Sheena Wilkie – Sketchbook
Sketchbooks are at the heart of my creative practice. They are a place for looking closely, experimentation and reflection. A space where ideas are collected, explored and allowed to develop over time.
For me, sketchbooks are less about creating finished work and more about learning to see. A sketchbook can be a place to draw, write, photograph, collect, experiment, wonder and simply pay attention.
An observation might become a sketch, a photograph, a colour study, a piece of writing, a collage, a painting, or simply remain a record of something that caught my attention.
Visual Notes
My camera is one of the ways I collect visual notes—a way of recording light, colour, texture, shape, place and ideas wherever I happen to be.
Photography is not always the finished work. Sometimes a photograph is simply the beginning of an idea.
Field Notes
Field notes are observations gathered from everyday life: things I see, questions I have, places I visit, details that catch my attention, memories, words and small discoveries.
They might take the form of a photograph, a sketch, a few lines of writing, a colour combination or a page of loosely connected ideas.
.
Creative Experiments
This is where I give myself permission to try things without knowing where they will lead.
Drawing, coloured pencil, Micron, painting, collage, ephemera, writing, ceramics, fibre arts and other forms of making can all find their way into my sketchbooks.
Not everything becomes a finished piece.
Sometimes the experiment itself is the point.
Following an Idea
An observation doesn’t have to lead anywhere—but sometimes it does.
A photograph might lead to a drawing. A drawing might lead to writing. A piece of ephemera might spark a memory. A colour combination might become a painting. A collection of images might suggest an entirely different idea.
I am interested in following those threads and seeing where they lead.
The sketchbook is where I think, experiment and make.
Sheena Wilkie – Sheena Wilkie Art Studio