Capri composition
The Moleskine Sketchbooks
I & II
I have always carried sketchbooks but these are now my favourites. The corners don't catch in your pocket.
All the pictures that follow are done 'on the move'; most un-named portraits are of people I spot in a bar or on a train.
In the Spring of 2005 Moleskine introduced a tall format range with the spine on the shorter side, in the manner of the traditional policeman's notebook. I found these in early June just as I was needing wide pages for some wide, elongated scroll-like compositions then coming to fruition. These include a RoadMovie vision of Sydney and will also be the format of Das Lied von der Erde and 'The Train Ride from London Bridge to Charing Cross'...
Sketchbook Number 1 - Tall Format
Sketchbook Number 2 - Wide Format
Sketchbook No.1:
25.ix.IV to 27.v.V
p.12
Capri composition
p.16
Paris, quartier St.Michel
Studies of the mirrors of the pub off Jermyn Street...
pp.17-21
pp.47-49
pp.51-53
Girls putting up with their friends, in a pub...
and a pensive chap in a pub, possibly ditto...
Studies for paintings of Bryce Canyon
p.64
p.131 
Some Portraits
Julia at the Klomp, Nice
pp.93-95
D & J reading on the tube
Sketches of the harbour at Aberdour;
November 2004 [pp.122-126]
p.104
exercise in calligraphy
p.130
sketch for a cocktail shaker for Samm; November 2004
George snoozing, Ventimiglia; January 2005
at the Bistrot des Augustins, Paris; January 2005
The sketches that follow were made during the
16th International Competition for Outstanding Amateur Pianists
in Paris; January 2005.
Salle Gaveau, Paris
Feng Ye (Joint-Winner of the competition.)
J.M. 
This is the face of the greatest Brahms playing...
Sketchbook No.2:
3.vi.V to 28.ii.VI
The following are the earliest sketches of Sydney for projected drawings and painting... The underlying pattern is a RoadMovie interlacing the suburbs leading from Hyde Park to Dover Heights and the ferry journey to Manly. For the final painting, click here.
The Sybaritic Syzygy of Sydney & the Sea...
brown ink, 3.vi.V
No.1
No.2
No.3
No.5
No.6
No.7
A Day in Rome
reddy-brown ink, 9.vii.V
pp.38/39
Under the parasols at the Piazza S.Lorenzo in Lucina
pp.36/37
View down the Spanish Steps from the Trinità dei Monti
pp.34/35
Hat & Satchel on a chair by a window at the Galleria Doria Pamphilj
pp.32/33
Looking out from the Osteria del Gallo, Vicolo di Montevecchio
pp.30/31 & 28/29
Wide view & Tall Arch at the arcades of the Piazza della Repubblica
pp.42 & 44
Night-lifers under the arcades....
The Harp, Chandos Place
PP.54-55
Dreaming down Adelaide Street; this is the best window in London!
pp.57/59 & 60/61
From outside, on two sheets, having miscalculated the heights; and from the inside.
Cambridge
No visit to Cambridge is complete without nipping in to the Fitzwilliam Museum for a good look at Renoir's 'Coup de vent', one of the ten great landscape paintings of the past hundred years...
Renoir's Gust of Wind thought of afterwards on the train; pp.67, 71, 77, 79
Hugh's Prince Albert; the statue in the garden.
18.x.2005: A Long Day in Italy...
Muji brush pen
The early man on the telephone at breakfast in Prato...
Lunch in a nook of the baptistry in Pistoia...
and the girl at the other table at supper in Pisa.
Giovanni Pisano
The purpose of the day was to see the Pisano-family pulpits in Pistoia and Pisa, and the Donatello pulpit panels in Prato & his bust of San Rossore in Pisa. Below are sketches from what for me is the greatest of the Pisano pulpits, that by Giovanni in Sant'Andrea in Pistoia.
NB: in Moleskine III, some sketches of Donatello's "San Rossore" in the Museo dell'Opera dell'Duomo in Pisa... Click here.
From the panel of the Massacre of the Innocents:
From the panel of the Crucifixion:
the Disciples' shame & horror:
and an Apostle:
Paris, late February 2006
At the Musée du Moyen Age at the Hôtel de Cluny, there were old stautues looking on...
...while musicians played:
below, from a distance, baryton Pierre Bourhis and soprano Hélène Decarpignies, of Ultréia!, the mediaeval music ensemble resident at the Museum.
then — back at the Bistrot des Augustins...
and the poise of the girl in red opposite...
Italy, February 2006
Back by the Mediterranean: a gusty meal over the waves at the Stella Marina, Ventimiglia...
Just posted:
Spring, Autumn... 2006