by Clare Wassermann (71 x 120cm)

Please subscribe to find out more:

10 Ways Artists Use Sketchbooks Creatively

daily practice, painting, Sketchbooks, workshops

Firstly here are some artists I have found particularly inspirational with regard to sketchbooks. Following this are some suggestions for you to ponder as you use your sketchbook.

Inspirational Artists and their Sketchbooks

Kurt Jackson is a British artist who has been using sketchbooks for decades. He uses them to capture the natural beauty of the British Isles, and his work often features nature-inspired elements. He believes that sketchbooks can be used to create works of art that are both beautiful and meaningful. Jackson has said that sketchbooks are a great way for him to document his travels and explore his creative ideas. Jackson’s sketchbooks are vital to the development and completion of his paintings. The pages of his sketchbooks reveal how the hastily executed images can help him to work out what he wants to achieve on canvas, or simply capture a spontaneous image when there is not enough time to paint or draw properly. Insights into his domestic and professional life − not necessarily revealed in his exhibited works − abound from his continual routine of making drawings, marks, notes, poems and scribbles.

Grayson Perry is an artist who has garnered worldwide renown for his unique artwork and his use of sketchbooks to create it. Perry’s sketchbooks are filled with creative drawings, sketches, and ideas that have become the basis for many of his works. Perry uses his sketchbooks to capture his creative process and provide an insight into his thought process. He has said that he finds the practice of sketching and sketchbooking to be incredibly helpful in developing his ideas. Perry’s sketchbooks are full of vibrant images and playful doodles that reflect his unique style and creative vision. Bringing together his favourites for the first time and showing some of the finished works that result from these initial drawings, one result is a rich, beautiful book ‘Sketchbooks’, in print, perfect for those who want to know more about the artist’s creative process.

Grayson Perry

Anthony Gormley is a British sculptor and installation artist who has gained worldwide recognition for his unique and thought-provoking works. Gormley often uses his sketchbooks to explore new techniques and new materials, and to develop his ideas for future sculptures. His tiny passport sized Muji sketchbooks are filled with drawings of his sculptures in progress, as well as detailed notes and diagrams. He also uses his sketchbooks to document his travels and his interactions with other artists. Through his sketchbooks, Gormley is able to capture his creative process and the evolution of his works. His sketchbooks provide an insight into his creative journey and his artistic vision. The long glass cabinets filled with these books on view at his exhibition at the Royal Academy in London in 2019 certainly inspired me. Some examples can be found here and here.

Maya Lin is an American artist and designer who is best known for her iconic Vietnam War Memorial in Washington DC. Lin is also an avid sketchbook artist, using her sketchbooks as a form of creative expression and to document her ideas. She often uses her sketchbooks to explore her own creative process and to work out the details of her artwork. Lin uses her sketchbooks to capture her creative journey and to explore her own creative potential. Her sketchbooks are filled with drawings, sketches, and notes that capture her creative process, as well as her travels and experiences. By using her sketchbooks to document her creative journey, Lin has created some of the most iconic works of our time. Some of her work is in her book ‘Boundaries’.

Frida Kahlo is a renowned Mexican artist known for her vibrant self-portraits and her unique style of painting. Kahlo’s art was deeply personal and often explored her own identity and her Mexican heritage. In addition to her painting, Kahlo was also a prolific user of sketchbooks, some of which are in print in The Diary of Frida Kahlo

Frida’s journal

Baljinder Kaur is an artist and illustrator based in Wolverhampton, UK. Her sketchbooks provide a unique insight into her creative process and her thoughts on art, life, and the everyday. Her sketchbooks are filled with drawings, sketches, and notes that capture her creative journey, travels and her interactions with the world around her notably through explorations of Sikhism. Kaur often uses her sketchbooks to explore new techniques and materials, and to develop her ideas for future book illustrations – take a look here, and here is her wonderful Instagram account – do look at her children’s books.

sketchbook images by Baljinder Kaur of gardens and waterfalls
sketchbook image of a street in Singapore by Baljinder Kaur
Sketchbook painting of a temple in Singapore by Baljinder Kaur
Sketchbook page by Baljinder Kaur of a temple god in Singapore

How we can all benefit from a Sketchbook Practice

Sketchbooks are an essential tool for any artist, offering a convenient and portable workspace for creating, experimenting, and planning. Whether you’re a professional artist or a hobbyist, sketchbooks provide a great outlet for your creativity and help you explore a variety of techniques. Here are 10 different ways that artists use sketchbooks to their advantage:

  1. Drawing: Sketchbooks are an ideal platform for making quick sketches and getting your ideas down on paper. Many artists use sketchbooks to draw out their concepts, designs, and ideas before starting work on a larger piece.
  2. Painting: Just like drawing, sketchbooks allow artists to experiment with colour, composition, and other elements of painting. Most artists use sketchbooks to practice their painting techniques, or to make small paintings before tackling a larger project.
  3. Inspiration: Many artists use their sketchbooks as a source of inspiration, filling the pages with images, quotes, and other things that spark their creativity.
  4. Research: Researching new techniques and sources of inspiration is important for any artist. Sketchbooks provide a great way to collect images, ideas, and other research material in one place.
  5. Illustration: Artist often use sketchbooks to illustrate stories, create comic strips, or even design entire books.
  6. Collage: Sketchbooks can also be used as a canvas for creating interesting collages with a variety of materials.
  7. Journaling: Journaling is a great way to document your creative journey and track your progress. Sketchbooks make it easy to keep a record of your thoughts and ideas.
  8. Planning: Sketchbooks are a great place to plan out future projects. Artists can use sketchbooks to sketch out their ideas and plan out the steps they need to take to complete their projects.
  9. Brainstorming: Sketchbooks provide a great platform for brainstorming and coming up with new ideas.
  10. Reflection: Artists often use their sketchbooks as a place to reflect on past projects and take note of what worked and what didn’t. This helps them to grow as artists and become better at what they do.

From traditional drawing and painting to more experimental techniques, sketchbooks offer a great way for artists to explore their creativity. For any artist, having a sketchbook handy is essential. Using sketchbooks as a creative outlet is a great way for artists to express themselves and improve their artistic skills. They provide an easy and convenient way for artists to experiment with different techniques and materials, and to document their creative journey. With a sketchbook, artists can create unique works of art, record their ideas and explore their creative potential.

My own sketchbooks are part of a daily art practice

They are a repository for collected ephemera, a diary, a planning space and a portable studio for experiments, drawing practice, colour trials and lots of collage. I keep quite a lot of visual records now digitally, but nothing can beat the tactile experience of a nice fat and messy sketchbook! My sketchbook is my discipline and sometimes my obsession. I spend from 10 minutes to several hours a day most days in it.

Here’s a page from my cycling experience along the Llangollen canal in North Wales last week. I have been using the images to begin some larger paintings this week.

Viaducts and Aqueducts page
A large painting as a work in progress February 2023 in the studio – one of a series

I’m giving a talk about Sketchbook use, mine and others, on 7th September 2023 in Swindon near Wombourne, Staffordshire UK, in the afternoon, for Wolverhampton Creative Embroiderers. If you are interested do contact me. This will be followed by a workshop the following week.

Inspiration for you

This Library Has 46,681 SKETCHBOOKS!

This project, housed in Brooklyn, New York and founded in 2006, has now ended but I have seen this and also participated in it. You can find about it here. It’s also reproduced in its entirety digitally. What a resource!

And finally a workshop for you for free?

My date is March 14th 2023 from 9-12am, where we will combine fun self portraits, positivity, relaxation and letting go of what no longer serves us well. The venue is Wolverhampton Art Gallery. Please email rah-tr.fundraisingteam@nhs.net to book – not me!

Tainan, Jan 2023

Uncategorized

I’m posting these pictures here for a future drawing session as there wasn’t too much time and it was so crowded one couldn’t draw

Preparing for New Year Taiwan
I used black and white – it might help me draw tonal value
New Year approaching and the market is busy

and then there are these beautiful ex fisher people houses…

More temples to come in another post soon.

Open Studios Event in Wolverhampton

Art, Contemporary Women Artists, Events, painting

Just a quick post to say my studio at Makers Dozen Studios at the rear of Wolverhampton Art Gallery is open as part of the city wide open studios on October 8th and 9th from 11am – 3pm. If you miss it I can be there by arrangement the week after too – just email me clare.wassermann@gmail.com. The gallery has a new and very lovely cafe ‘Glaze’ on the ground floor overlooking St. Peter’s Gardens which could be a welcome pit stop.

Julia Burns and I have opened next door to each other at Wolverhampton Art Gallery.

Details of more places to visit on the art trail in Wolverhampton can be found here care of Wolverhampton Society of Artists. All venues are free to visit.

Anyway do come and see what I have been busy with this year. I will have cards and paintings for sale but do come and just say hi in our new more normal world.

Julia Burns is opening in the little gallery space next to mine. More of her work can be seen here – she is a wonderful Urban Abstract artist.

Painting consciousness

Contemporary Women Artists, painting, PhD

Painting as a holding place for moments of and stages of consciousness

Payne's grey, white and mustard coloured abstract paintings
Mantra 2 (122cm x 122cm)
Oil on board
grey, magenta and white layered painting with mantra calligraphy
Mantra 1 (122cm x 1.22cm)
Oil on board

Collage as contemplation

An opportunity to slow down, observe, balance, use what is

black white and red textured montage abstract
Collage, digitally layered washing line and emptiness.

Mending as conscious practice

A place to rejuvenate, re-use, add, make gentle decisions.

drench denim with visibly mended intentional patching in orange thread and indigo and white sashiko stitching
French workwear, embroidery thread and sashiko threads, needle and space.

An invitation to the Studio

Art, christmas, exhibitions

So it’s been a time of going inward and gradual emergence for all of us and it’s strange coming into the world again don’t you think? For me renewed contacts have been a joy where they have been possible, but it is not without caution.

However, during the time of lockdowns and insularities I have moved studio to Maker’s Dozen which is part of Wolverhampton Art Gallery and I have been painting in a beautiful bijou(ish) space.

oil on canvas

It’s time to welcome you, my friends and supporters to visit. I have an Open Day on Saturday November 27th from 11am until 4pm to wish you a happy Yule season and show you some endeavours. There will be prints, cards, seasonal cards, special offers and originals.

As an added bonus I am very excited that my lovely artist friend Rachel Shakespeare will also be opening her studio next door. Her work is divine (literally) and she creates a sacred space to show and tell within. She will also be displaying the work of Nicky Perriman.

Couple this with a visit to Wolverhampton Art Gallery and an exhibition there by Wolverhampton Society of Artists and you have a nice trip out seeing the good side of Wolverhampton. Incidentally there is going to be the British Art Show 9 coming to Wolverhampton from mid-January to April AND a beautiful new cafe in the Art Gallery opens to coincide with that. I was fortunate to be invited into the building site to see it developing this week. I can see it is going to be a favourite place in Wolverhampton to spend time eating, drinking and attending events.

oil on canvas

My studio can be accessed from the rear patio of Wolverhampton Art Gallery – either go through the gallery itself or go up the steps off Wulfruna Street opposite the Arena Theatre. We are asking for masks to be worn if possible.

If you can’t visit this day then do message me and we can happily open up another time.

Meanwhile – stay warm and safe.

Best wishes

Clare Wassermann

oil on canvas

Maker’s Dozen Studios
Wulfruna Street
Wolverhampton
WV1 1LX

5 minutes walk from the station.

Imaginal Thinking

Art, daily practice, meditation, painting, philosophy, Sketchbooks

I’ve been pondering recently about imaginal thinking and how it can shape change. It involves, for me, more often than not, taking two or more seemingly unrelated images, putting them together and creating meaning from them. An act of ‘wondering and wandering’.

I work a lot this way in my notebooks / sketchbooks. From the semi-intuitively produced image comes larger thinking and access to parts of my consciousness that may be dormant – the subconscious or unconscious and makes it iterative and conscious.

Practice with materials leads to and becomes part of the exploration. Wider aesthetic thinking occurs (something we in the West have largely lost) which leads to thought and words. Afterwards I might write or just ponder as I garden or cook or do the daily tasks. Sometimes there is a notion of an imprinting in the body (embodiment), the book is closed and other life is resumed. Closure….for now.

Here are a few examples from the past week:

and here is a way of going:

Deconstruct / re-construct. Something we need to think about. Transformative thinking comes in here. When there is space after the deconstruction.

You can read a little more about the story of the images on my Instagram here.

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