I’ve spent a lot of time indoors this month with a recurring virus and haven’t felt well enough to do a lot of work or go outdoors. But the thing about drawing is that it’s instant, you just pick up your pencils and draw what’s to hand, or what you see.
For this sketch of pigeons through my living room window, I picked up the first pen I came across which was a marker pen. I wouldn’t normally use a marker pen – in fact I was strictly forbidden to do so while I was at art school! – but I needed to capture the pigeons before they flew away.
Drawing through the window triggered off a memory of drawing in small sketchbooks about 20 years when I was teaching and didn’t have much time. I had 3 sketchbooks, each no bigger than A6 in size, and I kept them by the windows, in the kitchen, anywhere close to hand. I hadn’t looked at them in years and when I found them they brought back so many memories.
I often make notes on the backs of my drawings, reminding me of not only the date I drew them, but what was going on in my life at the time. These sketches with my little commentaries and notes are effectively my diaries although they are not time-synchronised. Instead they are a melange of visual aide-memoirs, what I was thinking at various points in my life and the people and pets and places and events that have meant – and continue to mean- so much to me.
Artistically the scale of these drawings is quite different and the fact they are so small meant I could absolutely experiment. They were also preliminary drawings for larger pieces, some of which came to fruition, others left as a reminder of hopeful plans and good intentions. They also continue to be an inspiration to me. The piece below is a recent work inspired by my sketchbooks.
I have also continued work on the theme of dolls and childhood toys with these three drawings of toy clowns. They were brought by my mother for my granddaughter and probably, with their porcelain faces and hands, were more collector items than toys. Inevitably being played with by a 4 year old was going to not end well, so sadly they are broken but I still like the theatrical nature of them as well as of course the memories they bring.
Diana Lamb 