I’ve just returned from a holiday in Crete, Greece. I sketched just one day out of 7 while I was there. Why?
Because sometimes it just feels good to soak up all of the foreign smells, the beautiful scenery, feel the warm sunshine on your skin, to let your senses dance to all the different tunes, and to really BE in the moment.
When I create artwork, I genuinely feel a huge disconnect to everything else around me and a delicious connection with what I’m working on in that moment. There’s something quite surreal, a bit like when you’re driving, and you realise you’ve driven 10 miles and suddenly become aware that those 10 miles felt like a dream, as though you weren’t driving at all.
When I travel to other countries, I’m so stimulated by everything I see, hear, smell, taste and touch, that to ‘lose’ myself in a sketchbook almost feels like I’m removing myself from a big sensual party. Don’t get me wrong, I have a huge romantic idea of filling hundreds of sketchbooks with doodles, picture snapshot memories, collages, pressed flowers, poetry, thoughts, ramblings etc, but…I don’t. Maybe I should learn to sketch mega fast? What would it hurt to allow myself 10 minutes to quick-sketch something that has captured my interest? I do however take hundreds of photos. So would it have the same appeal if I was to sketch once home (from a photograph)?
Travelling and art are two of my biggest passions (though I have many more). So it seems logical to marry the two up and create a huge passionate travelling creative love affair! Who knows what will emerge? I know that I’ll be taking the month of September to explore Europe in our Mazda Bongo Friendee, so this feels like the perfect time to jump right in and ‘lose’ myself, after all, all those endless roads might well become monotonous after a while ?