Diebenkorn and Matisse

Artists and their inspiration

This blog precedes my upcoming Diebenkorn Online workshop coming up on Sunday, May 18, 2025.  The workshop will cover his influences, and artistic process, ending with a free painting session where participants can either copy one of his works or do their own inspired by him.

Circling Back

A few weeks ago I wrote a blog on the Joy of Drawing Substack about Wayne Thiebaud, a contemporary of Richard Diebenkorn, and their artistic influences. The blog covered Wayne Thiebaud Art From Art, an exhibition mounted by the Legion of Honor in San Francisco and it is excellent.  My only beef was that each painting of Thiebaud’s was shown next to a similar painting by another artist, implying that many of his ideas were not original. Had these comparative paintings been selected by Thiebaud himself to highlight his inspiration I would not have had a problem.  Thiebaud has specified that he has copied other artists and drawn inspiration from them, as all artists do, but the curators at this exhibition attempted to draw comparisons based on what they thought he was inspired by, without stating it was their opinion. Even if their opinion was well founded, it should still have been framed as such.  Enough said.

So what does this have to do with Richard Diebenkorn?  Well, the Wayne Thiebaud exhibit somewhat reminded me of an exhibition I attended several years back at SFMOMA entitled Matisses/Diebenkorn.

The exhibition displayed Richard Diebenkorn’s work alongside that of Henri Matisse and was based on the fact that Diebenkorn, on several occasions, stated he was deeply moved by the work of Henri Matisse.  In fact, after being exposed to the paintings of Matisse on a tour of the art gallery in Leningrad during the Cold War (now St. Petersberg)  he did a painting that references this.  

However, his work is not really like that of Matisse, and when I saw the exhibition this was clear to me.  So much so that I left the exhibit with a bad taste in my mouth and quite honestly a lack of interest in Richard Diebenkorn. I am a huge fan of Matisse with whom I am very familiar, but I was not very familiar with Diebenkorn.

To this day, I wish I hadn’t disregarded the work of Diebenkorn after that experience. Unfortunately, I did and didn’t learn anything else about him for many years until I began studying him for an upcoming lecture on American landscape painters of the 20th century.  

Wow, how wrong I was to drop my interest in him.  What an amazing painter he was and how much we can learn from him.   I hope I can communicate this in my upcoming workshop which will be online, but I will also make it into a recorded workshop should you be unable to attend.

In doing my own research, I found some fascinating facts about Diebenkorn’s early and diverse influences from the work of Edward Hopper to that of George Harriman’s comic strip Felix the Cat.

When I read what he had to say about the influence of seeing the California landscape from an airplane it got me even more interested.  It was this influence that preceded his famous series of paintings known as his Berkeley period.  And this went on to influence the landscapes of Wayne Thiebaud which are entirely different, but yet inspired by seeing the land from the sky.

"One thing I know has influenced me a lot is looking at landscape from the air... I was first struck by the aerial views when I was flying back to California from Albuquerque in 1951... I guess it was the combination of desert and agriculture that really turned me on, because it has so many things I wanted in my paintings. Of course, the earth's skin itself had 'presence'—I mean it was all like a flat design—and everything was usually in the form of an irregular grid." —Richard Diebenkorn

Finally, when I read an essay written by a young student in LA who had the good fortune to have a studio in the same building as Diebenkorn in LA, I finally understood the true influence of Matisse, and it was entirely unique and not at all what I thought it would be, and certainly not what i saw in that earlier exhibition. The essay is called What Diebenkorn and Matisse Taught Me about the Hard Work of Making Art by Elyn Zimmerman. Published by The Getty, it’s a fascinating read.

It tells of a poster that hung on the window wall of Diebenkorn’s studio overlooking the ocean and from where The Ocean Park Series was created.  This painting by Matisse is little known and was painted before his career really got going.  Entitled View of Notre Dame, it shows his abstraction of the geometric lines he saw.  Now, that influence I can clearly see in the later geometric lines and shapes in the Ocean Park drawings and paintings by Diebenkorn. Finally, I can respect, understand and truly learn from that influence.

I truly believe that, for artists, it is a worthwhile pursuit to learn about the process a painter went through, and by doing so it expands our own understanding of the artist and gives us things that can help us in our own work.  How did they do that? How did they get from here to there?   These and others are questions that, when answered, really help in one’s own art.  That is why my series is called Learn From the Masters as it is by learning from them that we, as painters, get better.  Just as great chefs learn from their masters, so do we, and in some special cases, we move that influence into creating something entirely new as did Richard Diebenkorn.

How iPad Art Saved My Life

It may sound a bit dramatic but read on…

It was over a decade ago, 2012 to be precise when I was trying to exit a highly toxic and abusive situation in Los Angeles. My family helped make this happen in more ways than one. It was my birthday, and they gave me an iPad. My son had downloaded an art app called Paper that he thought might interest me. Not only did I successfully exit the abusive situation I was in, but my iPad helped me reset my life goals as an artist and get back to the profession that I left after leaving the UK.

Which brings me to why I am writing this blog.

I had given up on my career as an artist five years after leaving my art college in England. I wandered through many different careers, some creative and others not. But I hadn’t drawn anything until the point I picked up my new iPad.

Here I was facing this slippery glass screen with only my finger (the Apple Pencil was not yet on the market).  It took me a whole day to create a rather wobbly-looking zebra.  That was just the beginning.  I was obsessed - working day and night drawing: animals, flowers, trees, people,  whatever. I started to share my work on Tumblr (at that time it was pretty cool.) 

Early iPad drawings from 2012

Next came an iPad Art group on Facebook through which I met my digital art business partner, Sumit Vishwakarma, and together we created the Mobile Art Academy. From 2013-2019 we held international exhibitions and workshops both in person and online, connecting up iPad artists from around the Globe.  

Meantime I was teaching everywhere: schools, colleges, clubs, community centers, you name it.  I even taught an on-campus group at Stanford University. I was willing to share the joy I experienced on my iPad with anyone aged 8 to 80. 

At the start of my adventure, I attended an exhibition at San Francisco’s DeYoung Museum, dedicated to showing the iPad art of David Hockney, one of the greatest living artists.  I stood in front of the 10-foot tall prints of his iPad paintings of Yosemite - I was reconnected to an artist had fallen in love with way back in my days at Art College in the UK.

I knew I had come full circle, able to pick back up my career as an artist, which I did over ,the next few years with several solo exhibitions and my work selected to hang as a 6ft by 4ft print in the Google Bikes building.  I had arrived.

But like many artists, five years later, I was ready to move on, which I did. But not before experiencing the healing power of art when I completed a series of 35 artworks on my iPad that helped me confront, relive and live through the abuse I had experienced and from which I escaped.  I knew then I had to share this restorative experience with others.  

I exhibited the series and felt strongly I was ready to return to working with more traditional media. That ultimately led to the writing of The Joy of Drawing A Beginner’s Manual by myself and a fellow artist and Brit, Katy Lea. Following this we co-founded The Joy of Drawing Inc, a non-profit located in San Francisco’s Bay Area. Katy has since returned to the UK but together we built up the company, offering drawing classes throughout libraries in San Mateo County and beyond as well as online and in-person classes and workshops. 

Our mission reads: We believe in the transformative power of creativity to enrich lives and promote well-being. Drawing isn't just an art form - it's a path way to improved mental and emotional health - for everyone.  

But, in spite of all this, my relationship with iPad Art did not end.  Not only do I continue to teach it to those who have been with me for many years Bose work can be seen you can see in the digital section of the gallery on our website. 

 Nowadays, my iPad plays many roles in my life as a full-time artists, instructor, and the ED of The Joy of Drawing:  

• I use it to critique my own work and to try out things to see if they work.  It is a back-and-forth thing.  

• I use it to critique the work of my students.  They send me a photo of their artwork and I put it into the Procreate app and from there can discuss it and show some possible solutions to problems I see as existing.

• I use it to create graphics for my website as well as creating promotional pieces and so forth.  

• I still use it for rapid figure drawing 

• I continue to use my iPhone to sketch anywhere and everywhere using the Procreate Pocket app. 

There is only one thing that irks me about all of this:  I have become so busy with the website, other classes and my own work that I simply do not havve the bandwidth to introduce others to drawing and painting on the iPad.  

But that has now ended with the arrival of a 24-year-old dynamo, design student Cassia Gilbert who has become part of our close-knit team at The Joy of Drawing.  She is not only talented, she’s a terrific teacher and I am proud to announce she will be hosting a 90-minute weekly class every Saturday from 10:30 am to 12:00 pm (Pacific Time) during which time she will be showing you how to use the Procreate Art App to draw, paint and collage. Here is a video replay of one of her recent iPad paintings of Golden Gate Bridge in the fog…

I really hope you will take the opportunity to join her.  The class is hosted on our website.  You can sign up by month or by week, and to whet your appetite your first class will be free using the code TRYUSOUT.  Register by Week. Register by Month.

I will be blogging later in the summer about David Hockney, and his influence on me in the 60s at Art school up until now.  When I met back up with him in 2012 and saw his explorations with the iPad, I knew I made the right decision to take up drawing and painting on my iPad when naysayers were critical of it as “not real art” and other sillinesses.

However, ahead of that my next blog will cover the artist Richard Diebenkorn whose work I will be covering in my DIEBENKORN ONLINE workshop on Sunday, May 18 starting at 10:30 AM Pacific time. This is part of a LEARN FROM THE MASTERS series that I have been giving for the past few years, both online and in-person,  covering many different artists from Claude Monet to Vincent Van Gogh, Pierre Bonnard, and onwards from there. I prefer “LEARN from” to “PAINT like”  as I am interested in showing you the influences and what we know of the process of each artist so we can learn from them, be inspired and, as part of the workshops, copy one of their works to learn from that process.

So watch the space for my next blog.

Thank you for listening.

Is Drawing a Valid Form of Meditation?

My journey continues as I discover the answer… for myself and for you

Thanks for the terrific response to my first blog. I realize this one comes a little hard on its heels, but we have an event scheduled for next Wednesday Aprill 30th that is directly tied into it that you will not want to miss if you live in the SanFrancisco Bay Area, so hear goes.

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As a child growing up in Cornwall, the Southern tip of the British Isles, I would drink in the landscape and began drawing the flowers which adorned it at an early age.

Moving to the Cotswolds in my teens, I would draw incessantly, both prior to and during my first two years in art school. I would urban sketch in the Regency town of Cheltenham where I lived, and would do plein air sketching of the amazing landscapes in the hills and valleys of the Cotswolds. I wish I had those drawings now, but they are long since gone.

As I covered in my last blog post, after decades spent in the desert without any personal art expression I was reconnected to my first love when I started drawing on my iPad with my finger.

My iPad not only saved my sanity, it reset my life goals. But it was not until I picked up a traditional pencil that I re-experienced the meditational aspect of drawing and sketching.

My friend and fellow Brit, Katy Lea, suggested we start drawing again and we embarked on our new journey armed with pencils and small sketchbooks we could fit in our purses. We visited the Shoreline Lake Park in Mountain View, sat down, and began sketching.

We were overwhelmed with excitement when we sat in the car and reflected on the experience. We knew we had hit something major in our lives and decided to launch an ad-hoc group we named Art Hiking to which we invited our friends, iPad art students, as well as new folks.

People showed up and together we walked around the lake and began teaching those who needed it, how to draw. Suffice it to say, not a lot of hiking occurred, but a lot of art! We created a logo for our group (on our iPad of course) and we even created small bags we sewed together with an ironed-on logo. We filled the over-the-shoulder bag with the same small sketchbook we were using by Moleskine and pencils by Blackwing - a kneaded eraser and a pencil sharpener. We even included a pen! Moleskine have since discontinued the tiny sketchbook we loved, but their other sketchbooks are still great if a little overpriced. A less expensive alternative are those by Royal Talens. This one is small (5x5 so it fits in your purse) with thick paper good enough for any type of medium including watercolor or even gouache.). Of course, if you are just sketching you can use anything, just as we did when seeking cheaper alternatives.

As we continued sketching together, we both noticed the effect was restorative as if we had been meditating. Artists often talk about this as going into the zone. Katy’s sister was deeply involved in mindfulness and meditation and she told us there is a direct connection between Drawing and Meditation.

The following might be a bit dry, but if you read to the end of the blog you can see why I am sharing all this with you and what we have in store for you at The Joy of Drawing that will make this a reality for you (if not already!)

Scientific Research Makes the Connection

While this personal experience was anecdotal, the science behind it is clear.

• Like meditation, drawing requires focused attention. When you’re deeply engaged in sketching, especially from observation, your mind naturally quiets. This is the process of what we nicknamed “going into the zone” at art college.

• Repetitive mark-making such as hatching creates a rhythm that mirrors breathing exercises in medittion.

Goof references: Frederick Franck, ​the awakened eye and from the same author, The Zen of Seeing-Drawing is Meditation.

Psychologist Mihaely Csikszentmihaly identified a condition he called the “flow state” - a meditative-like zone of focus - often achieved through drawing or sketching, This state boosts mood, lowers stress, and improves emotional regulation.

Drawing without focusing on perfection or outcome mirrors the nonjudgemental awareness core of mindfulness. Practices we use on our sketch walks such as blind contouring and continuous line drawing help emphasize presence over product - in other words they teach you how to be in the moment without worrying about the result!

Neurological Overlap Between Drawing and Medication.

Research in neuroimaging showed that both drawing and meditation modulate core large-scale brain networks. During focused drawing individuals often shift out of self-referential thoughts and into task-positive networks akin to those engaged during mindfulness of meditation.

Quantitative EEG studies revealed that drawing can elicit increases in brain rhythms associated with relaxation and meditative states.

This is just a little of the scientific research that has come to the fore over the past 50 years, but in our own “unscientific” artistic terms it means:

You said it, “going into the zone!

Finally, here’s why I am writing this blog now

Quite apart from the fact this is about my own journey, it invites you to join myself and Sonia Brittain, our Creative Director who is also an avid sketcher, at our free Sketch Club outings in and around the Bay Area.

We have scheduled these throughout the Spring and Summer starting next Wednesday, April 30th. Each month we will meet up on the final Wednesday and you can find schedules on our website.

Here is the link to join us next Wednesday April 30 at, you guessed it, Shoreline Park in Mountain View where we will meet up at the American Bistro directly off the free parking lot. We will be wandering over to the Rengstorff House and from there, over the bridge to some amazing meadows that Katy and I loved sketching.

Join our Monthly Sketch Club for FREE this coming Wednesday, April 30th. And bring any friends with you, also for free. We, of course, will welcome any small donation you choose to make when we end. Bring a small sketchbook (or large) and we will meet up at the American Bistro at 11am. If you are late we will send you our mobile so we can text you our location. If you don’t remember to register, just come along anyways!

Hope to see you there!

Blog Post Title Three

It all begins with an idea. Maybe you want to launch a business. Maybe you want to turn a hobby into something more. Or maybe you have a creative project to share with the world. Whatever it is, the way you tell your story online can make all the difference.

Don’t worry about sounding professional. Sound like you. There are over 1.5 billion websites out there, but your story is what’s going to separate this one from the rest. If you read the words back and don’t hear your own voice in your head, that’s a good sign you still have more work to do.

Be clear, be confident and don’t overthink it. The beauty of your story is that it’s going to continue to evolve and your site can evolve with it. Your goal should be to make it feel right for right now. Later will take care of itself. It always does.

Blog Post Title Four

It all begins with an idea. Maybe you want to launch a business. Maybe you want to turn a hobby into something more. Or maybe you have a creative project to share with the world. Whatever it is, the way you tell your story online can make all the difference.

Don’t worry about sounding professional. Sound like you. There are over 1.5 billion websites out there, but your story is what’s going to separate this one from the rest. If you read the words back and don’t hear your own voice in your head, that’s a good sign you still have more work to do.

Be clear, be confident and don’t overthink it. The beauty of your story is that it’s going to continue to evolve and your site can evolve with it. Your goal should be to make it feel right for right now. Later will take care of itself. It always does.