I just came back from Stockholm and I had the wonderful opportunity to meet Nina, someone’s whose art I’ve been admiring for a long time.

We took off in the cold, into the old town and found a warm spot to have a cuppacino. The coffee shops and bars are so full of atmosphere late afternoon and they have candles burning everywhere from early afternoon. It is here where you would meet up and have long discussions and debates and romantic glances over the flickering candle light and tell whatever story you wish to tell, without worrying too much about the truth or the sense of it all. It is made for a slow sipping of your cuppacino or hot cocolate or wine or beer, stretching those good moments to last a little longer. It isn’t made for sketching though….or maybe the dim light is exactly what we need to silence the critic inside of us.

Nina and I did succeed in doing a sketch or two while sipping our cuppacino’s. She is a lovely person and it was a delight getting to know a little about her! She had dreamed of living in Stockholm since she was 15 years old and after all this time, she is still inspired by it. Her love for Stockholm is portrayed in her sketchbooks. I feel so honoured seeing her sketchbook, recognising some of the sketches from her blog, and they are FAR more impressive on the page! She is an amazing artist and her sketchbooks deserve to be published or exhibited. They are handmade by her and each page is just beautiful in its composition. I was also in awe of the ease with which she works! She simply took her pen and started drawing and a few minutes later, she had this beautiful sketch, while I was talking to myself and erasing and running off the page and starting over and trying to focus in the dark and wondering if I wouldn’t want another coffee…..Meeting Nina was a highlight for me and the next couple of days I criss-crossed Stockholm on foot, seeing its beauty through her eyes.

Both sketches in moleskine, done with pen, pencil and watercolor.