Travel sketching for me is a great opportunity to motivate and improve as an artist, as well as creating a visual diary of the places I go.
Two years ago I was fortunate in being able to travel for eight months to South America, Africa and Asia with my wife Lyn. We visited fourteen countries on this trip and I sketched and painted as much as possible along the way. At one point in Africa I no longer had a camera to back up my sketches and it was at this point that I really started to sketch in earnest as I had no other way to record visually what I was seeing.
This was an important moment of understanding for me in that it made me realize that I should approach all of my sketching moving forward as if I don’t have a camera and this is the only opportunity I would ever get to record what I was seeing. This idea is a gentle reminder to me to do my very best while sketching on location and not to think that I can complete the picture later in the comfort of my studio.
When I look at the sketches I did on location on this trip I am transported back in my mind to that experience. For me these drawings and paintings are very personal, in the same way a written diary can be.
Today I would like to show you some sketches from India and Nepal. These two countries are enough to keep me busy producing watercolour paintings for a long time.
Sketch books I used while traveling
Lake Pichola, Udaipur, India
Jaipur, Rajasthan, India
Upper Pisang Village, Annapurna Circuit, Nepal
Gangapurna Lake, View of Annapurna 4 & 3, Manang, Nepal
View of Annapurna and Gangapurna from Thorung Phedi
View of Mukinath, Nepal
Shika, Nepal