This is my Sketching and Creative Travel Journal. Join me as I explore the journey of creating & teaching Art. You will see the process and hear how my paintings, sketches and sketch classes come to life.

Sketch below by Jenny Chapman.

Let’s start with the ‘now.’

Tutoring Sketching has become my passion. It wasn’t planned but in fact came about when I was asked to do Sketch Classes for the Manly Arts Festival in 2011.

People have always admired my sketches, but I’d been too busy painting over the last 30+ years to give it much thought. I was amazed how many people signed up for those Sundays. All said they had no ability, couldn’t draw a straight line, but would love to able to.

I realised that I do have a clear and positive way of explaining “how to see”, which is what I show you before starting to sketch. In just a few minutes all of these people were sketching the still life setup and were so excited. They could hardly believe they’d done it.

Now we have regular weekly classes with a lively group of people from all walks of life who can’t wait to get to their class each week, all bonded by their love of sketching. We are further connected with our online interactions.

The Sketch classes have grown somewhat and in order to offer people more ways to learn, we also offer Sketch&French classes,  SketchyourCake classes,  Workshops and Private lessons –  to give people every opportunity to find the joy of learning and Sketching.

Now for the history…..

I am a professional Artist and Sketch tutor, who after leaving the advertising industry in 1986, went to The Julian Ashton Art School and completed a 4 year diploma in Fine Arts.

ErinHill Art Gallery was where for 10 years I created paintings, cards and prints of the local area and further afield. There were also regular exhibitions of my French Italian and Greek Isles works.

My former Art School is now the North Shore School of Art.  Today we have ErinHill Studio where our weekly sketch classes are based and which is very much my focus these days. Sketching gives one a sense of freedom. I teach the uplifting philosophy that anyone with a desire to be creative will be sketching and loving it in a very short time.

I’ve been exhibiting and selling regularly with commissioned and Gallery works since 1985.  My paintings are exhibited in the Studio where I paint, and all are on my online catalogue. Exhibitions at Bathers’ Pavilion in Balmoral are every 2 years, with other shows between.

My work has mainly been watercolour, though after travels in Italy, I also use acrylic and mixed media. This adds another dimension to my work, along with more sketch techniques.

These days I travel & paint, sketch & explore, plan new courses & tours, tutor our classes, and sketch with other incredibly inspiring and passionate people.

I have an on-going commission for a client in Trausse Minervois, South of France. Each year we produce a Christmas/ New year card from a new painting, for clients who have visited (or would like to visit) their stone cottages in this delightful village.

I take regular Getaway & Travel Sketch Art Tours each year.

In May 2014  we’ll be ‘Travel Sketching in France’.  You can join me for 7 nights in the village of Trausse in the South of France. Details are in the Menu Bar above, and you are invited to contact me to enquire about places.

Our Pacific Island Travel Sketching at Daku Resort Fiji is  a 7 night Tour in September 2013.

I love being in contact with other artists, With a group of painting friends, we regularly travel and explore new techniques and ideas, in Greece, France and Italy. We then keep in touch and continue our dialogue when back in our own studios.

I value enormously the global connection one has by keeping a journal such as this. You are suddenly talking with other like-minded people, and it’s incredibly inspiring to hear about their art journeys. I am much more focussed because of it.

I am  a member of the Sydney Sketch Club, International SketchCrawl, and Urban Sketchers Sydney. This keeps me in touch with local and global artists.  It fascinates me to see how totally differently we each approach the same subject. I also belong to  Survive France Network to be in touch with the Trausse Minervois region and keep up with what’s happening in the art world there,

Original paintings are for sale so please feel free to ask about sketches or paintings you see here. I can be talked into doing commissions occasionally too!

If you’d like to email me,  erin@erinhill.com.au