In late 2023 I began taking a small sketchbook with me to work, sketching down ideas / thoughts / concepts while I wait for a tube and on the short journeys taken on my way to teach. Speed is the idea behind these sketchbooks, they are not long, meticulous drawings, they are quick and playful. There is never a plan for what I draw, sometimes responding to the previous page sometimes just drawing what I want to see in that moment. Since starting this activity, many ideas and characters have been slowly forming, eventually this will all lead towards something new and something delightful (I hope).

The second sketchbook in the ‘tube drawing’ set, continuing with quick playful drawings, often working from my imagination. Nobody really loves a morning commute so I often challenge myself to answer the question: What would I rather be looking at?

Inspiration can arrive by the act of being suddenly propelled to do or feel something creative Or a sudden moment of brilliance. The birth of an idea... 

At times we have to work hard to gain the momentum of inspiration and sometimes, on rare occasions it hits us like a bolt of lightening.

This set of sketchbook pages came from a weekend of 'bolt of lightening' style inspiration looking at form and shape while contemplating time and space (as you do... no really)

Art Run (working title) was a project that begun life in pursuit of motivation but has evolved over time to have a deeper connection to home and memory. 

I started running in early 2011, I really liked the 'idea' of running but never really enjoyed the 'act' of running. I struggled with motivation but felt a huge sense of guilt for not being better at it. 

In January of 2017 I contemplated motivation and how it comes so easily for some activities and remains almost at zero for others. Motivation for drawing has never dwindled and it was at this thought I made a connection to running. The basic principle was to run, armed with a small sketchbook and pencil, and to run until either I saw something I would like to sketch or until I was tired at which point I would have to find something to sketch. Simple. 

And in this simple act of transferring the focus onto a creative process, one of observation and mark making, I stopped my brain from thinking about the physical sensations of running that would make me want to stop - then feel bad about my fitness levels. 

I would stop, but not because I was tired, I was stopping for the pleasure of drawing. This completely removed the negative associations around running that left me feeling unmotivated. I then found the distances and speeds of my running increasing.

Above all I now 'LOVE' running and on occasion catch myself grinning like an idiot as I run at various points along my routes.