Sketching.

I have always sketched. As a young child I was nearly thrown out of art at primary school for sketching the same house with a door in the middle, four windows with four panes and a chimney blowing smoke. When we worked in ceramics I made the same image. It was a thing.

At college and university it was drummed into us that whatever discipline we eventually followed the starting point was always sketching. It’s about putting your eye in, considering the composition and just shutting out the noise for a few hours.

Back in 2014 I set up a lovely little life drawing group at a beautiful old grammar school building in Sale. Each week groups of around 20 experienced and novice sketchers would come along and we would turn off our phones and focus on the form in front of us for a few hours. Whilst I had to park this regular session after I had my child I still miss the weekly stillness and focus of these classes.

I join urban sketching groups in Manchester whenever I can and regularly take groups out sketching around Manchester. There’s a huge difference between sketching plein air and working solely from photographs. I still find this practice hugely important for my work.

Whilst I still have sketch books dating back to my teenage years, in the past four years I have also been producing sketches commercially. They are commissioned as birthday and wedding presents of favourite venues and more recently people’s beautiful homes. If you would like to commission an original sketch please email me to discuss in the first instance. Commissioned sketches start from £125.

If you are looking for a printed sketch of a venue I have already made you can find these in my print shop starting from £50 plus postage.