Eleven years of traveling notebooks

The presence of so many artists, sitting or standing around the city, with their notebooks and folders, takes us back in memory of those Saturdays when the School of Painting of the Hort del Xocolater, of the CAM, worked and so many people were seen on the way with a canvas and a wooden briefcase. The blessed School of Painting (1974-2014) in the open air, among palm trees and plants, inspired by the French Barbizón School, a precedent of the Impressionist movement, which for four decades drove the love of drawing and painting of the people of Elche, with a free and personalized teaching that led to the flourishing of the most beautiful naturalistic and naive paintings of our time. And the boldest productions of children’s art, by boys and girls aged eight and up.

At present, a new movement similar to Urban Sketchers circulates through the networks, it is Rural Sketchers (Rural Cartoonists), whose works refer to the rural world. Precisely the theme in which we are immersed right now the cartoonists of Traveling Notebooks, the districts of Elche. A beautiful journey of discovery of our rural environment that has us totally excited. For these drawings of the natural in the districts, the notebooks are dispersed in small groups throughout the rural areas in search of the most interesting corners and perspectives. Creating alarming confusion for the people of the countryside. It would not hurt to ask permission from the inhabitants of the houses, because there is nothing more annoying for the peasants than someone walking around with a notebook on the terraces. They immediately think that a highway is going to be built or the AVE is going to pass.

Conceptually, Cuadernos Viajeros is a direct descendant of Esbart Zero… and of the Grup d´Elx in its functions of bringing art closer to people. As well as an extension of the Viper Project in its relational practices. The members of Cuadernos are people of all ages and professions who share their fondness for drawing and painting, together with professional artists, such as designers, architects, painters, etc. The objectives of the group are very simple: to have a wonderful instrument that connects us humanly with nature and the environment, while we find beauty and happiness. The sketchbooks are the studio of each artist and become an image laboratory where experimentation is as or more important than graphic swagger.

All this background of images on the pages of the notebooks are used for the edition of shared trips albums. Other times they go to a thematic selection that limits a commemorative edition of something. Four books have already been published, one of them dedicated to our “awakening” as cartoonists; another to celebrate the ten years of our group: another referring to the museum pieces of the Pusol Museum and the last one dedicated to exclusive views of the city of Elche. Available material for the fifth volume is currently being generated. referring to the rural areas of Elche. Next December all the works carried out on the districts so far will be exhibited at the Pusol Museum.

The fatality of the Covid pandemic will make us spend another year without a birthday celebration, but nothing and no one is going to prevent us from being in luck. Congratulations.

To be continue…