JOIN JANE CONTINUING TO MAKE SENSE OF ART
And this month Jane is looking at sketchbooks discovered in the downsizing process.
In my recent downsizing process I was going through boxes of ‘stuff’ which had piled up in my garage following emptying my parents’ house. At that time I really didn’t have time to make decisions about what to do with everything – so I put off the day until I absolutely had to deal with it! Procrastination never pays!
There were quite a lot of art materials and unframed canvasses – my mother was a keen amateur watercolourist in her retirement. This was definitely a skill she inherited from her father and generations before him. I was expecting to come across her sketchbooks – which I did, but I was thrilled to find my great great grandfather’s sketchbook which is a fabulous glimpse into his life.
It is a leather covered loose leaf book held together with ribbon and is full of treasures – pencil drawings and sketches, watercolours and pen and ink drawings – landscapes and portraits. I would imagine he always had a sketch book with him.
Vincent Van Gogh said “My sketchbook is a witness of what I am experiencing, scribbling things whenever they happen.”
There is a note on the back of the book on a scrappy piece of paper written by my grandmother – ‘This is the sketchbook of the Grandfather of A S Bullmore (my grandfather) – William Edward Bullmore 1841 – 1915.’ So the sketchbook is giving us little glimpses into Victorian life.
Another lovely Van Gogh quote is “I am always doing what I can’t do yet, in order to learn how to do it.” The sketchbook is a place to experiment – a safe place for trial and error as the artist doesn’t generally expect the book to be seen by anyone else – so it is a rather intimate insight into the artist’s ideas and experiences – almost a file of creative ideas. Some of the sketches may become bigger works but many will not.
My great great grandfather seemed to have an interest in historical costume – maybe for theatre or book illustrations – I don’t know. Here are a few of those pages.
I will leave you with a quick look into my mother’s watercolour musings – not as varied but there are some little gems!
“Sketch everything and keep your curiosity fresh.” (John Singer Sargent)
