I was very flattered to be among those nominated for the “You Make My Day” award by a fellow artist and blogger. Here, then, in alphabetical order, is my own list of 5.

  • Andrea Joseph at Andrea Joseph’s Sketchblog
    I’m not sure that the intense observation and the wielding of a pen with such precision can really be termed sketching (just because the comparison makes my own blog look inadequate), but Andrea’s sepia ink drawings (illustrations, musings, puzzles) are a labour of love. She is cool, she’s a tea-drinker and she frequently quotes Joni Mitchell. What is not to love?

  • June Walker at June’s Studio
    June is a fellow oil pastellist who is more than proficient in other media. What really astounds me is the way she can produce a delightful piece of art from nothing – from a few random marks on her paper springs something of imaginative beauty. One of her enchanting artworks hangs on the wall above my daughter’s cot, and we say goodnight to the creatures within it every night before she goes to sleep.

  • R. E. Wolf at Bone & Shadow
    Immanuel Kant is quoted (in the issue of International Artist magazine that I picked up today) as saying, “Artistic beauty does not consist of the representation of a beautiful thing, but the beautiful representation of a thing”. R.E. uses simple materials to make beautiful drawings of skulls, and offers us a little of the history – troubling, affecting, thought provoking – behind them.

  • Ronell van Wyk at Africantapestry
    Ronell creates the most gorgeous watercolour sketches of her home-prepared food and of the French scenery that she is surrounded by – and I lap it up! While her fluid sketches are alive with colour and movement and have an effortless look to them, her writing (and often her choice of subjects) takes a delight in detail.

  • Roz Stendahl at Rozworks
    This isn’t so much a blog as a professional artist’s website which is generous enough to include a vast number of sketchbook pages. I very much enjoy dipping into the insights Roz has shared into her experimentations with gouache, pasted paper, and other media and materials in her visual journals. An inspiration.

  • Yusuke Katsurada at Artist At Heart: Oil Pastel Blog
    I love oil pastels, and sketch from life with them when I can. The simplicity and the humble nature of the subjects that Yusuke homes in on with his own oil pastels seem to me quintessentially Japanese: the resulting sketches are beautifully observed, and have a meditative quality that I love.

Hmm. Did I fire six bullets there, or only five? In any case, I feel lucky. Lucky to have the work of so many artists at my fingertips each day!