L'Atelier Nomade

L'Atelier Nomade

Ivan Seymus


  • Travel journalsLink to my portfolio of pages in my travel journals
  • Hand-drawn mapsLink to my portfolio on hand drawn maps
  • 2 August 2023

    A commissioned travel journal

    A commissioned travel journal

    Almost without exception, my travel journals are for personal use. It does happen that an isolated drawing ends up as an illustration in an article or book. But then, it is out of his original context. So when the Deputy Creative Director of Road & Track (Hearst magazines) contacted me, I was challenged! If I… Continue reading

    Carnet de voyage

  • 2 August 2023

    The creation of a story map: Moulin Saint-Augustin, Oppède

    The creation of a story map: Moulin Saint-Augustin, Oppède

    Estate map vs. story map In the creation of the story map for the Moulin Saint-Augustin in Oppède Provence, I started by learning the history on what estate maps used to be. Estate maps, also known as land maps or cadastral maps, have a long history dating back centuries. These maps were created to document… Continue reading

    Deep Mapping
    France, Provence

  • 4 February 2023

    The landscape as memory

    The landscape as memory

    When we consider a landscape to be the memory of time, a collection of past events, I cannot but speculate when I see the breach in the dry stone wall where wild boars, coming from the mountain, have made a passage to look for water in the valley during dry periods. Continue reading

    Deep Mapping
    France, Provence

  • 24 January 2023

    The cultural artefact in the Provençal landscape

    The cultural artefact in the Provençal landscape

    Drawing is that rare thing that gives you a chance of very close identification with something, or somebody, who is not you. A quote by John Berger that stays with me … Continue reading

    Deep Mapping
    France, Provence

  • 21 January 2023

    Jean-Paul Clébert’s house

    Jean-Paul Clébert’s house

    Unfortunately less known and hard to find in translation, but for me, Jean-Paul Clébert is right up there with Giono and Bosco. Especially when you know that Guy Debord (Situationists) based his ‘dérive’ on the writing of Clébert. Continue reading

    Deep Mapping
    France, Provence

  • 20 January 2023

    From Oppède-le-Vieux to Sénanque with a travel journal

    From Oppède-le-Vieux to Sénanque with a travel journal

    At a chance meeting, a story pops up. Not just a funny anecdote or forgotten legend, but a historical event spanning many centuries and featuring well-known sites. Reason enough to re-explore my familiar surroundings with a sketchbook and to look for traces of this history. Continue reading

    Deep Mapping
    France, Provence

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About Me

World citizen with a notebook in hand to write, sketch and tell stories with all senses present.

icon traverler's notebook as zibaldone

This blog is a zibaldone in itself — part notebook, part stage, where fragments turn into text, images, and sometimes motion. Mostly on keeping a zibaldone, Provence, sketching and stories of all kind.

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  • Vimeo

Recent Posts

  • Interview about sketching on location
  • The oldest house in Oppède-le-Vieux
  • A Double-chambered Vessel
  • Thinking through making
  • Coup d’État
  • Mexico 1986, my plein air sketch roots
  • A commissioned travel journal
  • The creation of a story map: Moulin Saint-Augustin, Oppède
  • The landscape as memory
  • The cultural artefact in the Provençal landscape

ivanseymus

World citizen with a notebook in hand to write, sketch and tell stories with all senses present.

Exotic garden in Llubi and different kinds of palm Exotic garden in Llubi and different kinds of palm trees study.  #carnetdevoyage #naturejournaling #usk #urbansketchers #travelerscompany
Springtime brings nature in my zibaldone. Iris de Springtime brings nature in my zibaldone. Iris de Provence, seed pods of all sorts, an unlucky gecko that did not make it through winter, observing the perfect geometry …
#naturejournaling #provence #luberon #parcnaturelregionalduluberon #irisdeprovence #zibaldone #visualjournal
🌴Adios #Mallorca , you were an inspiration once 🌴Adios #Mallorca , you were an inspiration once again. #urbansketchersmallorca #travelersnotebook
Old, older, oldest The name of our village, Oppè Old, older, oldest  The name of our village, Oppède-le-Vieux, says it all: ‘vieux’ (old in French). I wondered what the oldest house in the village would ultimately be. So we planned a Sunday walk up the hill via the medieval callade of Chemin de Tombereau …  Short story on my blog, link in bio.  #oppede #provence #traveljournal #sketch #deepmapping #ateliernomade #usk
Just realized that I posted the preliminary sketch Just realized that I posted the preliminary sketches but not the finished piece. A commissioned story map of an olive oil mill and its grounds in Oppède, Luberon, Provence. Size: A2
#deepmapping #senseofplace #spiritofplace #provence #pencilsketching #unescobiospherereserve
✨ A Double-Chambered Vessel ✨ 
Some objects ✨ A Double-Chambered Vessel ✨

Some objects quietly wait to tell their story.

Years ago, I traded one of my first intaglios for a small, mysterious stone with two holes. At the time, no one knew what it was — maybe a toy? It ended up forgotten in a box.
Until, by chance, I saw its twin behind glass in a writing museum: an ancient inkwell, once used by scribes in Mesoamerica.

Now it sits on my desk, connecting distant hands, pigments, and stories.
Read the full story on my blog — link in bio.  #artiststory #foundobject #artefact #mysteryobject #doublechamberedvessel #teotihuacan #aztecculture #inkwell #inspiration #artistlife #historyandart #ancientcraft #printmakinginspiration #serendipity #storybehindtheart #writinghistory #creativeprocess #objectswithastory #artandmemory
Thinking through making As part of the deep mappi Thinking through making  As part of the deep mapping project around Saint Augustin, I set out to better understand how building a new site in the 12th century might have unfolded. Instead of relying on written sources alone, I chose to explore this through making.  Not far from the location I was documenting, I constructed a larger-scale sculpture: an attempt to reconstruct the principles of medieval building practices. It began with gathering materials, transporting them, stacking, disassembling, adjusting. Working with weight and balance, volume and void.  As the process continued, immaterial aspects revealed themselves naturally: orientation, the position of the sun, shadows, the play of light, the connection to the landscape. These were not decisions made in advance but responses to conditions on site.  I used only what was at hand: stones, tree stumps, branches. Slowly, the structure began to resemble a hilltop village — Gordes serving as a model. A small architecture, assembled by hand, guided by observation.  Sometimes the best way to understand history is to let your hands ask the questions.  IMAGES  1. Preliminary study  2. NORTH: a hilltop village under construction  3. EAST: “The painter sketches to paint, the sculptor draws to carve, and the architect draws to build.” — Louis I. Kahn  4. From drawing to the field  5. SOUTH: “At the end of the day I was inventing shapes and placing buildings in different relationships than they were.” — Louis I. Kahn


6. WEST: “A space can never reach its place in architecture without natural light.
The structure is a design in light.” — Louis I. Kahn  #DeepMapping #ThinkingThroughMaking #HandsOnHistory #MaterialThinking #ArtisticResearch #SculpturalProcess #SiteBasedResearch #ateliernomade
Storm Darragh unleashed havoc on the Victorian pie Storm Darragh unleashed havoc on the Victorian pier of Llandudno in Northern Wales last week. A 150 year old kiosk was ripped from its foundations. An ice cream parlor has been missing since then. I do not know if it is the one a sketched earlier this year on our first visit. Will be checking later this week.  #wales #llandudno #sketch #carnetdevoyage #usk
When in Provence you can blend in with the local s When in Provence you can blend in with the local scenery by renting a ‘deuche’ or ‘deux chevaux’. The first one is a 2CV Special, the second sketch is a ‘Charleston’ version. Probably the best way to take in the landscape with as few horsepower as possible. 😋  #citroen #2CV #deuche #carnetdevoyage #sketchbook #traveljournal #provenceluberon #provence #urbansketching #drawing #illustration #locationdrawing #travelillustration #cardrawing #ateliernomade
I promise, this is the last page I will share with I promise, this is the last page I will share with the blanc-out-bleed-through-text-technique. This kind of serendipity keeps me drawing in notebooks and from switching to a tablet. Paper is my home.  Little square in Uzès at the entrance of the local library. Pencil on 52g Tomoe River paper.  #Uzes #sketchbookdrawing #journaling #provence #handlettering #USK #urbansketchers
'No littering. The sea begins here.' Pavement sign 'No littering. The sea begins here.' Pavement sign in Javea. They chose the silhouette of a giant sunfish (mola mola) to fit all the text in, I presume. (detail travel journal)  #sunfish #javea #pencildrawing #uskspain #traveljournal #sketchbook #handlettering
Fond memories of Javea/Xabia in my journal. 52g To Fond memories of Javea/Xabia in my journal. 52g Tomoe River paper in goodinkpressions notebook, perfect for travelling.  #tomoeriverpaper #goodinkpressions #carnetdevoyage #jávea #costablanca #usk #urbansketchers
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Recent Posts

  • Interview about sketching on location
  • The oldest house in Oppède-le-Vieux
  • A Double-chambered Vessel

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