Sketchbooks

Product Information

I think my attitude towards the sketchbook originates from when my grandmother gave me a little stack of very cheap notebooks. It is recommended that you leave on all cookies if you are not sure whether you need them or not in case they are used to provide a service that you use.

A first-time collection of Grayson Perry’s sketches, Sketchbooks follows the evolution of his career from art school to the present day. A sketchbook is a place where I can discuss ideas with myself, a place I work through and refine an idea for a good while before I will let it run around the studio, and then the world. I treasured them and filled them with diagrams of fantasy aircraft and plans of racing cars, adventure comics and war scenes.In the early years after college, sketchbooks were a way of keeping my practice going, as I had no other creative outlet; and I put several hours into each image, giving the books the obsessive, private quality of outsider art. One game we often played involved inventing a character, then drawing their family, then their house, car, holiday destination, etc. I carry one with me most of the time, and if I can’t do that I usually stuff a pen and a few sheets of paper into a pocket or handbag, just in case.

Grayson Perry has been using sketchbooks as a place to record and develop ideas – whether for pots, tapestries, clothes, houses or exhibitions, or for nothing at all – for over thirty years.Very well known for his ceramics I found it ironic how beautiful they looked from afar and then close up they would be themed, some very challenging modern themes you wouldn’t expect from a dainty pretty vase. This could be a technique I consider to begin with to give me space to add personal notes as it is something I feel quite hesitant and reluctant to do but the space would also force me out of my comfort zone. If I put pen to paper it can feel like I have a version of the Midas touch – each mark becomes a pound sign. Grayson Perry has been using sketchbooks as a place to record and develop ideas - whether for pots, tapestries, clothes, houses or exhibitions, or for nothing at all - for over thirty years. The density of thought, the love of art and the sheer number of man-hours in each one load them with huge meaning and memory for me.

However if you are still looking for more information then you can contact us through one of our preferred contact methods. When I managed to set up my first ceramic studio, in 1986, all my creative energy became focused on clay.Titles are available from leading photobook publishers Art Paper Editions, Baron, Edition Patrick Frey, RVB and Osiris.