I wish there were more images of these travel sketchbooks in the Cape Gazette’s profile of a local artist in Lewes, Delaware: As Victor Letonoff flips through the pages of a small sketchbook, watercolor paintings remind him of his travels to Paris. As a page turns, a French street gives way to the Golden Gate … Continue reading Travel Sketchbooks by Victor Letonoff
I am always inspired by artists working in sketchbooks, so it was a treat to attend a talk by a master of the form. At the Ridgefield, CT Library, the artist James Lancel McElhinney spoke on “Painted Books: From the Age of Exploration to the Digital Era.” McElhinney traced the history of art created on … Continue reading James Lancel McElhinney on Painted Books
I have quite a collection of books about sketchbooks and notebooks and stationery. Here are a few of my favorites that you might want to consider as a gift for the notebook lover who has everything… for yourself, that is!
Thanks to a tip from reader Raymond, here’s another World War I diary story. What a treasure for a family to have. “The old cloth-covered book hardly shows its age — at 100, it betrays only the most modest of frayed edges. But to the family of the 24-year-old soldier who recorded history with a … Continue reading Joe Rodier’s World War I Diary
Seawhite of Brighton is a British brand of art supplies targeted at the educational market. I’ve only seen their products in stores once, when I was in London. But I did find this sketchbook available on Amazon, and decided to give it a try.. As noted in my post Size Matters: When A6 Isn’t A6, … Continue reading Review: Seawhite Travel Journal
Here’s something to add to my wish list! A $200 limited edition set of facsimile sketchbooks by Françoise Gilot. I highly recommend her book Life with Picasso — it’s a fascinating look not just at Picasso and his work but at Gilot’s own life and thoughts about art. Françoise Gilot, now 96, is best known for … Continue reading Françoise Gilot’s Travel Sketches
To celebrate the 10th anniversary of this site, I thought I’d revisit some popular posts from the past. This one is from 2014. In it, I talk about an important shift in my notebook usage habits– from being fickle and switching notebooks before finishing them, to filling every page. You can see the comments on … Continue reading Revisiting the Past: More on Finishing Notebooks (2014)
An interesting story about a notebook that has become quite powerful as asylum-seekers try to make their way through a chaotic situation at the US border: All conversations stopped when they saw the notebook. Men, women and children — asylum seekers from Central America, Mexico, Africa and beyond — parted to make way for its … Continue reading The Mysterious Notebook of Tijuana
From Walter Benjamin: 100 Notes, 100 Thoughts: In 1927, on the occasion of a several-months-long visit to Paris, Walter Benjamin began taking notes on the Parisian Arcades for his most ambitious book project…. With her introduction to a selection of these handwritten notes, Nikola Doll describes how the author attempted “to integrate the principle … Continue reading Walter Benjamin’s Notebook
Earlier this year, actor Douglas Taurel presented a one-man show based on the World War I diary of a soldier named Irving Greenwald, which is part of a collection at the Library of Congress. The diary itself is quite amazing: look at the tiny print squeezing all that text into pocket size pages! Read more … Continue reading Irving Greenwald’s World War I Diary