📝 Goodbye Yellow Brick Home!
On drawing the spaces where we live in
‘We shape our buildings [homes]; thereafter they shape us.’ — Winston Churchill
It’s early in the morning and the light changes quickly. I’m writing this post from bed, looking from time to time out through the window: a big tree in the garden behind the roof dominates the scene. The sun is rising but it’s still dark outside, the tree appears more like a shadow. I do a mental drawing of the image and think about all the many other times I have seen this picture in the early morning. Then I imagine what the new picture will be.
I moved with my partner (in crime solving) to this house during the Pandemic. It’s a small flat in Walthamstow (London) that includes the first floor of a terrace house and its attic. I call it ‘Yellow Brick Home’ - I like that the bricks are the same colour as King’s Cross Station, one of my favourite buildings in town. I also like that the house has three large tall windows overlooking the street.
Because of the several lockdowns we went through in the last years, I spent quite a lot of time inside the flat drawing these spaces. I became interested in the in-between spaces and the framing of the outside from the inside.
Drawing the spaces where one dwells is an intimate way to document day-to-day life. It is also a great creative exercise: by drawing the same subject, one gets to know it better and practice their craft.
Artists and designers have always depicted their studios, homes, and rooms. These spaces are intimate and available subjects. Perhaps the most famous room ever painted is Vincent van Gogh’s room in Arles, although he also painted his Yellow House.
If there is an artist that continuously depicts his environments and uses them to explore different mediums and techniques that’s definitely David Hockney. In ‘A Bigger Interior With Blue Terrace and Garden’ (his house in California), Hockney plays with depicting perspective in 2D; in his iPad pictures of his window in his former home in Yorkshire he documents the changing seasons and with them the changes in light and colour; whilst in his pictures of his house in Normandy, he chronicles the arrival of Spring, observing the changes in the trees and the scenery around the house.
Revisiting some of the many drawings I have done of the Yellow Brick Home and its surroundings in the last two years I realise how inspiring this place has been - and how inspiring any place we inhabit can be. I have drawn different themes in different styles and techniques. It’s helped me draw better - look better.
It’s already bright outside on a shadowless London day - there’s a white blanket of clouds and no sun on the horizon. We are saying goodbye to our Yellow Brick Home, and we thank this place for the great memories drawn in our lives. And with an open heart and heaps of excitement, we embrace where’s next.
I am truly excited for the drawings to come of our new home (in another hemisphere) :)
✏️✨
Happy sketching!
Ana
Have you been drawing your home? It would be great to hear about it! Leave a comment and share your thoughts :)
Your digital drawings are so attractive, Ana. They have a hand-drawn quality which is lovely to see. And I like the two-tone effect you use. Thanks for sharing your home 🏠