Messing about in my sketchbook
And my love of Paul Klee
Music credit: Hand me a Guitar by Isobelle Walton via Epidemic Sound
Looking closely
In this video, I try to unpick a little of the magic in the work of German-Swiss artist Paul Klee by looking closely at one of his artworks and using the memory of it to inspire a sketchbook spread of my own.
Klee was the first artist I fell in love with. I think I was maybe 16 when I saw an exhibition of his in London… and I have loved his work ever since.
Creative alchemy
Klee’s Bauhaus studio was once brilliantly described as a “wizard’s kitchen” by a colleague of his, a space full of experiments, creative alchemy and artistic invention. It’s a great description that captures something essential about Klee’s approach to art making: playful, inventive, curious and perhaps a little magical.
He described his creative process as serious play, part science, part mystery. Klee believed that art should unfold like nature: transforming, evolving, becoming.
Respond not recreate
That’s partly why, in my own sketchbook, I’m not trying to replicate one of his pieces. I couldn’t if I tried. Instead I’m letting the memory of looking at one of his works The Movement of Vaulted Chambers from The Met’s Collection inspire a little play.
Trying to respond rather than recreate. Trying to let something evolve. Instead of asking “how can I copy this?” I’m asking, “what do I love about his painting?”
A new appreciation
And this excercise gave me a whole new appreciation for just how extraordinary his work is.
He makes it look effortless. But the more I tried to follow what I thought were perhaps “simple” moves, the more I realised how much depth and discipline sits beneath his work.
There’s boldness in his work, yes, but also incredible rigour and analytical prowess.
What looks intuitive is underpinned by precision.
There is something about this contrast of opposites, the way he balances freedom and control, boldness and precision, playfulness with discipline that I deeply admire…
A sketchbook is for discovery not perfect outcomes
I didn’t love everything about what I created in my sketchbook and I don’t mind at all.
The point of a sketchbook is to discover, not to create a perfect outcome. We practice, we learn, we try things and when they don’t quite work out, we use that knowledge to move us forward.
The value is nearly always in what was learned, not what was created.
I might revisit this page and see if I can add in a bit of the precision I found lacking or I might just leave it.
I enjoyed the process and the fact I did it, and I learned quite a lot by doing it. The end result is sort of unimportant…
Resources and info:
The book I show is one I’ve had for thirty years, Paul Klee 1879-1940, published in 1992 by Taschen and written by Susanna Partsch.
Paul Klee’s book about Sketchbooks is called The Pedagogical Sketchbook, which he wrote in 1925, it is still in print, published by Faber and translated by Sibyl Moholy-Nagy.
I mentioned that I enjoy looking at art works closely using Google Arts and Culture. Here is link to a small online exhibition of Paul Klee’s work.
The artwork by Klee I was looking at in the video is from called The Movement of Vaulted Chambers on the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s website.
The sketchbook I was using is a Venezia Book by Fabriano and the watercolour paint I was using was from Sennelier.
