A sozzled sketchbook: Joe Gamble

#1, joe gamble

Joe Gamble is an artist based in Forest Hill, South East London.

His work mostly plays on relaxed form and heavy marks. More recently he’s been preoccupied with small thought, forcing himself to recollect and the variety in the weather passing his window.

We consider ourselves lucky to have a number of artists and creatives among our regulars and neighbours here in South East London. One of whom, Joe Gamble has been enjoying the summer-lockdown as best he could, at his desk, working away quietly.

Spotting him at a safe distance in the street recently; we handed him a bottle of Domaine Rietsch Tout Blanc and asked him to drink it, then to draw something. Not there and then in the street mind; at his own leisure.

We asked him how his lockdown had been, and how he got on with trying to paint wine:

"The drawing I did for the wine was done using a process I’ve been working with a lot since lockdown kicked in. I spent the deep lockdown sat at my desk at home; doing small abstract drawings in sketchbooks, with the hope of developing them when I finally got back to the studio. Working with oil pastel on paper.

"Some of the work was done from photographs but the majority I made spontaneously. It was a very relaxing process. I had a thought the other day that they are very much my clear conscious drawings. Or, drawings that clear my conscious, I haven’t decided.

"As for this one, I just remember the wine- Tout Blanc- being crisp and bright, as was the day outside. The drawing, like a lot of what Ive been looking at from my desk, is of space. The colours are a play on a hot day."

DOMAINE RIETSCH, TOUT BLANC. JOE GAMBLE, SUMMER 2020