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You can now leaf through the pages of the completed, hand-bound Sketch for Skerries book at Skerries Library.

Visitors can browse through all the wonderful artwork, find out how the book came about and examine the construction of this handmade “exhibition in a book” in the calm oasis of Skerries library.

The library is perfectly situated just off the main street of the town, which means popping in while out running errands is easy to do.

So why not take a break from your morning routine and flip through the pages of this wonderful collaborative art project. Remind yourself what a privilege it is to live in a place where anyone is free to express themselves through art.

Yesterday the Sketch for Skerries project came to a close and the completed book, containing original artwork of over 50 artists, went on display at the Skerries Eco Festival.

Members of the public and even some of the artists themselves arrived at Skerries Community centre on Sunday to turn the pages of the Sketch for Skerries “exhibition in a book”.

Visitors were able to choose between locating a specific artwork by scrolling through the table of contents and turning to a particular page, or browsing through every page of the book.

The hand-stitched pages of the book held up to multiple page-turns and visitors delighted in both the construction of the book itself and the wide range of beautiful sketches it contained. I enjoyed chatting to the public about the various steps involved in pulling together a collaborative community sketchbook as well as constructing the book itself.

Meeting some of the artists and listening to them talk about their creative process in responding to the call-out and creating a sketch was one of the most enjoyable parts of the day for me.

I hope to exhibit the collection again and possibly add to it by running the project again next summer. However, in the meantime here’s a sample of some of the excellent work that was on display.

Sample of some of the sketches (pictured above) clockwise from top left:

(bee Happy) anon, (skerries islands) Ellen Farrell, (bee) Noah, (Mozambique Spitting Cobra) Finn Ramos, (footprint) Kaitlin Payne, (cat) Grace, (feather) Marlene Muscat, (birds) Líni, (tree) Emma Cuschieri, (purple sky mill) Alexandra Farrell, (jellyfish) Marlene Muscat, (skerries mills) Chloe Farrell.

For the full list of contributors and to see the sketches in person, check back in on this site and come to the next exhibition!

Winter has definitely arrived, and so has my latest batch of Christmas Cards! I’m delighted to announce that these are now on sale and can be purchased at Skerries Mills Gift Shop or direct from me!

Each original handpainted image was created using watercolours, gouache and ink. They were then digitally reproduced and printed on good quality card stock with the finishing touches applied by hand.

Just drop me an email: cards@galleriakristina.com and tell me which ones you’d like (Fox, Cabin or Mills) and you’re preferred payment method and I will arrange the rest!

N.B. delivery only available for the Skerries region at present. Cards cost €1.75 each or €5.00 for a pack of 3 direct from me. Payment in cash on delivery or by Revolut both accepted. Details will be sent by email.

There was a hint of Autumn in the air today at a local school’s wildflower meadow but the morning sunshine and hard work almost fooled a few of today’s community volunteers into believing summer hasn’t quite left us.

For the native plants that adorned this meadow, there can be no doubt about the change in season. They graced us with their beauty from March to September, until the time finally came for them to produce seeds for the following spring. Once their work was done, the work of the local residents began.

What a pleasure it was to illustrate these scenes of women, men and children working together in nature for a common cause.

Today marks the day I complete my “31 Reasons to Draw” challenge.

Just over a year ago, I embarked on thinking of a “reason to draw” for each day of December.  My challenge was to share them daily in my blog and perhaps inspire others to take up the hobby of sketching, or return to it. 

Creating daily blog posts during the busiest month of the year proved to be somewhat unrealistic for me, so I decided to stick to the plan but without the deadline. I am so glad I did!  Not only did I get to enjoy Christmas and work on other projects throughout the year, but I also got the satisfaction of knowing I hadn’t abandoned my mission… I’d just adjusted my own expectations.

So here we are, on the final reason to draw of this series of blog posts, and that is, to “tell a story”.  It may sound like a cliché, but a picture really is worth a thousand words.  And for that reason, I’ll stop typing for today, and let these pictures tell their story. Enjoy!

In the 19th Century, a newspaper discovered that sales increased if the articles were accompanied by pictures.  When photography wasn’t advanced enough to capture movement, artists were used instead. Can you imagine the world of advertising without pictures? Words are powerful, but imagine trying to advertise an upcoming event with nothing but 5 lines of Times New Roman text on a sheet of A4 paper. A drawing catches the eye and invites the viewer to find out more.

What makes you laugh? Probably several things come to mind.

For me it might be a funny dog-meme, an unexpectedly witty comment from a child, a scene in a film or book, a story told by a friend….  Sometimes they make you laugh just once, and other times, they make you laugh with every repetition. 

Without fail, the drawings by certain comic artists (such as this one by Joshua Barkman of Falseknees.com) make me laugh not once, not twice, but every single time I look at them.

Isn’t it almost like a magic sort of medicine for the soul, that something as simple as a drawing can make someone laugh over and over again?

“Long before our children learn about the alphabet and begin to write, drawing plays an important part in their literacy.” (firstfiveyears.org – Early learning)

According to Dr Noella Mackenzie, Associate Professor in literacy studies at Charles Sturt University, we need to give children’s drawing ability the same kind of recognition that we give to their babble. When a child starts trying to utter words, we instinctively know as adults that we need to encourage and praise this, to help nurture their oral communication skills. But do we realise the importance of another, often overlooked early mode of communication… to draw?

“We need teachers to understand that drawing is an important mode of communication or text creation. It’s not just a precursor to writing real words, it’s a mode in its own right.” says Dr. Mackenzie.

According to Dr. Mackenzie, when drawing is encouraged, children can create sophisticated visual texts, which in turn enables them to instinctively start to add labels and words.

“How do we encourage them? We encourage it by valuing it. It saddens me to think that many children come to school drawing and talking but then we focus so much on the written word that the talking and drawing take second place.”

Once you start thinking about what Dr. Mackenzie is saying, you can’t help but see the difference in value we place on our children’s developmental stages. So many of us, without even realising we are doing it, place a higher value on children’s first steps, first word, the alphabet etc, but their drawing skills are seen as a kind of “nice to have but not that important really”.

Recognise the importance of the foundations of communication that children already possess and you will teach them that writing is simply an extension of these existing forms rather than a replacement.

A part of me has always wanted to be a minimalist. But another, louder, harder-to-ignore part of me just wants to buy more stuff… particularly art materials.

Getting into sketching gives you the perfect excuse to shop without seeming too be wasting money… its an “investment” in your art…

We call it a stationery addiction for a reason. It really is addictive, and can get out of hand. But who doesn’t have fond memories of opening a brand new set of crayons or felt-tip pens when they were a kid?

Some things are set in stone and cannot be altered. But some might argue that everything is alterable, all it takes is a bit of imagination. Whichever way you see it, drawing can unlock new possibilities when dealing with home decor! You might not want to go as far as Nicolau Nasoni did in 1724, when he created this illusion of elaborate cornices and towers on the ceiling of the Grandmaster’s palace, but being able to draw can help create illusions of more space or make an awkward layout in your home more pleasing to the eye.

When you change the position of the furniture in your house you are in effect “drawing” the space with your mind and creating the illusion of a brighter/more spacious/cosier (delete as appropriate) room. That’s my excuse anyway, and I’m sticking to it. Its not procrastination. Honest.

What better way to soak up the pleasure of a long awaited trip than to use some of those lazy days sketching your surroundings?

I hadn’t been back to my home country in just over 2 years when I drew this. The balconies and narrow streets of Valletta on a rainy day aren’t new to me, but that day I wanted to really appreciate its beauty all over again. So I sat down and drew every little detail of the architecture around me, to soak it all up like a sponge.