Lindy Whitton Studio

I had a very wobbly moment today. I wanted to check one of my travel sketch books and I just couldn’t find it! I spent last weekend moving my art supplies into our home office and my husband out ( he’s retired now – why does he need an office?). It’s a tiny space, 2×2 metre , so not much room to lose anything you would think. Wrong! I’ve got a complex system of wheeled storage that I move around depending on what I’m doing and where I need the space. There’s a lot of storage for such a tiny space. And then there’s all the other nooks and crannies around the house where I’ve squeezed in a bit of art ephemera that just won’t fit in that little 2m cube. ( I used to have a bigger room but the prodigal son returned and there went my art studio).

So I emptied drawers, moved piles of books, checked under the bed and in the wardrobe. I found some odd socks, 2 dollars, a missing earring and finally three sketch books – but there’s a lot more than that. I could feel my skin getting clammy and a mild sense of panic rising at the thought I might have lost them. Of course I eventually found them – there’s always that one drawer you forget about even when it’s right in plain sight. The heart rate returned to normal and I sat down for a satisfying hour of memories.

 

Why did I panic at the thought of losing them? Because these travel art journals bring back a lot of sense memories that I just don’t get from my photos.

I can smell the lavander…

I can taste the salt in the breeze….

I can feel the heat bouncing off the rocks…

I can hear the sound of my laughing children in the room behind me as I sketch at the open window…

I can feel a frisson of fear as my husband stands too near the edge….

I can feel the joy of finally getting to those US desert national parks after a decade of wearing my husband down –  he loved it! ( not the wearing down part –  the desert colours part)

Travel is a big part of our lives – and travel sketch books have become an integral part of that experience for me.

And yes – I’ve put them somewhere safe.