Some Sketchbook Work...

Sketchbook 

I’ve been making some small studies in my sketchbook this week. I don’t use sketchbooks in this way to develop ideas that often and never really have. I’ve think I’ve had this book on and off the go for about 3 years now. To develop my paintings, I record notes and ideas in notebooks, make observational drawings, take a lot of reference photos, read a lot and collect different artistic references, and make a range of development drawings and paintings in different ways and media. It’s a similar process to what one might use a sketchbook for but I just very rarely do it in a sketchbook. Things are scattered or filed in my plan chest or put up on walls.

Anyways…these studies are based on some photographs I’ve been taking (or my wife was asked to take as I drove!) of the backs of large articulated lorries and trucks on the motorway. I’m just following my nose a bit to see if there is any mileage (excuse the pun) in developing these into some large paintings that take further an ongoing interest in the language of abstraction but with roots in the physical world and the representation of it. These backs of lorries I thought could be a good motif for these interests and represent the modern experience of a journey by car.

I can already foresee lots of technical difficulties with developing them further though…. Not least that they would work best if they were the same size as the lorries they derive from. We’ll see. It’s nice just to playing about a bit in the studio for now.