I’ve been developing a daily sketch habit while traveling, and something about it has been quietly reshaping me.
My mother, Jane—“Mummy” to me—used to keep a sketchbook wherever she went. And she travelled often, always alongside my father. After she died, we discovered just how constant that practice had been. There were boxes and boxes of small booklets, filled with drawings and handwritten notes, often tucked into the margins in her scratchy, hard-to-read script. She was always observing, always recording.
Going through them, I began to wonder what it gave her. It felt almost like a compulsion. Maybe it helped her move through moments of loneliness. Maybe it was simply a way to mark time. I’ll never know for sure. But I do know that it mattered to her.
As her only daughter, I find myself drawn to that same rhythm. Not with the same intensity or volume, but with a sense of continuity. A quiet thread that connects us.
My sketchbook doesn’t hold much writing. That part of me lives online now, in the way I share and reflect. But on paper, something else is happening. I’m learning to take in a place from the inside out, and to respond to it in real time.
There’s an immediacy to working this way. It asks me to be present. It pulls me in.
What began as a simple intention—to keep up a creative habit while traveling—has turned into something I think about all the time. I find myself looking for shapes, colors, rhythms. Or sometimes, they find me.
This shift hasn’t come without friction. I’m used to large canvases, acrylic paint, space to move, to mix, to build. In a sketchbook, everything is smaller, more contained. At first, it felt tight. A bit awkward.
I remember struggling with watercolor crayons and pastels, unsure how to make them feel like my own. What I missed most was the way I usually mix color—freely, physically, with a brush in hand.
Then something clicked.
Instead of trying to replicate that process, I began layering directly on the page. One color over another. Letting them blend where they met. It felt closer to how I naturally work. Less forced. More intuitive.
Since then, things have started to open up.
I notice my surroundings differently now. I’ve always paid attention to detail, but this feels more active. More deliberate. I’m not just seeing—I’m translating. Breaking things down, reshaping them, letting them become something else.
And working small has its own language. What works on a large canvas doesn’t always translate. I’m learning to simplify, to edit, to trust smaller gestures.
Keeping a daily sketchbook while I travel has become a kind of anchor. It gives structure to my days, even when everything else is shifting. It keeps me connected to my work, no matter where I am.
And it’s giving me something else, too.
A way back to my mother.
In these quiet moments—paper open, colours building slowly—I feel closer to her. Not in a heavy or sentimental way, but in something steadier. As if, through this shared habit, we’re meeting somewhere in the middle.
If you are interested in seeing more details of how the pages of this sketchbook have been filled, I've been sharing many of these daily sketchbook pages over on my Instagram. You can find more about my sketchbook and our Italy adventures there.
3 comments
Loved reading your process and new discoveries to your talent. As I said before you are living my dream life. Keep going. 😊
Love your free movement on paper and canvas. You have a wonderful sense of colour and balance
Claire I am also an artist. Have been for 50 years. Yes I’m 80 now. I fell in love with your clothing and own vests, corduroy jacket, hoodies and chiffon long blouses. I’m a blue tone person a summer or winter. Everyone comments on my clothing ( older but never out of fashion with blue jeans/ tshirt/ jewelry). Yes I feel great and look great.
So I’m so glad you sent this blog to my email and I will follow you. Someday you must buy a book of ROCK paper – amazon. To paint on. It’s amazing. I sketch at workshops overseas but not much at home. I loved your description of your feelings and findings. I looked you up the other day on your web page and you have completely shifted to spring/fall colours. Yellow/ orange tones.
I’ll watch your Instagram for sure but please keep sending your daily/ weekly whatever emails for me to travel with you.
Gratefully yours Judith