Book Review: Hola, Miró!!! A Travel Sketch Journal by Swasky

This is one of three sketchbooks mailed to me recently from publisher Gustavo Gili. The other two books are Barcelona Rooftops by Miguel Herranz and The Alhambra Sketchbook by Luis Ruiz.

Víctor Martínez Escámez (aka Swasky) is a Catalan illustrator and art teacher from Spain who lives on the outskirts of Barcelona. This 80-page paperback sketchbook of his is inspired by Joan Miro, a Spanish painter, sculptor, and ceramicist born in Barcelona. To learn more about Joan Miro, Swasky traveled to the Fundació Joan Miró, a museum of modern art located on the hill Montjuïc in Barcelona. I was actually at Montjuïc during the Urban Sketches Symposium a few years ago and missed out on visiting this museum. So it's great to be able to see this museum through Swasky's eyes.

Swasky visited the different exhibition halls and sketched the interiors, talked to people and sketched them too. The sketches are lovely, created with watercolour, ink and coloured pencils. I've looked at some photos of the museum and these sketches definitely made the museum look livelier. I also enjoyed the commentary about Joan Miro's artworks as well as the people who worked there.

This is a beautiful sketchbook. Highly recommended. Be sure to check out the other two books mentioned earlier too.

Hola, Miró!!! A travel Sketch Journal is available at Gustavo Gili online store and Amazon (US | CA | UK | DE | FR | IT | ES | JP | CN)

Visit Amazon to check out more reviews.

If you buy from the links, I get a little commission that helps me get more books to feature.

Here are direct links to the book:
Gustavo Gili online store | Amazon.com | Amazon.ca | Amazon.co.uk | Amazon.de | Amazon.fr | Amazon.it | Amazon.es | Amazon.co.jp | Amazon.cn