I recently found myself exploring the artier hideouts of the city of York which is how these York sketches have come to exist. I was keen to capture my arty mini break in an appropriate format and so decided to document my travels in a visual art journal which I will share with you today.
The Mini Culture Trip – why York?
To add some context, I went to see two things.
1. Monet’s 1899 painting “The Water-lily Pond” which is on loan at the York Art Gallery until 8th September 2024.
2. “Van Gogh Exhibition: The Immersive Experience” which is also exhibiting in York until the end of August this year.
The perfect weekend for someone who is obsessed with Impressionism. Thank you, York.
These two wonderful, magical experiences deserve completely separate blog posts as I just can’t do them justice by combining it all here. Once I have had time to unleash my inspiration, with whatever medium it decides to channel itself, I will let you know. So watch this space over the next few months.
In the meantime, in this post, I present to you “The York Sketches”.
Art Materials
I took with me a 0.3mm Uni Pin Fineliner, a waterbrush and a cheap tin of watercolour paints. This is a smaller tin than what I have for my Royal Talens Van Gogh watercolours, and therefore much more suited to travel. (Plus, lower risk in case I happened to lose them somehow – I need my Van Gogh colours for Frog’s Bucket List! I’m working on an exciting froggy project, but more on that later in the year…).
Then at the end of each day it was just a case of scribbling from a combination of memory and reference photos.
I managed to draw over half of these while I was away and then finished the rest when I got back. As much as I would have loved to spend an entire weekend painting, there were things to see and do!
The sketches are quick works (in case you can’t tell!) but I’ve come across other watercolour artists in various circles who set a time limit to create a piece of art. While, this isn’t how I would choose to work most of the time, I do think it is a useful exercise for an artist for a few reasons:
1. It eliminates procrastination; knowing that you’re not pressured into committing large amounts of time into something and therefore avoiding starting in the first place.
2. It focuses the mind on the actual subject you want to portray; not getting caught up on overworking unimportant details.
3. (Most importantly for me) it helps overcome an element of perfectionism. Because if you set the expectation from the start that your painting is not going to be perfect – even, not meant to be perfect – then you can just concentrate on the fun!
And it was fun. It felt like I was channelling my inner child – the way I would have drawn and painted while I was still young enough not to care about the outcome.
They probably took anywhere between 5 to 20 minutes each, with a weighted average closer to 5 minutes than 20 minutes.
So if you’re looking for perfection, click away now. These watercolour paintings are not perfect (there, I said it!).
But in terms of actually using the cheaper watercolours, I think they’ve produced some pleasing results. They don’t behave the same as my Royal Talens pans. They’re grainy by comparison, the grains of paint powder seem to float on top of the water that you’ve applied. Moving these grains around on the paper is oddly satisfying.
I’m not saying I would recommend them for any kind of professional artwork, but it’s nice to be able to enjoy the experience of using cheaper materials for what they are. Good for scribbling when you’re on your travels.
The York Sketches
The journey began like any typical UK journey – with significant train disruption.
Luckily, the pigeons were good company. And I managed to procure for myself a cup of tea in exchange for a small fortune.
Still, all that paled into insignificance when I arrived in York as the views from where I was staying were spectacular.
Chilling in the bar that evening – Euros was on TV. Then breakfast buffet the following morning.
Then it was time for attraction number one (as mentioned above, separate blog post to follow), York Art Gallery – Monet in York.
Stunning! (I spent all morning at this exhibition…).
Picnic in the York Museum Gardens before continuing to look round the rest of the art gallery.
Met this happy little pufferfish… he was an exhibit (made of ceramic, I might add). And some nice coloured glass pieces.
Also met a squirrel in the York Museum Gardens.
Then a change of aesthetic in the evening – football and pizza night.
Up the next morning, and on to the “Van Gogh Exhibition – The Immersive Experience”.
Might have gone to Jorvik too…! Before getting something to eat in the evening.
Then the next day I wandered around York for a while before catching my train. Just to see some of the sights I hadn’t had time for while I was lost in my dreamy little art world!
I think these next two sketches of the Shambles and York Minster are my favourites of the entire sketchbook:
All packed up… then reading on the train.
York Memento
It was fun to create these pen and watercolour sketches. I filled an entire sketchbook and now I have a unique keepsake of my time in York.
I would recommend this as a process – take a sketchbook when you go somewhere, anywhere. And see what happens. You don’t have to fill an entire sketchbook. Just use one page, capture one experience and create some non-perfect art to capture a memory! You’ll have a personal alternative to any photographs you might also take.
Sending lots of creative energy.