There’s an interesting exhibition of Turner’s watercolors at the Mystic Seaport Museum in CT. Of course, browsing in the museum shop is always half the fun, and I had a chance to flip through a book of Turner Sketchbooks: Buy at Amazon Here’s my favorite page: There were no intact Turner sketchbooks exhibited at the … Continue reading J. M. W. Turner Sketchbooks
I spotted this in the New York Times Magazine of November 17, 2019. It is one of the saddest, most infuriating, most shameful notebook pages I’ve featured, as it was drawn by a young man who was incarcerated in a Japanese internment camp during World War II, and then ended up serving in the military … Continue reading Notebook Page from a Japanese Internment Camp
Our latest notebook addict of the week is Vanessa Berry, an Australian writer and artist. In a 2012 blog post, she talks about her collection of 31 diaries, written starting in 1998. The photo of the whole collection is striking: The close-ups of the individual notebooks are also fascinating. She mostly uses old notebooks found … Continue reading Notebook Addict of the Week: Vanessa Berry
Architects create some of my favorite notebook and sketchbook pages. Here’s one I just loved, from a project by Smout Allen, a landscape architecture partnership. It’s scribbly and collage-y and I love the touches of color. Just gorgeous. See the original image and more description here: http://www.smoutallen.com/neo-natures-lanzarote
This is a really cool idea that I might have to try myself! Russell Stutler has been featured here before as a notebook addict. His website is a great resource for sketching inspiration, and he has done a deep dive testing popular pocket sketchbook brands, with Moleskine and Stillman and Birn among his favorites. But … Continue reading Russell Stutler’s Sketch Binder Notebook
I usually don’t like to write about notebooks that are associated with crime– they usually involve the sociopathic journal entries of serial killers or mass shooters and I have no desire to give them any further publicity. But here’s a notebook that harkens back to an era of more romanticized (if not much less violent) … Continue reading Bonnie Parker’s Notebook
The diaries of Patricia Highsmith (author of many books, including Strangers on a Train, The Talented Mr. Ripley, and The Price of Salt, the basis for the movie Carol) are being released by her estate, for publication in a book. The diaries, which Liveright Publishing plans to release in the United States in 2021 as … Continue reading Patricia Highsmith’s Diaries
I recently read The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie, and was struck by this passage in the biographical note about the author, Muriel Spark: I had not heard of James Thin, but sadly, when I looked them up, it turns out that this long-standing bookseller, stationer and publisher no longer exists, and their Edinburgh shop … Continue reading Muriel Spark’s Notebooks
I recently posted about artist Betye Saar’s sketchbooks. The article linked below from Hyperallergic is a great exploration of her work, with lots of sketchbook images. The sketchbooks reveal how Saar’s practice has evolved over time, and how time itself is a major thread in her work. Read more: Betye Saar’s Never-Before-Seen Sketchbooks Offer Deep … Continue reading More on Betye Saar’s Sketchbooks
A very powerful article from the September 16, 2019 New Yorker magazine: My Terezin Diary, by Zuzana Justman. It’s a miracle that the diary and its author both survived the atrocities of the Nazi concentration camps. I kept the diary from December 8, 1943, until March 4, 1944—the first winter of the two years I … Continue reading Zuzana Justman’s TerezÃn Diary