Reportage by Bill Russell

After the Armistice, ending World War One, David Milne (1882–1953) secured a commission as an official Canadian war artist and travelled to France and Belgium, where he made watercolors of ruined towns, flooded craters, shattered churches, and the quiet routines of soldiers waiting to go home. His images translate devastation into a modernist language of absence, responding to fractured landscapes.

David Milne: Out of the Woods into the War A modernist painter seeks both the world and solitude.

Self portrait at the Kiss-o-meter at Musée Mécanique at San Francisco's Fisherman’s Wharf.

In the summer of 1815 English painter George Robert Lewis wandered the countryside of Northern Wales, filling a small sketchbook with exquisite pen and ink drawings of rural laborers haymaking and harvesting. It deepens our appreciation for the quiet dignity and importance of the work we all do.

George Robert Lewis: Haymakers in Golden Fields Sketching and honoring rural labor in early 18th C. Britain

In 1941, after Pearl Harbor, the U.S. government interned 120,000 Japanese Americans. Artist Estelle Ishigo, a Caucasian woman, voluntarily joined her Japanese American husband at the Heart Mountain War Relocation Center in Wyoming. For three years, she drew camp life, documenting hardships and resilience, finding acceptance and purpose despite the conditions.

Estelle Ishigo: Scenes from a Japanese Internment Camp Finding love and art through hardship

I had a chance to re-visit (and draw at) two fairs from my childhood...the Canadian National Exhibition (CNE), and the Centerville Amusement Park, both in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. These places are not how I remember them, so the adage that 'you can't go home again' rings true.

The Tale of Two Fairs: The CNE and Centerville Drawing the present through the pull of past

Meaning is a construct shaped by memory, culture, emotion, and the stories we choose to tell. They’re not just about place, but about how place becomes charged with personal resonance through time and perception.

The drawings I made of my hometown don't just document a real place but are embedded with what I remember and that feels true to me.

Going Home to Draw Fervently When memories are flooded with feelings, the drawings I make become fallible visual narratives.

By the time Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec was thirty-five, he was suffering from alcoholism and dementia, most likely brought on by syphilis. His behavior was unpredictable, and often violent. Desperate, his mother had him committed to a sanitarium outside of Paris. It was while undergoing treatment that he created a series of drawings of the circus. In fact they helped persuade the doctors he was on the mend, ultimately leading to his release.

Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec: Circus Drawings Joyful visual journalism from fin-de-siècle Paris

Back in 1564 was Pieter Bruegel the Elder a visual journalist? His drawings hold the key. Bruegel was a keen observer of the world around him, and his graphic work reflects a deeper presence within everyday life. He traveled extensively, sketching landscapes mostly. He acted as both a witness to his times and a commentator.

Pieter Bruegel: Peasant Life Observational, satirical and spiritual scenes from a 16th-Century Artist

German illustrator Fritz Busse had a restless spirit, traveling to cities around the world and from the sketchbooks he filled came many published books about urban life.

Fritz Busse: More Cities An artist who blended ink, watercolor and restlessness to create expressive urban scenes

Some artists are unintimidated by drawing the scale and scope of crowd scenes. I'm not so good at it. I can't seem to find focus amongst these frenzied, often noisy human gatherings. Here are a few that can.

Drawing a Crowd Finding focus amongst frenzied, often noisy human gatherings

Englishman Howard Carter drew and documented ancient Egyptian wall hieroglyphics and decorations before he discovered King Tutankhamun’s tomb in the Valley of the Kings. Read about him on my latest Substack.

Howard Carter: Drawing King Tut An artist and archaeologist discovers and documents Egypt’s ancient wonders