Peggy Schenk — She’s A Sketch! - theHumm December 2021

By Sally Hansen

Art… and Soul

Peggy Schenk is delighted that postcards are making a comeback. This Perth artist creates picture postcards that feature her whimsical hand-drawn sketches. Captured in pen and ink with watercolour accents, her sketches celebrate the beauty of the everyday mundane. From a hockey rink scene to a tangle of Christmas tree lights, her sketches warm the cockles of your heart.

It’s inevitable that as photography becomes more accessible and ubiquitous (think cell phones and incessant selfies), art produced by real live human beings will become more valued. What is it about our species that values scarcity over abundance? In the case of Peggy’s sketches, it’s talent augmented by humour and offbeat creativity. A photo of a front doorstep decorated for the holidays can be beautiful and/or impressive, but it usually doesn’t bring a smile to your heart. Another reason for the popularity of her postcards is the way she infuses them with personality. Even her collections of vintage sewing machine and motorcycle sketches make you smile. For many art lovers, the ability of a work to evoke an emotional response is key, and Schenk intuitively knows how to tug on your heartstrings.

Architecture is her favourite subject. Heritage buildings particularly appeal to her, and their abundance is the main reason she and her husband relocated to Perth two years ago. She likes to “capture the not-so-pretty things around the building” (like power poles and lines, mechanical equipment, garbage cans near back doors…), and finds that people often comment on how much they enjoy seeing it in her artwork. She conjectures, “I guess it is because most people just walk past it and don’t notice it — but there is beauty in it — everything is interesting when you draw it. I guess that is why I am asked to draw house and storefront portraits and have made a business of it. I draw what I see — not what I want to see.”

Peggy creates her charming pen and ink sketches because she is very creative and needs to be making something to be happy. She was raised in “a very artsy environment,” and drawing is an innate talent she has enjoyed throughout her life. After working in winery sales in Kelowna she spent many decades working as a bank teller, but grew increasingly discontented with the mounting pressure to meet sales quotas. Now retired, she is very grateful that her husband Martin, a retired chef trained in French cuisine in Switzerland, indulges her passion for sketching by doing the cooking and much of the housework.

Peggy began her art career years ago as a self-trained folk artist working in acrylics, but describes herself as easily bored. About four years ago she decided she needed a change, and transported her skills and her passion to pen and ink sketching. Her primary medium is waterproof ink applied with her cherished German-made Lamy Safari fountain pen. Her style is loose line drawings accented by simple watercolour washes, and she believes that her casual attitude toward perspective and proportion makes her art fun and gives it its character. Her mottos is: “There is beauty in imperfection and simplicity.” She is definitely onto something. Her charming postcards are now carried in four Perth shops, and the response on her Etsy shop is overwhelmingly enthusiastic.

The demand for commissioned sketches of houses and storefronts has blossomed since her arrival in Perth. They make great wedding and anniversary gifts, and cherished mementos when friends or family move to senior accommodations. She also has created commissioned postcards and cards for personal events. Surprisingly, she has enjoyed several unusual artistic achievements as the result of accidental sightings and unsolicited referrals. In 2004 an artist acquaintance asked permission to propose her folk art painting of a hockey game as the artwork for the tickets to the Junior Hockey Memorial Cup games. It was chosen, and the tickets looked great. She did a commissioned painting of the Okanagan Lake Bridge for a TV commercial for Canadian Blood Services. And next month her iconic postcard “Sardines” will appear in a scene in the upcoming movie Swan Song starring Mahershala Ali and Naomie Harris. Not bad publicity for a postcard sketch!

Sketching has become a way of life for Schenk. She is working on her seventh sketch book in which she chronicles her daily activities, both as a wonderful keepsake journal and as drawing practice. She much prefers drawing to writing; that is one of the main attractions of postcards. Instead of staring at a blank and intimidating piece of paper or computer screen, a postcard allows you to send a brief message and brighten a friend’s day at the same time. Who wouldn’t like to open their mail slot and receive a friendly note on the back of a frameable pen and ink sketch? It also saves paper because you don’t need an envelope. And as a journal, a sketch is worth a thousand words in terms of evoking a memory of a place or event.

Everywhere she goes, Peggy takes her sketchbook along. When she travels, which she can’t wait to resume post-Covid safety concerns, she carries her leather-bound sketch book and a set of Faber-Castell coloured pencils. She loves the idea of creating quick caricatures rather than striving for perfection in fine art drawings because of the creative freedom it affords. It is somewhat analogous to a snapshot versus a portrait. The snapshot captures the activity and the spontaneity and the mood of the moment; it is informal rather than formal. Schenk’s sketches do the same, and she is delighted that her fans tell her how much they enjoy her art and the “warm, fuzzy feelings” they elicit. So maybe instead of fine art Schenk is creating everyday, accessible, unrefined art. Bravo! The world can certainly use more warm fuzzy feelings.

The back of her Artist Trading Card at the top of this page provides coordinates to many opportunities to experience the heartwarming sketches Peggy Schenk creates to celebrate the beauty of the everyday mundane. WHO Peggy Schenk (aka Pegmeister Art)

Showing the Local Love for the Holidays! - theHumm December 2021

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Peggy Schenk — She’s A Sketch! - theHumm December 2021