📝 Back in London
A new chapter in an old place
‘The magic thing about home is that it feels good to leave, and it feels even better to come back.’ — Wendy Wunder
It feels great to be back in London. Back home.
About a year ago, before our adventure to New Zealand, I wrote about how change brings creativity and how moving to a new place brings a sense of discovery and adventure. The inverted process of coming back to a place we call home - or a place we know well after many years living there - is interesting too: how does one set off to start a new chapter in an old place?
Any change is an opportunity to start new (sketching) habits, set new rituals, and find new subjects — or revisit old ones. The years before we moved to Auckland were full of creative energy for me here in London, which resulted in 2022 with me starting The Sketch Club on Substack.
Coming back means reconnecting with those creative habits and little projects. Here are some of them I treasure, which brought great joy back then and I might consider revisiting them soon. They might bring you some inspiration too:
A Year of King’s Cross Station
When I lived in Islington back in 2019, I used to take the bus to work (number 30), which passed along Euston Road and King’s Cross Station. Every day during my commute, I would take a photo of King’s Cross from the very same point of view, and without realising it, a ritual was formed. With time, I would also take more photographs, looking to experiment with colour, movement, or perspective. In a sort of chicken-and-egg situation — I don’t know who was first, whether King’s Cross or Photography —, I became extremely interested in photography, and I used King’s Cross as a daily subject to continue learning this medium.
Sketching our Yellow Brick Home
As opposed to the times when I lived in Islington, the pandemic brought different priorities, so my partner and I moved a bit further out to Walthamstow (which has become quite a popular neighbourhood since). Practices and subjects adjust to life’s circumstances, and with spending that much time at home, our living space became my inspiration. What drew my attention in our Yellow Brick Home was the views through the windows and the relationship between the indoor frame and the outer view, which I sketched constantly.
Capturing Brutalist London
London is one of the cities with some of the finest brutalist architecture: the Barbican, the National Teather, the Southbank Centre, Centre Point, etc. What fascinates me about this style of architecture are the patterns and the abstraction of forms that the mass of heavy concrete matter creates. If you half-close your eyes and ignore the context for a moment, they appear as big, massive sculptures. These sketches are some personal experiments around colour and tone on one of my favourite brutalist buildings: the National Theatre along the Southbank.
I am extremely excited for this new chapter back in London, for what the next years will bring creatively. This is such a special place to me. I believe I’ll find new themes and inspiration organically, and I am excited to unfold that. However, there’s something beautiful and comforting about revisiting those old little projects and reframing them again with a new way of seeing. It has already happened with Brutalist London, which I keep revisiting and coming back to.
One can find inspiration anywhere, but most likely in the places or people one loves. This artistic practice is a practice for life, a way of being. Also, my future commute might involve King’s Cross Station again. 🙂
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Happy sketching!
Ana
Oh I love the brutalist pictures! I think they might finally help me understand the appeal of brutalism.
Welcome back to London!