the value of a sketchbook

. . . or how my sketchbooks evolve with my art.
Last month I completed ALL of the pages in a 190 page Seawhite of Brighton sketchbook. I had not kept this sort of "studio" sketchbook in a very long time. When I discovered this sketchbook last fall it was in a way like returning home. Although I have been keeping sketchbooks forever I spent many recent years keeping visual journals, where I practiced drawing and painting from life, honing my skills.

And not unlike the way sketches in my visual journals helped me define my representational painting voice, my experiments with abstraction combined with sketchbook explorations helped integrate and define for me a process for developing an abstract visual language. This sketch above was inspiration for the painting below.

Appalachian Spring, acrylic on canvas, 18 x 24 inches
(this is one of my favorites ​from my Mountains Abstracted series)

These sketchbooks that have lots of pages and are not so very precious offer me a space for exploration, notation, and a collection of thoughts both written and visual. This sketch also became inspiration for a painting, pictured below.

Bright Sunshiny Day, acrylic on canvas, 12 x 12 inches, available

Some sketches are never more than just that while others I explore further on canvas into more complete paintings. I like the possibility of that transition and I like the freshness of the direct response of the sketch.

And now, here is the start of my next "studio" sketchbook. I wonder where this one will take me?