COVER ARTIST Liz Knight

Liz Knight was a designer, mostly of toys, for companies such as Hasbro, for nearly two decades. Then she began to realize she's an artist. &emsp;&emsp;At the same time, she ran her consulting business, Knight Design, in the Boston area; Knight was also teaching at Rhode Island School of Design. &emsp;&emsp;"I had always drawn," Knight says. "My job as a designer was drawing all day: creative thinking, problem-solving, looking at things differently. When thinking things through, I need a pen in my hand." &emsp;&emsp;She always carried a sketchbook or journal in hand when she traveled and did little sketches, adding watercolor to them. &emsp;&emsp;Since she moved to Rindge three years ago, she began to sketch every day. The technique she uses is "urban sketching," which she explained is capturing a moment in front of you with a sketch pen. &emsp;&emsp;This artistic medium, which she believes began in the early 2000s, began with artists sharing their sketches on the site Flickr, and the community grew and has moved to Instagram. &emsp;&emsp;Today, there are urban sketching world symposiums — Knight attended such an event two years ago in Amsterdam. &emsp;&emsp;"There were 350 people from all over the world, all with the same passion to sit in the street and sketch," she says, adding that she attended workshops where artists would split off, go sketch, return and talk about their work with each other. &emsp;&emsp;A similar online group arose during the pandemic on Instagram when travel wasn't possible. Knight is a part of it. &emsp;&emsp;"A lot of people started sketching in their house every day," she says. "Their laundry room, their spice rack." &emsp;&emsp;Other artists in the group pose challenges to create a sketch based on a photo of the artist's journey: a ramen shop in Japan, a historic town center in the Czech Republic. &emsp;&emsp;"Part of the joy of this group is to see everyone's style; it's a great community," says Knight. &emsp;&emsp;Knight is attracted to architecture in her drawing — cute shops and storefronts, she says — but she's also beginning to realize how important it is to add people to her scenes. &emsp;&emsp;"That's where the story is," she notes. &emsp;&emsp;Knight works both within the urban setting and sometimes in her studio using photos of urban scenes. Other times, she employs both techniques, starting the sketch out in the urban wild and finishing at home where she can spend more time on it. &emsp;&emsp;She always keeps a bag in her car with a set of watercolor paints, pens and her sketchbook. &emsp;&emsp;"I'll grab my sketchbook and pen if I'm going to the doctor's office, for instance," she says. "I enjoy creating those little quick and gestural moments." &emsp;&emsp;Those moments are similar, she added, to the product concepts she would sketch in her design business. &emsp;&emsp;She enjoys creating her own interpretation of a photo. &emsp;&emsp;"I'll move a lamppost or totally change the colors," Knight says. "There's some freedom there." &emsp;&emsp;In recent months, Knight has returned to urban sketching — she visited Boston, for one — but she has stayed pretty close to home. Among her contributions to her active Instagram account over the past few months are sketches of her local CSA farm, an outdoor production of "Our Town" in Peterborough, and her garden (see these sketches in the Farm Directory of this magazine). &emsp;&emsp;"Part of (sketching) for me is playing with materials; putting down watercolors and adding different shapes," she says, adding that she's also begun to imagine forms, such as buildings and tree structure. &emsp;&emsp;"It's made me imagine instead of just sketching what's right in front of me," she says. "That comes from toy designing — imagining possibilities." &emsp;&emsp;(Editor's note: And for this issue's cover, Knight sketched and watercolored what she imagines the first annual Harvest Festival, held at Stonewall Farm on Oct. 2, will look like). &emsp;&emsp;As an industrial designer, Knight would sketch a product that has a purpose and would be sold. &emsp;&emsp;"As an artist, it's taken me a while to let go," she says. "It's about what I want to do and say." &emsp;&emsp;While selling her work isn't necessarily her ultimate goal, she has had some sketches up for sale at local businesses in Jaffrey and Peterborough. &emsp;&emsp;For Knight, it's about the artistic journey. &emsp;&emsp;"Creativity is about letting any possibility happen," she says. "It's about not knowing where you're going. It's about letting go of control and being a child again and exploring." &emsp;&emsp;View Knight's work and contact her for more information on Instagram @lizknightcreative.