Contained in the Sketchbook of Noemi Conan

Polish-born, London-based painter Noemi Conan discusses her lifelong impulse to assemble inspirational fragments of information, and the way she curates these visible mementos inside her sketchbook as a approach to course of her busy thoughts. Noemi’s sketchbook serves as a inventive receptacle for her assortment of discovered supplies and snippets of inspiration compiled from movies, exhibitions, and lengthy journeys. By this technique of visible journaling, Noemi is ready to discover the themes of migration, womanhood, and id which might be central to her work.

Contained in the Sketchbook of Noemi Conan

I’m Noemi Conan, a Polish painter based mostly in London in the interim. In my work, I discover the methods visible storytelling can support me in speaking about my conflicted expertise of migration, self-image, and womanhood. I paint girls, cats and conifers, smoking after darkish, and prolonged hangouts at roadsides.

I arrived at what I’d name a sketchbook by combining my lifelong obsession with gathering visible knowledge – labels, dried crops, napkins, stickers, a very tasty typeface or brand, a ridiculous headline within the day by day newspaper – with the written scaffolding I used to be inspired to construct by tutors at artwork college. My mind is a messy, overstuffed attic and offloading a few of its contents to a transportable receptacle has been a good suggestion. And I haven’t appeared again. I’d love to say it’s unfiltered and undiluted, however I do various curating on the way in which between thoughts and web page. Not every thing I see makes the minimize, however what does is kind of a wide range of data.

In purely ‘technical-material’ phrases, my sketchbooks are normally an A5 blank-page Leuchtturm and an A6 Moleskine. I keep away from black covers at any time when doable, and I are inclined to have one in all every on the go on the similar time. I’m fairly sluggish to fill them, and I like to maneuver on as soon as there’s no extra space on the duvet for my sticker assortment, so there are normally a number of clean pages left at every finish. I’m additionally blessed with sketchbooks which have good, heavy paper – presents from household and associates. I have a tendency to save lots of these for all times drawing courses, since they really feel too good to carry my extra mundane musings.

I write loads. I conduct lengthy arguments with myself, continuously making an attempt to justify my very own observe to myself earlier than anybody else. And I discover good phrases which I believe I’d show elsewhere, like fairly pebbles or shells.

They often feed into titles, statements, or exhibition texts… I’m preserving them in retailer for one thing. English just isn’t my first language, so it’s enjoyable to attempt pondering on this ‘costume’, though I’ve not too long ago began switching forwards and backwards between English and Polish. I realised with terror that I’m shedding my native language expertise and must protect them, very like the dried flowers I glue to gaps between drawings and textual content.

The A6 sketchbook suits neatly into a mean trouser pocket. It’s my self-imposed and oftentimes futile try and keep away from utilizing my telephone. I take it on museum journeys and select a number of work to attract from as an alternative of taking photographs. I additionally sometimes go to exhibitions and personal views, and take notes – normally once I don’t run into anybody to talk with in regards to the work. It helps me maintain monitor of what I’ve seen and makes me really feel a bit much less misplaced, since even after years of going to personal views, I nonetheless get imposter syndrome at any time when I present up with out an entourage.

As for the supplies I select, I’ve lengthy been dedicated to utilizing watercolour pencils. Albrecht Dürer Artists’ Watercolour Pencils by Faber-Castell are my favorite as a result of I take pleasure in studying the names of the colors in German whereas I sketch. I’ve additionally been utilizing Caran d’Ache Prismalo Aquarelle pencils. Though I’ve a really worn-out brush pen that I might use for watercolour results, I normally permit the pencil to stay undampened.

I’ve additionally began utilizing biro far more within the final yr, particularly for drawing on the street, as a result of I like how versatile it’s. I get fairly passionate a couple of notably good black biro, though I discover the cheaper ones go well with me greater than fancier ones. I don’t thoughts having to overlay potential drawing errors, however I do carry a number of Posca pens in case I must cowl up a very obvious blunder.

Solely part of every of my sketchbooks is full of sketching. On most days, my sketchbook is extra of a scrapbook or diary. After I do draw, it’s normally from movies or work. After I work on a bigger format, I make extra schematic drawings, understanding the composition or the intrigue. I make up the agenda, or backstory, to the ‘ultimate piece’ within the sketchbook. I additionally revisit completed items when one thing about them retains me up at night time.

Preliminary drawings are one thing I hardly ever do, however I typically discover concepts in different folks’s work, and that helps me repair and readjust myself once I get caught on one thing. If a portray isn’t working or doesn’t cooperate, there’s normally a piece by Rubens, Van Dyck, or Munch that swoops in and helps me. Or a very tasty body from a movie. Due to my newly acquired love for biros, I’ve been having fun with black and white movies extra not too long ago and I get actually excited by movies from the 50s, particularly Jap European ones. I really like movies by Polish administrators, Andrzej Wajda and Wojciech Has, who had each studied portray earlier than changing into movie administrators, however saved a painterly sensitivity of their compositions.

I additionally journey on trains as a lot as doable and like drawing the semi-industrial landscapes round junctions and small stations. Just a few years in the past, I travelled from the Polish coast to Wroclaw within the South of Poland and drew the early April panorama, stuffed with piles of coal and evenly planted conifers. I believe these sights make their manner into my desires and find yourself in my work that manner. The huge, flat panorama is one in all my recurring characters.

What I like about working in a e-book, versus canvas or paper sheets, is that I can play extra and decide and select issues that don’t essentially match with what I wish to present folks. It’s an intimate setting the place I’m nonetheless not utterly comfortable with myself, however I additionally don’t have to fret about exterior validation.

It’s humorous, contemplating how typically I needed to share my sketchbooks with tutors or curators prior to now. In my self-importance, I additionally think about that in the future somebody will discover all of my books, which I protect and label, and they’ll suppose I used to be not utterly boring. I put all kinds of issues in these books, however as soon as they’re completed, I do deal with them with some reverence. They’re saved neatly saved in my studio, and I am going again to outdated books every now and then.

Protecting a sketchbook has been an enormous assist to me in my inventive growth. It helps me maintain monitor of my thoughts, retailer and increase concepts, experiment and remodel. I do know not each artist wants a sketchbook, however I’d advocate making an attempt one out with out anticipating something particularly. Protecting it enjoyable whereas additionally being honest and open about what you want, what you need issues to appear like and sound like. Not every thing that occurs within the sketchbook must make it out of it and into the BIG world, however for me, preserving an open e-book helps with preserving an open thoughts.

Supplies

Leuchtturm1917 Hardcover Sketchbook (A5)

Moleskine Basic Pocket book, Hardcover, Pocket 9 x 14 cm

BIC Cristal Ballpoint Pens

Caran d’Ache Prismalo Watercolour Pencils

Faber-Castell Albrecht Dürer Watercolour Pencils

Holbein Artists’ Colored Pencils

Uni Posca Paint Markers, PCF-350 and PC-3m particularly

Kuretake Gansai Tambi Watercolour Units

Kremer Acrylic Dispersion Ok-498

Kremer Pigments for acrylic mediums

Liquitex Skilled Acrylic Gouache

Pentel Watercolour Pastels

Pentel Watercolour Brush Pen

Run down brushes that I by no means throw away.

About Noemi Conan

Noemi Conan was born in Warsaw, Poland, and is at the moment based mostly in London. She holds a BA (Hons) in Portray and Printmaking from the Glasgow Faculty of Artwork, and has since accomplished the Royal Drawing Faculty Drawing 12 months (2021–2022) and the Turps Studio Programme (2022–2024). She is at the moment pursuing an MFA on the Slade Faculty of High-quality Artwork, because of graduate in 2026.

Conan’s work has been exhibited each within the UK and internationally, and is held within the collections of Soho Home London, Glasgow Faculty of Artwork, and the City Nation Museum in Berlin. She was chosen for Bloomberg New Contemporaries in 2021 and has been featured within the John Moores Portray Prize (2020 and 2023), the Royal Academy Summer time Exhibition (2021), and the Royal Scottish Academy Annual Exhibition. She is represented by Traits Libres Gallery and Christine Park Gallery.

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