The Artists’ Almanac: A Year in the Sketchbook

Block 1: Sept – Oct | Fluid Beginnings & The Harvest

• Lead Artists: Laura McKendry followed by Natasha Clutterbuck.

• Focus: Expressive mark-making and the physical weight of autumn.

• Activity: Use McKendry’s "experimental" approach—using twigs, ink splashes, and loose watercolors—to capture the garden. Transition into Clutterbuck’s style by adding charcoal and pastels to give "heaviness" to pumpkins, gourds, and sunflowers.

Block 2: Oct – Dec | Skeletal Lines "Ephemeral Decay"

• Lead Artists: Angie Lewin followed by Mark Hearld.

• Focus: Precision, negative space, and folk-inspired storytelling.

• Activity: Use Lewin’s focus to map out the "skeletons" of winter seed heads (fennel, teasels). Transition into Hearld’s style by creating layered paper collages that place animals (foxes, crows) within those skeletal winter landscapes.

Block 3: Jan – March | Structural Monochrome

• Lead Artists: David Hockney followed by John Virtue.

• Focus: Verticality, massive scale, and stark contrast.

• Activity: Study Hockney’s "Winter Trees" to understand the architecture of a bare branch. Then, dive into John Virtue’s monochrome world—using only monochromatic black and white, paint, charcoal to create atmospheric, and "gritty" winter seascapes.

Block 4: March – Easter | The Rugged Thaw

• Lead Artist: Kurt Jackson.

• Focus: "Plein Air" energy and the raw, damp landscape.

• Activity: Shifting from the monochrome of Virtue into the muddy, earthy tones and emerging colours of March.

• Media: Use Jackson’s mixed-media approach: thick paint, ink washes, and incorporating natural grit, sand and textures from the environment to capture the "feel" of the changing weather.

Block 5: Easter – May | Tangled Growth

• Lead Artist: Joan Eardley.

• Focus: Density, impasto, and the "living" field.

• Activity: Capturing the rising sap and thickening hedgerows.

• Process: Like Eardley, work with thick acrylics and palette knives. Physically incorporate real grasses and seeds into the paint surface to create a "living" canvas that represents the May growth.

Block 6: May – July | Botanical Immersion

• Lead Artists: Marian North & Clare Celeste Börsch.

• Focus: Scientific detail and 3D immersive assemblage.

• Activity: Use the Victorian "intrepid traveler" spirit of Marian North to create highly detailed, accurate botanical studies in acrylic or layered watercolour.

• The Finale: Take those detailed studies, cut them out, and layer them into Clare Celeste Börsch-style immersive 3D collages. This acts as the "Grand Curation" of the entire year.

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