Doodling with Intent : Jo Ganter RSA

To doodle, according to the dictionary, is an “aimless or meaningless” activity.

During lockdown, Edinburgh based artist Jo Ganter, gave herself permission to work freely and without intention, making small watercolour paintings as doodles. The small scale of the work is an essential part of the doodle, often limited to marginalia or backs of envelopes. Ganter used beautiful watercolour paper on which to ‘doodle’ while maintaining a small scale. She improvised, revised and followed ideas in unexpected directions – decorative, gestural, bizarre, garish, even senseless. They’re ‘just’ doodles.

“Inevitably I use tropes of image-making I can’t help but retain after forty years’ practice. My usual play of symmetry and asymmetry isn’t so strict as in much of my work, but structures appear in my doodles. I always work in series, and here also, I have followed ideas through several iterations. And, of course, to intend to be aimless is an intention, nevertheless.”