I have many long phone conferences, so I doodle. Normally I sketch what I see from my office window.
Roadworks under my office window in Espoo, Finland.
There are benefits to really long and pointless teleconferences.
Sketchbook
Studies of a single view over time
I started painting a small watercolour of the same view everytime I noticed something new.
It’s amazing how much a single hill can change from day to day.
Train passengers, Helsinki 2009
I started sketching during my daily commute once more.
Train doodles 2009:
The domestic tourist, Helsinki 1991
I kept drawing almost everyday, recording everything around me. I was living part of the year in Paris, so I felt like a traveler in both countries.
Rosanne painting ceramic sculptures.
Watercolour Sketchbook, Hämeenlinna 1990
I started experimenting with larger notebooks so that I could include more detail. We spent the summer in Hämeenlinna. While my girlfriend excavated a lost viking-age city, I drew and painted.
Weather studies, Helsinki 1989-90
Helsinki_1989_September_15_009, originally uploaded by Brin d’Acier.
When I moved back to Finland after ten years abroad, I found myself a stranger in my own country. I started exploring it, keeping a travel journal. I recorded the changes in light and weather, studied once familiar landmarks that had become exotic.
These watercolour sketches were done from the seaside at the southernmost tip of Helsinki, and show the 18th century fortress island of Suomenlinna, often called Gibraltar of the North. It is a just a ferry ride away from downtown, but in many ways remains a small village. In the summer it is overrun by tourists and picnickers, but when the last ferry has left, it returns to a slower rhythm. I lived on the island as a child, and came to school by ferry. In the winter, when the sea froze, I walked to school over the ice. Yes, it was safe, they even ran a road for cars over the sea, and there was a wooden sidewalk running alongside it.
Helsinki_1989_September_15_010, originally uploaded by Brin d’Acier.
Helsinki_1989_September_15_011, originally uploaded by Brin d’Acier.
Helsinki_1989_September_15_012, originally uploaded by Brin d’Acier.
Sketchbook_Helsinki_1990_020, originally uploaded by Brin d’Acier.
Sketchbook_Helsinki_1990_021, originally uploaded by Brin d’Acier.
Watercolour Sketchbook, Äkäslompolo, 1989 September 06
I started carrying a small watercolour kit with me when hiking.
I’m fascinated by mountains, by the way they keep changing colour. Even though they are immobile, they seem alive, like giant waves of stone.
Old Saame at the railway station, Sketchbook Helsinki 1989
The sketchbooks became a way of showing people what I had seen during the day.
Bibliothèque Fornay, Sketchbook Paris 1988
Bibliothèque Fornay, Sketchbook Paris 1988, originally uploaded by Brin d’Acier.
By the time I moved to Paris, I was sketching almost every day, recording everything I saw. I started using a fountain pen, the same I wrote my notes with at the Sorbonne.
Buddhas at the Royal Ontario Museum, Sketchbook Toronto 1985
I started taking my sketchbook to museums, and drawing what I saw. I noticed that this helped me to focus on the exhibits better than just walking around and reading the plaques.
Mille Croquis 