Travels with Diane Olivier: Experience, Draw, Remember
Your sketchbook is the passport you require to see and experience life as you travel.
I like what the late chef and author Anthony Bourdain said about travel:
“Travel isn’t always pretty. It isn’t always comfortable. Sometimes it hurts, it even breaks your heart. But that’s okay. The journey changes you; it should change you. It leaves marks on your memory, on your consciousness, on your heart, and on your body. You take something with you. Hopefully, you leave something good behind.”
When an artist travels, and draws what they see and experience, it will not only change who they are (for the better) but embed a more vivid memory of it. Every artist should have that opportunity. San Francisco-based artist and educator Diane Olivier provides that with the workshops she leads all around Europe, most notably to Morocco. I asked Diane a few questions about what she’s learned and experienced from travel, travel drawing, and from teaching art to artists in some exotic places.
Bill Russell (BR): This year you are leading workshops for artists in France, Morocco, Spain, Italy and Croatia. Can you briefly share what happens? What size of group? What do people draw when they’re there?
Diane Olivier (DO): Since I now have a business partner, Kate Kilbourne from Plein Air Holidays, I’m able to offer six workshops in five countries this year! Groups number between six to twelve, so we take very good care of everyone. Some of the subjects we draw include our breakfast table, coffee shops and bars, street views, landscapes, the animals we encounter, memory drawings, and of course the people we meet. I offer solid, supportive teaching suitable for beginners through advanced. My schedule is flexible to allow for shifts in the weather, individual interests, and local events.
BR: These places provide the artists with a new experience to a new culture, history, architecture, food, color, light, and so much more. I suppose it can be both exciting and challenging. Does drawing help the artists to process what they’re experiencing?
DO: Drawing gives us time to spend with a subject, more than one would usually do. While drawing, our memory is also soaking in weather conditions, who you were with, the circumstances before and after the drawing. So much comes back when you look at a drawing even years after. When we draw it attracts locals and allows for conversations that most likely would have never occurred, had you been pointing a camera and moving on. For example, I’ve had a giant crowd gather behind me in Morocco and cheer and clap when I was done! I’ve had old French women bring me chocolate, a hat or glass of water. The sketchbook serves as a passport into local life. Confrontations are rare. I once had my camel drawing corrected by a Moroccan who made it emphatically clear the ears were going in the wrong direction and he waited until I fixed it. It can be intimidating to draw in public sometimes, so I let my folks know that most people are very curious and supportive and try to welcome the attention. What’s more common is inviting kids to do a drawing in my book and sign their name. When drawing at markets, I have the sellers write the name of the object in their language and sign their names.
BR: Does drawing a person, a place, a thing make it memorable for the artist?
DO: Absolutely. I have a drawing of my wallet, filled with money, credit cards and my passport. I was in Portugal at the train station buying a ticket. I took a phone call and got distracted, leaving my wallet behind on the bench! It wasn’t until much later after breakfast at the cafe when I couldn’t pay I realized it was gone. Running back, I had to wait until they returned from lunch, fretting the entire time. It had been turned in, everything intact! You can imagine my relief so I took a moment to record the event by doing a drawing.
I clearly remember the chicken butcher in a dusty Moroccan village who was wearing a rich purple head scarf, a Pepto Bismol pink rubber apron with a bright red shirt and deep blue jeans. He shyly posed for me while his friends gathered, watching the process while laughing and joking with him. It doesn’t really matter how the drawing came out in the end - which wasn’t bad - because it was a great adventure.
BR: Do you encourage your students to engage with the new people they meet?
DO: That’s really the whole point of travel drawing, isn’t it? The engagement is what it’s all about. Whether we have a common language or not, it’s through (engaging with) people we truly get to experience a country. It’s about being open and aware and following opportunities. We can draw, dance, or eat with them, it’s the interaction that counts.
BR: Can you share a learning experience drawing somewhere?
DO: One day in Olhão, Portugal I was by myself and feeling down. I just didn’t want to draw and I was in a fabulous place. So I told myself to ‘just pack up materials and get your butt to the little ferry and go out to Culatra Island’. I didn’t have to draw, I could just swim, but I had to get moving. Making it to a lovely beach, I sat down, still pouting, and told myself ‘just take out the sketchbook and pen, just take it out’. Once I did, I noticed a woman at the water's edge bending over clamming - putting the treasures in her apron. Over and over she bent, picked, and stood up, repeating the same movements. So I started doing quick sketches to match her surprising speed. Soon one page was filled and on to the next page and then the next. I was so wrapped up in drawing I missed my ferry back!. At the local bar I hired a water taxi back and got to drink in a beautiful flaming sunset. The lesson I learned is to just show up and start drawing!
BR: Can you speak personally about how travel has changed you?
DO: Traveling often pushes me beyond my comfort zone. Things that used to bring fear to my heart, I’ve discovered are not so scary! I’ve found out I can communicate without having a common language. I accept invitations to local homes and meals. I set off without a map, trusting I’ll never be completely lost. I’ve also learned the great benefit of staying in one place, sinking into the village fabric rather than rushing to check off a laundry list of spots.
I grew up in a very blue collar New England town in an immigrant family and was extremely fortunate that they supported my art career dreams. In 1976 while in art school, I vividly remember visiting the Museum of Modern Art in New York and seeing the Moroccan Matisse paintings. They floored me. Never in my wildest imagination could I fathom visiting Morocco! Next I discovered Claudio Bravo. His work and his Moroccan subject matter were stunning. In 2000 my workshops to France began and while in Paris I caught a Delacroix Morocco Sketchbook show at the Louvre. Again I was amazed with images of Morocco. My geographical knowledge was thin at the time. I did not realize that this jewel of a country was so close to France. It was 2010 before I made the connection. Lonely Planet books were read, reservations made, fears swallowed and I was off on my first pilgrimage. Since then, I’ve returned almost every year, traversing the country from ocean to mountains to deserts. I find the people extraordinary, the texture of life jaw dropping, with more visuals than I could ever hope to record in a lifetime.
BR: Is there a place or a family where you made a difference?
DO: I have a deep friendship with a local family in Morocco. When I first met Hassan and his wife Jamila, she had just found out she was pregnant with twin girls. Eventually they added another and it’s been touching to watch them grow up every year. I’ve shared the breaking of Ramadan fast with them, seen the family weather the ups and downs of politics, and family issues. Most recently they were devastated by the earthquake that demolished their home village in the High Atlas Mountains. I sponsored a fundraiser to which many participants from my Morocco workshops contributed. Over the years, other friends from my community have provided generous support. I’ve also brought back beautiful jewelry Hassan sells, sold it to my friends, then sent back all the money. Helping at a grassroots level while being welcomed as part of their family is a situation I’d never be doing had it not been for travel.
BR: Do you have a story that you tell through drawings?
DO: One of my favorite stories in drawings is of coming to understand the Essaouira, Morocco fishing industry. One morning I was at the docks for the unloading of a sardine boat. A fire bucket brigade line of men were passing down plastic pallets heaped with ice into the boat, across the deck, down into the belly. Another line of pallets coming back up from the depths now packed with sardines were handed out of the belly, shuffled across the length of the boat, handed up to the men on the dock who passes them across to a refrigerated truck to be driven to Tangier, ferried over the Strait of Gibraltar and finally to canning facilities in Spain.
BR: Henry Miller said that a destination is never a place, but a new way of seeing things. Do your students come away from your workshops seeing things newly?
DO: Many participants coming to Morocco with me said their families were afraid of them going to such a ‘dangerous country’. I admit that walking through the small dark alleyways, like the ones in Marrakech or Fes have reminded me of movies where someone eventually gets murdered. We all found out that the reality is much more welcoming. It’s important to overcome the fear of not knowing how to draw or making a “bad” drawing (like how to draw a camel), or not knowing a language, or facing strange food, or strange people. We carry back wonderful memories and stories of friendship. I am also happy to report many folks continue sketch-booking after returning home and nothing could make me happier. Some have joined groups like SF Sketchers and SF Bay Area Urban Sketchers.
Diane Olivier offers a unique opportunity for immersive travel, believing it can positively challenge and enhance artists and their work. Exploring new places and cultures can elevate their art and create lasting experiences.
About Diane: Diane Olivier lives and works in San Francisco. Born in Rhode Island, she has been a resident of California since 1990 and worked as full time faculty at City College of San Francisco from 1991 to retirement in 2020. She now offers classes at her studio during the year and her travel/drawing workshops abroad during the spring and fall.
The sketchbook passport surely has many lovely memories and stories. The local's interactions get a story to tell about their day too. I love DO's Portugal beach story about feeling down, but then sketching the clamming lady, sketching herself right of the blues. She sums up "just show up" in all her sketches. I appreciated her Moroccan family story and the learning the line of sardine travel after offloading sardine boat--a spirited sketch that ! Thanks for showcasing Olivier's work!
I just met Diane for the first time at the figurative show at Sausalito Center for the Arts, so it was fascinating to read the backstory! Although isn’t her last name Olivier, not Oliver?