The behind-the-scenes aspect of how artists think, the visual sensibility that differentiates them from others, is rarely shared.
What is exhibited is more often the result of research and experiments, presented at an end stage, polished for consumption.
So the opportunity to look into that back end of an artist’s process, the trial and error, at the undigested raw materials that artists generate is like a window into an intriguing and exotic process.
For Brisbane artist Deb Mostert, exhibiting her sketchbooks is uncomfortable, as though giving the world access to her “external brain”.
Yet this is the second time in as many years that Mostert has agreed to show these sketchbooks. They are the result of 20 years of a daily practice – drawing, writing, researching and generally chronicling her life in volume after volume.
At the opening of A Sketchbook Practice at The Condensery, Toogoolawah, Mostert said: “They are not meant for sharing. This is not my art practice; it is a separate and parallel stream. They describe how I deal with life. It is a ritualistic thing that you can do. In my teaching I share the value in documenting your life, and being present. Drawing helps you see, and to observe and learn from nature, people, and life.”
The reason Mostert agreed to sharing these precious volumes with exhibition goers at The Condensery – and previously at Ipswich Art Gallery last year – is her belief in the value of the process. It is this she is always willing to share, while she also notes its problems.
To avoid audience handling, the sketches are necessarily single openings from each of her sketchbooks. In the gallery setting they are exhibited without context. Still, displayed on open shelves and on tables within The Condensery space they draw you in.
The intimacy conveyed by the scale and detail of her drawing, the modest size of the books and the informality of their presentation compels attention.
Mostert’s usual art practice results in public art and gallery exhibitions. Her themes include migration (of people and animals), objects (toolbox, pictured) and their meaning, natural history, the environment and her family history, often drawn together.
All of her known themes as an artist are documented in the sketchbooks, with the additional thick context of her daily life, its pleasures and concerns.
The books and the pages that sit open for examination were selections she made to allow their scope to be visible, while also limiting her exposure.
The themes of her artwork are visible here – drawings of birds are regular inclusions around the room, often with notes, as are landscapes, portraits and sketches of people and crowds, quotes from writers, philosophers and the Bible, drawings of dogs, her partner Noel (linear and quick, others deftly detailed in watercolour), food and birthday gifts. Some pages tell stories.
Tilda and the sacrificial lamb relates the theft of a plastic lamb from Mostert’s sideboard, with action drawings of the bird, the chase and the nest where not only this lamb but other stolen household items have been secreted.
The page opposite depicts groups of individuals in pen and ink, a man and his dog who assemble for a fundraiser for Ukraine. Despite the simplicity of the medium, the distress of the crowded room is palpable.
Yet for most viewers of Mostert’s sketches it is not personal revelations that draw the heart and the eye but the aesthetic pleasure to be had in each spread. Every mark seems choreographed – as even the simplest drawings sitting centrally on the page speak, somehow, to a broader emotion.
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Through this vista into Mostert’s practice, we share the concerns and humanity inherent in her art-making; its ability to open her heart and psyche to the broader world and create momentum behind positive change.
A Sketchbook Practice – Deb Mostert & Somerset Arts Community – is on show at The Condensery – Somerset Regional Art Gallery, Toogoolawah, until July 7
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