Why sketch?

posted by Murray Dewhurst on
Some time ago I found an old wiro notebook in a drawer. A scruffy wiro bound notebook with a photo of 2 men in a kayak with a bear on the front cover. In that notebook I found terrible sketches drawn in pencil made while travelling in 1991.  One sketch leapt out at me. It was a rough pencil sketch of Mt Ararat from a backpacking trip to eastern Turkey. The sketch really surprised me – it was a very basic pencil sketch, drawn using a .5mm technical pencil on a cheap notepad. The sketch is just black and white… To my surprise the sounds and smells of the day came flooding back. Meeting some Kurdish goat herders and their flock near the base of Mt Ararat, about 10km from the Iranian border on a bright sunny but cool, alpine day. Along with memories of driving across the mountain steppe in an old Renault 19 and the smells of chai and coffee in a Doğubayazıt pasta solunu. It all came back come flooding back! Why did it evoke such vivid memories? I’m not really sure to be honest. Maybe t...
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Good mail!

posted by Murray Dewhurst on

I like getting good things in the mail, so I was pretty happy when Luís Ançã's Desenhos do Alentejo came in last week. I had recently been checking out Luís' excellent sketches on his blog and eventually left a comment on an Estremoz sketch - a historic hill town I remember vividly from a cycle tour through the Alentejo region back in 1991. That part of Portugal was one of the highlights of 3 or so months cycling through Spain, Portugal and France. Thanks Luís your sketches really capture the region well!



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