lookin back down the road ...

 in the early stage of my retirement now, one of my projects

has been to organize my 60+ sketchbooks from the past 50 years

so, a little history tour here ...

arranged now chronologically with important client's

names noted on the covers and spines 

                                        1999, the year was a good one with many important 

clients and interesting projects.

 

i have been reviewing these sketchbooks off and on now for a while

and i have accidentally created more than one album of photos

of some of the sketchbook  pages ... here's one album

here's another ... 'some of the best' 

there will definitely be some overlap

between the slide shows, but

there are many in each of them that 

aren't in the others ..

. 'good ones' 

 45 years is a long time!

here's another !

'early portfolio pictures' 

and then there's all the slideshows of  

'work from 2000X'

through 2023 ... i need to add one for 2024 ...

sometime ...
i leave you with a few words from the singer James McMurtry ...

he is always worth a listen ! 

 
 

 

old man project ... volume 6

 ok, now it is May 2025 and time is moving on ... 

so, i will quote james mcmurtry here:

 

at this point i have finished my 'retirement project',

 a new building for Will's machine tools ...

  Kristian is now taking over all the new requests for

 furniture that come in from both old and new clients,

and i am in the slow process of  'cleaning up my mess' ...

i spent several days in the basement of the shop organizing

patterns and drawings, jigs and fixtures. models and mockups,

 and a bunch of random slabs and other pieces of wood. 

i did the same in the attic of the garage at the house and there i

discovered a huge box of sketchbooks that have been accumulating

for over 45 years ... 

they have now been browsed ( quite a trip that was )

and arranged in chronological order with 

clients names noted on the spines ...

there are also slide shows at that link with 

concept sketches and the relevant completed

projects over the years ...

more on all this later from the 'west dorset indsutrial park'

 

sketchbooks, the essential tool

i've got a couple projects going on, and one of them is going to go on for a lot longer.  the 'cleaning the cellar in the shop' project i should be able to finish up in another 10 or 12 hours of effort, but the 'digitizing the sketchbooks project' will likely go on for another couple years.  so far i have scanned and saved the highlights to this album from three fairly recent ones. 

 you can scroll through the slideshow at this link.

this is maybe a third of it ...

i've been sketching sporadically since 1980 when i bought betty edwards' book 'drawing on the right side of the brain' to learn how to communicate with my clients.  while cleaning the cellar last sunday, i found a fresh box of sketchbooks, likely packed when we moved to dorset from arlington in 1996 containing some drawings from 1988.  the one above is sam's, and he would have been 5 and a half in january 88, the date of one of will's first drawings i found below in the same sketchbook.  will would have been 3 and a half then.  fun ...

i wish i could draw like that now .. i have written on this subject before, and i think it's an important one.  the hand often is a link to the subconscious.  we sometimes don't know what we will draw until we start, and every sketch is not a winner.  some are though, and it is hard to come up with them if you sit down with the intent to 'come up with something new'.  set that pen or pencil free .. see where it goes ..

click the photos to enlarge them ..

this series of sketches and photos below are just a few highlights from the slideshow

'trout desk'

'duck bed'

sometimes new ideas come from existing pieces.  the sideboard and mirror combo are from 1987.  the sketches below from a proposal for a client are from 1988.  

'take an object. do something to it.  do something else to it.' .... jasper johns

 i leave you with a couple more from sam from 1988 ..

yeah, real fun ...