What inspired my daily lockdown Sketches…?

As someone that sketches a lot out of doors from life, and uses this material as reference for most of my artwork, I had to adjust when I was not able to work this way during the first Covid Lockdown in 2020. Spending the whole time on my own with my companion dog, I decided on the concept of a daily sketch (with diary entries) of everyday items that are generally taken for granted in my home and garden, that were relevant to each day. I shared them everyday with my friends on my Facebook page and as part of the Kent Creative journals (as suggested by an artist friend). It helped me to get through these very strange times and to give me a focus, as well as enjoying the responses, which made it feel interactive with others. The project became very addictive, resulting in 110 sketches.

I have always enjoyed making “mundane” items look visually interesting and drawing largely helps to achieve this aim, with the character of the marks and the use of line weight. In my opinion, there is a beauty in such things. Although I mostly sketched in pencil up to this point, I used it as an opportunity to incorporate colour as well as pen. There were times when I had to seriously think about which items that I had not already sketched that could be used to represent a task of each day. It got more challenging towards the end because I was determined not to be repetitive in what I chose, despite feeling like we were all living in Groundhog Day a lot of the time! I became more daring in sketching bigger items and interiors, using my professional interior architecture background. However, like a lot of people, I did have my moments of anxiety that came out in my vivid dreams in this phase, because we were all having to live with a lot of uncertainty and scary news.

Above is a sketch I made on the 26th April. During this period, I had to endure disruption with neighbours removing hedges and re-placing them with timber fences, as well as my garden hedges being trimmed after ensuring that there were no nests or birds in them for several days beforehand. Matters were not helped by the council not being able to collect garden waste for a few months, which also created a challenge. There were some surprise discoveries found in my hedges, left by the previous owners of my house: items such as dustbin lids and a dilapidated old metal chair! These gave me interesting drawing material.

Also, during this time I had my elderly stepfather (who was also on his own) living over the road needing me to get his prescriptions and some items from the local shops from time to time. We spoke regularly on the phone and when allowed, we would chat in his garden, with my dog at my side (who made him laugh sometimes).

Living in a rural village enabled me to walk my dog outdoors everyday, maintaining social distancing easily, seeing people on our way around the lanes and fields; which helped to relieve the feeling of isolation, even if it was to just shout hello or good morning to each other, which often featured in my daily entries. It was practically impossible to communicate with people wearing masks with my deafness; not being able to lip read them and with their voices being seriously muffled. Especially if there were any vehicles passing. However, I loved the tranquility and not having any traffic on the main road. It was not just very peaceful but the air quality was so much better too.

Using on-line platforms such as FaceTime, Zoom and Crowdcast helped me to keep in touch with people through virtual meetings. Especially in the art world with organisations such as the Pure Arts Group, Kent Creatives and the SGFA. A new experience for me that became a regular feature since March last year. This all helped to keep isolation at bay and to have some interaction with friends.

The way that I was using colour washes in my daily sketches started to creep into my art-work more and it has now largely become part of my art practice. When my paid design work went quiet, I used this time for my art on a daily basis, as well as my garden and learning to cook more things.

So all in all the past year has been a very creative time for me generally.