Hi there, I’m Jane Bumar
I’m an art journal keeper, sketcher, and lover of all things travel and art.
I can’t separate these two passions either! Travel inspires my art muse, and once I feel a sketch coming on…there’s nothing else for it than to pull up a chair in a cozy café and pour out everything in my mind and heart. I want to capture every delicious minute of my experiences in my journal. I write down overheard conversations, tips and tricks, directions, menu items, funny sights and quirky observations.
I sketch (little simple sketches mostly) to see and remember. I splash a bit of paint to capture everything that I find fascinating, different and colorful – maybe it’s those shutters with the peeling paint, or that perfect cocktail, that oh-so-tricky gothic arch, or a simple flowerpot. I go where my intuition tells me, and I while away the hours in a foreign land enthralled by the flow of life around me.
The love of travel and art led me to become a founding partner of Wandering Craft Retreats in 2021 - an art tour workshop with events in Scotland and England. The more I started teaching and hosting retreats, the more I learned about what I really want to focus on: teaching my tribe of people that are seeking a more approachable, slower and more artistically paced experience. Oh yes, and to have fun while we’re doing it!
Developing my Sketch Strolling process, with the goal of writing a book, drew me to move on from Wandering Craft Retreats. I am so excited to have the opportunity to pursue new dreams, and to share this learning journey with old and new friends.
Are you wondering if this sounds like you also?
Here’s a few things I learned (see if they resonate):
Art is a handful of learned skills, not an innate gift. If you can do handwriting, you can sketch! It’s simply an applied ‘bag of tricks’ (the fancy word is ‘techniques’), plus a bit of practice. Drawing a straight line isn’t required either.
If the world waited for only the ‘naturally talented people’ to make art, we’d be waiting a long time.
Travel activates your muse because everything looks, smells, and feels so different than in our normal lives. It brings clarity, and inspiration, but quite frankly it can also be a bit overwhelming.
We sensitive creative types feel things deeply, so we need a bit more time and space to process, and we want to remember all the insights and the clarity before it slips away. What we need is a structure and a vessel to hold all the travel magic.
And so, in that Big Magic kind of way, I became a ‘flaneur’ with my sketchbook.
I started strolling with no particular destination, going wherever my intuition took me, and noting what I saw and felt along my path. And that changed everything!
I never really know what I’m going to see, or who I’m going to meet. I’ve met lots of pets, and been invited into Frenchwomen’s homes for tea. I've encountered the kindness of strangers like Monseiur Robearrrr whose sister lived in ‘Meeami” who dropped his plans for the morning to guide me around Toulouse. I discovered more of Edinburgh, Paris, Prague and Barcelona than I’d ever have seen on a formal tour. What I figured out was that by traveling with my sketchbook, I was never lonely (and I solo travel a lot) because I always have a companion who never tires of my observations and rambles. I’ve gone all ‘seagull mode’ and grabbed posters, fliers, bits of fruit packing boxes from a farmer’s market on the Italian Riviera and I’ve introduced them into my journals too.
I really believe in travel magic, and I decided to start sharing this with others.
It needed a name, and Sketch Strolling is the best description I’ve come up with yet. It’s slow travel, it’s documentation, it’s being truly present in the moment.
I’ve seen the transformation from people who are afraid to draw, much less out in public, who never realized you could do this. I’ve been so grateful to all the lovely artists I’ve had the pleasure of sharing the gift of the Sketch Stroll with.
How about you? Would you like to join the gentle experience?
I hope you will join my mailing list, come on a Sketch Stroll experience with me and my special guest artist friends, and make some travel magic together.