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Art Diaries: The Blue Land

Writer's picture: ChloeChloe

Updated: Oct 6, 2024

I used to fear the empty sketchbook. I was afraid of producing something less than perfect, of wasting pencils, paper and then having nothing to show for it. I had the wrong idea about what a sketchbook is for.


A sketchbook is a visual reminder of those micro-moments that inspired you, those fleeting ideas you needed to capture, even if they never amounted to anything. Look through the sketches of any Old Master and you’ll find that many of their most amazing works are humble little sketches, almost forgotten about by history.


A sketchbook is a journey itself, so why not take a sketchbook on your next journey? That’s exactly what I did. I re-organised myself from sketching randomly on whatever paper was to hand, and assigned a sketchbook to a destination.


What follows in these photos and flip through is a visual record of my time in Kochel am See in Germany in 2022. I travelled with my son and husband, and it was the most tranquil, beautiful and eye-opening experience of my life (okay, apart from Patagonia, that still wins). We visited the Franz Marc museum, explored the lake and the hills, wandered the little village…it was bliss. I took the sketchbook with me everywhere, grabbing five or fifteen minutes to sketch whenever and where I could.


Some of the sketches are far from masterpieces, but that wasn’t the point. I’ll talk about just a few of them below. In no particular order.


Franz Marc Sketch Horses by Chloe Fenech

Franz Marc – a sketch of his study of brown horses. A very rough quick sketch as I had nowhere to sit!


An ink sketch of the lake using a wandering line approach – keeping the pen on the paper and drawing in one continuous flow. I love the organic, simple feeling of this one.




A scene too beautiful and irresistible not to capture, ink and watercolour.



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