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Art Stores Around the World Artsy Travel

The Perfect London Art Store

https://www.cornelissen.com/

Tucked away on a narrow street behind the British Museum in London is a little shop that J K Rowlings must have visited. It is eerily similar to Ollivander’s Wand Shop in Diagon Alley, where Harry Potter gets his custom wand.

But this shop sells wonders of a different kind – it is a paradise for artists. It is also a treasure for anyone who loves colour and beautiful inks and elegant brushes or creamy thick watercolour papers. Actually I think anyone with a taste for design or an eye for colour would love this shop. And you would not be alone.

Artists like Lucien Freud, Howard Hodgkin, Whistler, Audrey Beardsley, Walter Sickert , Damien Hirst and countless others have sourced their supplies from this engaging shop.

You don’t have to be searching for art supplies to enjoy a visit to Cornelissen & Son though. The street itself, nestled close behind the British Museum, is engaging. Directly across the street from the shop is the building that the famous architect, Edwin Lutyens, designed as the headquarters of the YWCA. It is now the Bloomsbury Hotel, but well worth visiting.

L. Cornelissen and Son have been in business, supplying the highest quality art supplies, since 1855, when Louis Cornelissen moved his lithography shop from Paris to London. The move was reputed to have been encouraged by none other than the painter JMW Turner. Cornelissen broadened his shop to include paints and art supplies and the store has been the place to source top quality art supplies ever since.

The shop prides itself on supplying those hard to find art products – like Dragon’s blood, rare pigments, a silverpoint stylus, or a mahlstick. They stock over 20 shades of gold leaf.

Like Ollivander’s Wand Shop, Cornelissen’s is a warren of shelves, with banks of drawers full of pigments, chalks and watercolours. Displays of coloured inks look like a collection of jewels. A person could spend hours browsing in this little shop.

You can take a tour of the shop through these visuals:

https://www.google.com/maps/place/L.+Cornelissen+%26+Son/@51.5175363,-0.1290402,3a,90y,354.32h,96.06t/data=!3m7!1e1!3m5!1sAF1QipMILKJ0HDr7MA_eeyo5yNErqrrAKV_fSj3l9y0L!2e10!3e12!7i10716!8i5358!4m7!3m6!1s0x48761b327fceabc3:0x2793aeacb97cee19!8m2!3d51.5175684!4d-0.1290874!10e5!16s%2Fg%2F1thqg72v?hl=en&entry=ttu

Or watch this Youtube video to see a bit of the inside. The owner since 1977, Nicholas Walt, is committed to carrying on the traditions of the shop.

If you visit, the Tottenham Court Underground is the closest tube stop. The shop is at 105 Great Russell Street. Here’s a link to the google map to find the shop:

https://maps.app.goo.gl/YoTLFATJxSojDSBFA

Maybe a paintbrush is a kind of magic wand too!

Categories
Sketching on the Road

Travel Sketching, Part 3: Making Marks With Wet Media

Pencils are lightweight, easy to carry and by far the most versatile tool to take on the road. But – always a caveat, right? – pencils get blunt and need sharpening and somehow the marks seem unfinished. I like to do a more permanent drawing. Then I will often use a pencil to rough out a basic placement of things on the page but will continue work with a fine tipped archival ink marker, like the Pigma Micron pen. They don’t take up any space either. I also take along a water pen, like this one :

They come with different sizes of brush, from very fine to a wide one like this – and I fill one with it a mix of drawing ink and water. I often do a quick loose sketch in the brown ink and then add detail with the marker. It is easy, portable and not too messy.

I can use the water pen with clear water to work with watercolour pencils or with watercolour paints.

The most important consideration, however, if you decide to use wet media, is the paper you are using. It must be substantial enough to not buckle when you apply water based substances like watercolours or ink washes. Most sketchbooks have pages that are great for pencil or ink markers but are not strong enough to withstand wet media. Look for a quality mixed media sketchbook that is labelled good for wet media, or, my favourite choice, a watercolour sketchbook that will have 140 pound or even 300 lb paper.

I like this one.

The pages are 140 lb cold pressed and the sketchbook opens flat which I like. It is a good ‘workhorse’ sketchbook. This one is a Moleskine ( https://www.moleskine.com/en-ca/shop/notebooks/art-collection/watercolor-art/watercolour-notebook-black-8058647626741.html but there are several brands that make excellent sketch books. This size works well for travel.

You should also be aware, as I mentioned in a previous post, Travel Sketching: Part Two: Making Marks , that museums in general prohibit any paints, wet media or markers to be used inside the galleries unless you have made a special arrangement.

Best to stick to pencil inside museum venues.

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Sketching on the Road

Travel Sketching: Part 2: Making Marks

In Travel Sketching Tips Part Two: Making Marks, we’ll have a look at the different ways a sketcher can create pictures on the road.

Once you have the right sketch book, or paper or watercolour block, ( see Part One ) you need to decide how you will be making marks – ie. what you will use to record pictures. Will you stick with the simplicity of a pencil? Will you use ink and wash, or will you paint direct with watercolour?

The best choice depends on how much you want to lug with you to sketch, and also on your particular skill level.

Pencil sketches will always be a simple classic choice – and all you will need is an HB pencil, a small pencil sharpener and a kneadable eraser. This is the ideal equipment if you are planning to sketch inside a museum or gallery – they will often forbid any use of wet media. Conte crayon and charcoal are also lovely for drawing, but can be messy.

All you really need!

I have a bad habit of pilfering the pencils that good hotels often leave beside your bed with little notepads. You can never have enough pencils! If you are truly engaged in the scene you are working on, take a couple of photos and you can add ink or wash or colour later.

These are drawings I did quickly in pencil during an art class, adding washes later.

Next level is an ink pen. There are staunch supporters of the classic nib pen with an ink reservoir, and I applaud all those who use them. The nib gives a beautiful expressive line and the varieties of inks and nibs are huge. But I am prone to spilling things and ink can be a disaster. My favourite instrument of choice is one of the Micron archival ink pens. They come with different nib widths and ink colours, and they are lovely to draw with.

Charcoal is lovely to draw with, and so expressive, but messy when you are traveling. A good soft pencil and kneadable eraser works much better.

One of the tools I have fallen in love with is watercolour pencils or aquarelles. There are several companies who make them and almost any brand will work. I use a set made by Moleskine that I love. The great benefit of these pencils is that they are easy to carry and very versatile. You can draw with them, and then use a wet brush to soften or spread the colours, or you can use a damp brush to take colour from the pencils and apply to the paper.

Pencils

My best advice is to keep it simple. If getting your gear together becomes a hassle or the pack becomes too cumbersome, you may lose interest or find it is too much trouble to make it a habit when out and about. Simple and light is the way to go. You can always develop any of your images into larger works in your home studio.

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Sketching on the Road

Art On The Road: Connecting with Your Tribe When Traveling

In the age of ephemeral digital images, drawing creates lasting memories

On the table in front of me is a glass of thick, sweet Turkish coffee and my sketchbook. All around me is the drama of Borough Market, buzzing with shoppers in central London. I’m tempted to photograph the bright bunches of fruit underneath colorful covered food stands before moving on to the next shot. But I’m committed to slowing down, connecting with the world around me, and being present.

So instead of swiping to snap a quick photo on my phone, I carefully observe the details of this historic market and use my pen to capture its personality. I carefully draw the Victorian curves of the upper stories of the buildings, and the awnings and stalls at street level.

London’s Borough Market

The waiter hovers, looking over my shoulder. “There it is!” he says. “You have got the market there on your page! I love it!” He tells me his father was an aspiring artist who used to sketch, and he would like to try it someday too. We talk about art, his family, and the daily excitement of the market. Later, a plate of Turkish delight—infused with rose and lemon and dusted with powdered sugar—appears on the table, a gift from my new friend.

The sketches I create that day are not great art, but they strengthen my engagement with the setting and the experience of that day. I’ve sketched my travels for years, and it has become the instrument I use to make myself slow down and really experience the places I visit in the world.

Detail of Zona Romantica streetlamps
Sketch of Zona Romantica streetlamps

I did not realize, for example, that the streetlamps in the Zona Romantica of Puerto Vallarta were adorned with carved griffins until I sketched the Calle Santa Barbara. I have sketched the faces of the guardians of The Grand Palace in Bangkok; the curving arches of Putney Bridge in London; the town hall in Vilshofen in Bavaria; swimmers on the beach in Mismaloya, Mexico; and passengers waiting for a bus in New York City. In every instance, the sketches amplified my memories of those places.

The camera is an efficient way to record images, but it creates distance and prevents us from directly experiencing the sensory richness of the often-amazing places we visit. When you look at a view with the intention of drawing it, you are directly involved in the act of recording. The intensity of the focus required imprints the vision in an indelible way.

The writer’s sketch of The Grand Palace guardians

When I travel solo, I always plan time to sketch. I’ve also connected with several welcoming sketching communities around the world, including Drawing London on Location and Urban Sketchers. Drink and Draw runs meet-ups in pubs, sketching together over pints in places like London, Lisbon, and Los Angeles.

People are looking for more meaningful travel experiences these days. By sketching our adventures, we can get to know the world in a deeper way. It’s meditative, totally absorbing, and the result is an enduring connection with each destination we visit.

(This story was published in Hemispheres Magazine, Nov 2022)

Categories
Museums of the World

Qaumajug: An Artful New Reason to Visit Winnipeg 

The world’s first purpose built Inuit art centre, Qaumajug (pronounced Kow-my-ug) will open in late March and it is a temple to beauty, inside and out. The white granite exterior of the $55 million addition to the Winnipeg Art Gallery feels like an undulating snowbank, an icy glacier or a rolling expanse of frozen ice.  Or maybe an ice palace. It’s the perfect architectural metaphor for the art inside.

WAG director and CEO Stephen Borys sees the new space as a place to bring communities together through art. Art, he believes, is a voice that opens hearts and minds, that fuels and inspires. 

Architect Michael Maltzan designed the building to house the largest public collection of Inuit Art in the world. Personal visits to the North framed the design and guided the idea that the new gallery would stand in dialogue with the existing Gustave da Rosa-designed WAG.

Fittingly, the name Qaumajug means “It is bright. It is lit“. The snow-white exterior leads in to interior galleries lit by 22 skylights. Maltzan was particularly struck by the quality of light in Winnipeg and in the North. His building reflects that inspiration.”The scallops and curves of the building allow light and shadow to play and interact. The glass facade at street level supports the curvilinear upper section, which makes it seem to float.”

There is a three story visible vault with concave and convex shaped glass walls that rises from the ground floor through the upper floors, and is an open display of over 5,000 Inuit cavings. Visitors will also be able to watch conservators at work through the glass walls.

Maltzan’s visit to the Nunavut made him aware of the scale of the Arctic and he transported that scale to the galleries. Usually the rooms where art is displayed should be similar to the place where the art was created. Often that manifests as small intimate rooms, similar to the confined space of an artist’s studio. The main exhibition gallery at Qaumajug is 8000 sf of space and its sculptural walls soar thirty feet, washed by the light from the many skylights. “”Inuit art is created in a place that is vast and full of light. The scale, the light and the undulating surfaces work as a bridge to the art and the place of its origin.”

Qaumajug’s inaugural exhibition, INUA, meaning ‘life force‘, will feature artists from across Inuit Nunangat, the Inuit homeland in Canada, including some living in the urban south, as well as circumpolar regions like Alaska and Greenland. From digital media and installation art to mixed-media sculpture, painting, and photography, new commissions alongside works drawn from existing collections will span generations of artists. 

For museum lovers, this is one to add to your must-see list, and a new reason the visit Winnipeg. The museum will open to the public with opening ceremonies on March 25, 2021.

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Sketching on the Road

Travel Sketching Part 1: The Right Sketchbook

Choosing the right sketchbook is your first decision.

Everyone has their own way to do things – and this is my way. Through trial and error I’ve worked out some decisions for basic equipment for travel sketching that make it easy and effortless – and doable almost anywhere and any time. But no worries! The basic equipment for travel sketching is inexpensive and highly portable.

The little notebook pictured above is very tiny – 10 x 8 cm (3″ x 4″) – and it fits into a pocket with ease. Even though small, it works well for a quick sketch, especially if you run the sketch over two pages. I bought this one in Amsterdam because I loved the blue and white Delft pattern on the cover but I have to confess to a weakness for sketchbooks. I can’t seem to resist them – their elegant covers, creamy white papers, – they are things of beauty. This small gem has good quality paper. And really, that is all you need, the absolutely basic equipment for travel sketching. With this little sketchbook and a lowly pencil you can sketch away happily without having to carry around anything that doesn’t fit into a pocket.

Some things to consider when selecting a sketchbook:

Draw a Blank:

Always check that the pages of the notebook you buy are blank – the lined ones are the ones you will find most commonly in stores and they are meant for journaling. That’s fine if you are aiming for a mix of text and sketches, but not ideal for an art sketch.

Suitable for Wet Media:

Also look for ones whose blank pages will take water media without buckling. That’s not a problem if you are going to stick to pencil or pen and ink, but the lighter weight pages will buckle badly if you use washes or watercolours.

Flat Out:

And look for a sketchbook that will open flat – it is much easier to draw in a book that will lie flat, and also you can then stretch a sketch over the two facing pages.

Quality Counts:

Ultimately, go for quality. The best books will let you do your best work.

Personally, I find the pocket sized books a bit too small for me. They are fine if you really want to travel light, but if you have a purse or a backpack, a slightly larger sketchbook is so much more satisfying to use. My preferred size for travel sketching is 14 x 21.6 cm (5.5 x 8.5 in) It’s still small enough to carry easily but it gives you a lot more space to draw.

I like the Moleskine watercolour books, (A4) the 8.8 x 5 size in landscape format. The pages are ivory, and can take water based media. My favourite at the moment is the Hahnemuhle watercolour sketchbook – I love the weight of the paper and you can use generous washes without the pages buckling.

I sometime use a notebook with toned paper, either a tan or grey shade, – Strathmore makes some good ones – but that is a specific kind of sketch and not necessarily something you will reach for every time.

And then there are the sketchbooks that are so beautiful, that feel so good in your hand, that you (me!) can’t resist them.

This one had a cover that was too attractive to pass by.
These two came from museum gift shops and have excellent quality pages.
I bought this one in a street market in Li Jiang, China.
This one came from the Metropolitan Museum of Art in NYC.
This one is perfect for a distant landscape or a streetscape.
I can never resist the allure of blue and white!

Bottom line – you can go simple and carry everything you need in one small pocket, and that way you are always ready to grab a sketch when something catches your eye. Or you can explore the pleasures of the truly seductive creamy, stark-white or toned pages of books that are artworks themselves.

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Sketching on the Road

Overcome the Fear of Sketching in Public

Find a quiet corner, where no one can look over your shoulder.

Sketching in public can be intimidating. One of the things I had to struggle with when I started out as a ‘person who sketches’ was public scrutiny. I hated it when someone would hover behind me, maybe make a comment. I sketch – which means that the drawings I do are scrawly and often quickly done. They might be messy, they might be incorrect, they might even be awful – and I am fine with that.

Some sketches are pretty sketchy – just quick lines to capture something in a hurry.

The objective is to record the moment. Sometimes that can mean a slow and careful rendering of architecture, and sometimes that can mean a quick and jumpy composition of the person having lunch at the next table. The sketch isn’t meant to be judged. It’s a means of connecting and recording. When you are sketching in public, you are, in effect, naked, and there is little protection from the public gaze.

So when a stranger leans over my shoulder to peer at my page of scrawls, I cringe.

I’ve developed a few moves to minimize unwanted intrusions when I am sketching in public.

I usually try to find a corner that is out of line of sight, though that is not always good for a clear view. If you can, position yourself so that people can’t look over your shoulder.

I work usually in a compact sketch book – my favourite is the Hahnemuhle 5×8, a small landscape sketchbook, good for ink, watercolour and wash. And I use minimal equipment, often just pencil, a kneadable eraser and a Sakura Pigma Micron drawing pen. People hardly notice that you are drawing when your equipment is so small.

And most important, get over being shy about your work. Sometimes the encounters you will have with people who are interested in what you are doing will be some of your best travel memories. I have had lovely conversations with people when sketching in public, many of whom express a long held desire to paint and are wondering how to start, or maybe they are just friendly people who are looking for conversation.

Case In Point: Sketching in public has led me to some good conversations and provocative encounters. One fine afternoon, sketching in London, I had found a quiet bench beside the Thames in Putney and was deeply absorbed in sketching the rowers – this part of the river is the starting point for many of the major boat races and rowers are on the river at all hours practicing. I had just roughed in the outline of Putney Bridge when a young girl, maybe eight or nine, sat down beside me and peered into my sketch book.

She was very chatty – her name was Annabelle, she lived here in Putney and she was waiting for her Mom who was over wishing good luck to her sister who was about to take part in one of the boat races.

“Why are you drawing the bridge?” she wanted to know, in that direct way that some children have.

“Because I think it has an interesting shape and the light is very nice right now.”

“Why don’t you just take a picture of it?”

“Because this way I get to really understand the bridge and to appreciate it.”

“What does that mean?”

So I asked her to stand up and turn her back to the bridge. “Now”, I said, “tell me how many arches there are in the bridge.”

She thought for a bit. “Hmm, maybe three?” Maybe four?”

” Annabelle, you’ve been looking at that bridge since you were little, but I don’t think you have ever really ‘seen’ it. There are five spans to the bridge.”

She was quite surprised to discover she was not as observant as she had thought. “So, if I sketch things, I will notice them more, right? I think I will start drawing things too”

When her Mom arrived, we had a good talk, and Annabelle put in an request for a sketch book and pencils and it was a thoroughly enjoyable encounter. I didn’t get much drawing done, but it was a good afternoon nonetheless.

And maybe Annabelle is still drawing and noticing.