Reportage News: Mereida Fajardo, Joan Chiverton, Chip Sullivan, Luís Simões, plus a new Sketcher Press book!
Hello readers,
Here’s a new bulletin of sketching and reportage news. If you like what you read, please share so others can learn about On the Spot and Sketcher Press.
Behind the scenes at a London hospital
“Vital Organs” is a newly-released 48-page publication collecting the gripping reportage drawings made by Mereida Fajardo at Chelsea and Westminster Hospital in London.
Fajardo, a comics artist and illustrator based in Bristol, spent 10 days documenting hospital workers whose roles are not directly related to medical care but are just as vital to the operation. That included staffers in the waste management department, decontamination, engineers, caterers and others involved in tasks happening behind-the-scenes.
The reportage was commissioned by the hospital as part of their Drawn in Residence program. Other artists who have participated in previous years are Gary Embury, Clara von Eye, Anouk Mercier, Tim King, Olivier Kugler, Emily Thomas and Lucy Ward.
In a recent interview with comics web magazine “Broken Frontier,” Fajardo admits the project felt terrifying at first (“I usually avoid drawing in front of people like the plague,” she said) but it has awoken her interest in non-fiction, observational comics and graphic journalism.
“I really feel there is a place for drawing and for visual storytelling in documentary and journalism, as it presents a different way of looking at the world compared to words, or photo or video. I’m just crossing my fingers that there are lots of people out there commissioning and publishing such work!”
Joan Chiverton sketches live music
If you like drawing musicians and live performances you’ll enjoy browsing through the Instagram account of Joan Chiverton, a renowned New York illustrator known for her live sketches of performing artists.
And if you happen to be in New York, you can see Chiverton’s work in person starting Monday, when an exhibit of more than 50 pieces opens at Joe’s Pub, a performance and event venue that is part of The Public Theater and its celebrating its 25th anniversary.
The Original Landscape Cartoonist
Chip Sullivan, a professor of Landscape Architecture at UC Berkeley who doubles as the "original landscape cartoonist” on Instagram, just held an exhibition and book launch party for his new book, “Field Sketching for Environmental Designers.”
As someone who shies away from exaggerating things when I am sketching, this may just be the book I need to read to unleash my inner sketch cartoonist!
Bike and sketch
“The project World Sketching Tour Started in 16 March of 2012 with one goal: show the bright side of this world through the form of sketches.”
Portuguese globetrotting artist Luís Simões has sketched in more than 30 countries since, but lately he has stayed closer to home. His latest book project, “Portugal Bike & Sketch,” is a collaboration with his wife, Anisa Subekti, and can now be pre-ordered.
I’m looking forward to receiving my copy.
In other news
April 25 is the deadline to apply to exhibit your travel sketchbooks at this year’s Rendez-Vous Carnet de Voyage festival in Clermont-Ferrand. Here’s the link to instructions on how to submit your application. And here’s my report from the the festival back in November.
Artnet published an interesting read about how “A Rare American Revolution Drawing Was Found Hanging in a New York Apartment.”
U.S. Marine and combat artist Mike Reynolds shared some sketches from a recent Combat Artist embed in Norway.
Manchester’s premier urban sketcher Len Grant just launched a new Kickstarter campaign to crowdfund the printing costs of his third book, “Bars and Barbers.” On the Spot members heard Grant talk about his strategy to self-publish his work during this Artist Talk on Zoom last year. If you are a new On the Spot paid subscriber, you can find that recording and more in our “Rewind” section.
New Sketcher Press book!
After more than a year of collaboration, I’m thrilled to announce that a new Sketcher Press book is coming this summer!
In “Sketchbook Reveal,” London artist and author James Hobbs opens up seven beloved sketchbooks from his archive without “curation” for an audience. Every page is included and some are reproduced full size to give the reader an experience that is as close as possible to holding the actual sketchbook. Even the images of worn, dirty covers show the evidence of weeks or months of constant companionship.
This beautiful landscape format, 128-page hardcover edition will be available for pre-order soon on the Sketcher Press website. To receive updates, join the Sketcher Press mailing list.
Hobbs is also the author of “Sketch Your World” and “Pen and Ink.”
Calendar
May 18-20. Nantes. 11th Rendez-vous USk France, Nantes (I plan to be there!)
June 27-29. Neuchatel. 6th Swiss Urban Sketchers Symposium.
July 12-14, 2024. Chicago. USK Chicago Seminar
July 19-21. Edmonds, Wash. Sketcher Fest Edmonds
October 9-12, 2024. Buenos Aires. 12th Urban Sketchers Symposium
You always make me want to go out and draw, Gabi!
Thanks for sharing these artists and their stories!