So often in life we look, but do we REALLY see?
Travel sketching cultivates the habit of seeing. Sketching, urban sketching, travel sketching, call it what you like, is a movement which is growing around the world and here on the shore.
Tony McNeight runs a bespoke sketching school in Devonport and takes a maximum of eight students per class to ensure a high level of individual attention. The 8-week course covers different aspects of sketching, starting with pen (no pencils or erasers) moving through to Aquarelle watercolour pencils and watercolour paint. All materials are provided.
Each lesson starts with an hour tutoring in class, then ‘in the field’ sketching , finishing in one of Devonport’s many cafes for a coffee where students put the finishes touches to their sketches. Students very quickly find their own style in a fun and nurturing environment with other like-minded people most of whom have not drawn since high school. Reflecting on his students’ progress, Tony says: “Students who come to my classes saying ‘they can’t draw’ leave after one lesson realising they can. It just takes courage to pick up the phone, or book a course online, and then come to a class.”
Tony has been running his business, Erin Hill Sketching NZ for three years and has seen it grow from a small start up to a business to the stage where he now has another tutor working with him on the city side. Also Tony offers sketch trips overseas with a forthcoming trip to Sri Lanka planned.
So, who is Erin Hill? As Tony explains: “She is a friend of mine (actually a Kiwi) now living in Manly, Sydney who invented this platform of teaching sketching some years ago. I was sketching overseas, came back home to Devonport and decided I wanted to share the gift of sketching with others, and so started the New Zealand school. I say to my students if you are trying to get it ‘right’ or ‘perfect’, then this probably isn’t the class for you. This is about finding your own sketch style and enjoying the journey; it is about satisfaction with self with what you have created.”
Many of Tony’s students have come to a time in their lives (you could call it their bucket list) where they want to explore creatively that which they may have missed out on in earlier years. They may have children off their hands, be doing more travelling or just wanting to sit at a café or promenade by the sea and sketch, rather than collecting hundreds of photos on phones that are never looked at.
Travel sketching is one great vehicle through which to express their creativity.
“It’s about connecting,” says McNeight. “A bit of mindfulness if you like. In the moment of sketching, wherever you are - if it’s in a village in Italy or a town in New Zealand - when you sketch something, in those minutes you are no longer a tourist, you are a person of that place. You stop, you observe, smell the food, hear the sounds, feel the buzz, you are acutely aware – you are connected.”
“In a world where we are constantly bombarded with digital media and other distractions, creating space where we give ourselves permission to stop, and simply observe, is a gift to oneself.”
For further details on Erin Hill Sketching New Zealand go to www.erinhillsketching.co.nz or call Tony on 021 925 031.
