Welcome back everyone 👋 and a big thank you to the new subscribers that recently joined!

I hope you’ve had a great week so far. Let’s get into it!👇

Generative Art Workshop this Sunday!

It’s almost here! On Sunday at GAS we are running the Generative Art Workshop again. I always say “we” because this is a group effort between myself, participants, and Joanne who owns GAS. As much I may be directing the workshops, the best versions of these events are when it is a collective effort and experience.

There are 5 spots remaining for the workshop this Sunday. I’m thrilled that there will be a couple people returning to join the workshop who have taken it before. I always enjoy the interaction between people with different levels of familiarity.

If you want to register, send a $35 e-transfer to [email protected].

Daily Sketching Practice

For the last 15 years I have been sketching in a notebook (almost) daily. What started out as a way to pass time in meetings has become an important part of my daily artistic practice. By sketching everyday I am able to practice creativity in a low-risk, low-stakes way. Sketching also gives me a way to play with tools I don't typically use and am not comfortable with, like watercolours or acrylics.

I am one of those people who say, “creativity is a muscle”. I think that when we have a creative idea, what we do with that idea teaches our brain whether we want more of that kind of creativity. The best way for me to tell myself that creativity is important and to keep it up is to sketch out these ideas.

Here’s a few images from the larger notebook I keep on my desk.

The materials I use for sketching are a good notebook, hard pencil (F, 2H), eraser, ruler and sometimes coloured pencils. At my desk I have a small pocket sized Rhodia notebook with grid paper. I also carry a Field Notes pocket book on me all the time and a Kaweco pocket pen. My main notebook is an 8.5x11 spiral bound book with nice paper from Above Ground Art Supplies in Toronto.

A daily sketch rarely becomes fully realized work. But I will say that every piece I've created in the last 15 years has been informed by daily sketching.

Now, if I was really on the ball I’d be doing my ‘morning pages’ and not just for January 1st, 2nd and 3rd every year, but that hasn’t clicked for me, yet…

Generative Art Competition in Finland

Something to keep an eye on is the “Combine24” generative art competition by the Finnish National Gallery.

I love the combination of visual data from the Finnish Gallery with an open generative art competition. Their collection of copyright-free artworks includes 27,858 pieces!! No dearth of potential inspiration. My favourite subsection so far is 256 images of artist’s sketchbooks! Just the scans of the covers are beautiful.

I will definitely keep an eye on the submissions for this competition.

I also love that each of these notebooks also have scans of the pages inside.

Short and sweet!

That’s it for this week! If you’ve made it this far, thank you so much!

Please share this newsletter with anyone you think might enjoy it or could be interested in the workshop.