My love of drawing

Drawing has always been a love of mine! As a child, I would love the mindfulness of it, whilst sitting in front of the fire or being outside. I loved collecting all the clean pages from my schoolbooks at the end of each year. Armed with a packet full of clean pages, I felt the potential of all the drawings I could make with the endless supply.

To this day, I love the way a drawing can be created so simply without the need for endless supplies and equipment. It is easy to pop a drawing pad and pencil case into my suitcase when travelling, and it is a great way to record my observations, inspirations, memories and also simply a way to totally relax. Sometimes I will draw something from a special place, such as the pansies growing in my mother’s garden, and they become a special memory of that time and place and something to cherish.

As a student, drawing was my forte. I loved all aspects from line drawings, mark making to creating depth and form, and extending into drawing with colour. Gestural drawing was a particular favourite, together with drawing in charcoal, especially when working on a large format. I believe drawing to be an important foundation to all artmaking and has always been an important part of my art teaching in my studio. It forms part of my creative practice today, where I will refer to sketches and observational drawings in preparation for a painting. With the rising costs of art materials, this is a simple and affordable way to be creative and something that everyone can enjoy doing. You should give it a go!

Until next time 😊

Michele