We are on a journey through another one of my small artist sketchbooks. As with all my books of this type, I take a sketchbook and fill it with whatever I feel like doing at the time. No planning, just enjoyment.
This book was done between August 2020 and February 2022, more or less (I date each page as I do it).
I don’t go through the book page by page in order, though in general the earlier images are at the front and the later ones following – but sometimes I skip pages and come back later, or do some other thing. No reason, that is just how I do it.
Let’s take a look.
Here’s today’s page spread. People on one page, Exasperation and a tea party on the other.
Here are individual views of the pages.
Claudia McGill and Her Art World 
There’s an energy and sense of movement to the people page that makes me think they are lined up ready to board a subway train. The second page makes me think of Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland with edible items and changes of scale. It would be a rather delicious challenge to be a small person presented with a massive cup of tea and some gigantic baked goods.
The figures are done with bamboo brush very quickly as gestures, and I love how this makes them very lively. I have noticed this every time I use this technique. And I agree, I would love to meet a cake the size of a house. How to approach it, now that would be so much fun to figure out!
I am always taken by your bold images and struggle to articulate the effect that they have on me. Today I will try.
The crowd scene is compelling — so bold with the black and the yellow. But that boldness emphasises how crowds can make one feel disjointed and even shattered.
The overwhelming desire for coffee and cake is so graphically expressed in the second painting. Even the person craving the treat fades a bit as she thinks about and longs for those cakes and that cup of freshly brewed coffee
I feel you have paid me a great compliment, that my artwork affects you this way. I so appreciate it that you feel like this, it is what I hope for, that people will not just think the image is attractive but is affecting emotionally. I put myself in each image I make no matter how big or small, it’s my desire to express something from inside me, first, and then hope that it strikes a chord with someone else, second. The crowd scene, for me, crowds are frightening and I get overwhelmed, yet, I am attracted by the energy that is always there. Kind of push-pull. And as for the second one, I love to take an ordinary situation and see different perspectives, or else, create an image that makes the viewer feel they have an inside quick view into a scene when something is revealed. Thank you so much for what you said, it has made my day.
The colours and energy remind me of Jean-Michel Basquiat’s work.
My pleasure. You certainly do convey yourself through your images. The energy shines through.