Nicolas V. Sanchez does amazing drawings in sketchbooks, using ballpoint pens with stunning skill and delicacy. I love the section of his website where he presents a series of notebooks he’s filled with his incredibly vibrant drawings: See more at Nicolas V. Sanchez– Books and on Instagram at @nicolasvsanchez .
An interesting piece in the New York Times: Unearthing Rick Barton, a Boho Bard of North Beach, about a Beat-era artist whose work is now on view at the Morgan Library in NYC. Rick Barton was a somewhat obscure artist who lived in San Francisco in the late 1950s and early 1960s, often sketching in … Continue reading Rick Barton’s Sketchbooks→
I happened to notice an Instagram post from Printed Matter about a facsimile book of artist Jimbo Blachly’s notebooks. (Available on the Printed Matter website.) The activity of drawing is primary to Jimbo Blachly’s work. In addition to individual drawings and watercolors, he has kept daily notebooks and sketchbooks which make up a large visual … Continue reading Jimbo Blachly’s Notebooks→
Pat Perry is an artist whose sketchbook images (and other art) I’ve come across frequently on Pinterest and Instagram. His website has a very cool page where you can scroll through various sketchbook spreads: Such a fascinating mix of notes, doodles, and finely rendered drawings. See more at PatPerry.net/sketchbooks.
This is a really interesting sketchbook, now part of the collection of the National Museum of Australia. It belonged to a young Aboriginal man named Oscar. The article is a bit vague about the circumstances of Oscar’s life– it sounds like he could have been a slave, or indentured servant, or at best an orphan … Continue reading Oscar’s Sketchbook→
I recently came across this 2016 Huffington Post article about the auction sale of a Salvador Dali notebook via Pinterest, and thought “How on earth did I miss this?!?” This is one of my favorite glimpses of an artist’s notebook! Here’s A Rare Glimpse Inside Salvador Dali’s Unpublished Diaries Salvador Dali, the great Surrealist painter … Continue reading Salvador Dali Notebook→
Gerard McNeil was featured here as a Notebook Addict of the Week over 10 years ago. In that post, we saw some photos of the notebooks he uses to capture creative ideas, and a few interiors. Recently he got back in touch and shared a link to his website, where you can get a more … Continue reading Gerard’s Visual Journals→
The MoMA website has an interesting feature on Rashid Johnson’s sketchbook practice. In a conversation with Samantha Friedman, the organizer of MoMA’s exhibition “Degree Zero: Drawing at Midcentury,” Johson talks about how he uses sketchbooks, some of the motifs in his drawings, and how the pandemic inspired him to think back to how he’d used … Continue reading Rashid Johnson’s Sketchbook→
I stumbled across an old article from Wallpaper about a 2015 exhibition of the sketchbooks of British architect Chris Wilkinson, at the Royal Academy. Looks like it must have been a very interesting show! Here is an image from one of Chris Wilkinson’s sketchbooks: I also love this image of his pile of sketchbooks. Almost … Continue reading Chris Wilkinson’s Sketchbooks→
Photographer Nigel Shafran‘s “Work Books” were exhibited in 2018 as the first show at a new London gallery, Sion and Moore. Here’s a few photos from a Wallpaper article about the show: Rather than present the photographs he is celebrated for, the work books – part sketchbook, part diary – give a deeper, more intimate … Continue reading Nigel Shafran’s Notebooks→
Notebooks, journals, sketchbooks, diaries: in search of the perfect page…