Pencil sketches of a very young child asleep

In 2012 I had one of the best experiences of my life. My daughter Anne was born. 

Well I call her Annie. 

But it is really spelt Anne.

And in Japanese it is “An” and this is the kanji “杏” and it means apricot.

It was only after having children, and I adopted two before this, that I realized how wonderful children are. 

I wish that I’d known this when I was younger. 

Alas such is life, we tend to learn after the fact and then suffer. 

It’s not very fair but then again nobody said it would be.

Anyways, for me, the best thing in life has been having children.

So during this year and the next few I had very little time to go gallivanting outside and painting landscapes as I was very much house-bound looking after my baby. 

But I took advantage of this marvellous situation by doing a lot of sketches of my daughter. 

And here are a few of those sketches.

Luckily there’s a date on this sketch. 

Annie was born on August 6 of 2012 so this must be May 31st of 2013. 

I’m so grateful for that date because at first I thought these sketches were from 2012 but now I know they are from 2013. 

This year (2021) I have been organizing my artwork, which consists of over 1000 pieces, and one of the biggest problems has been knowing when I created a piece of art and it made me realize the importance of dating my work. 

Sadly I’m still not putting a date on my work although I do show each new work on Instagram (well most of them) which dates it for me. 

But I perhaps shouldn’t depend on that too much and I should add a date in pencil on the back of each artwork.

All of these sketches are of Annie sleeping.

This was the best time to draw her as she wasn’t moving.

Also at this time, I was free. 

Furthermore, I like to draw sleeping figures because they are a very interesting subject.

The sleeping posture is often very interesting.

The pattern of the folds on the bed sheets is also interesting.

And the feeling of relaxation is wonderful.

And the face often has a calm and almost angelic appearance.

Sometimes I would do a very simple line drawing of Annie such as above. 

Although it’s very minimalistic I like it very much.

That’s all,

Gareth.