We all have a preference; John Gardner prefers the aisle seat. It gives him a better perspective.

The architect documents his journeys with a picture. He carries the sketchbook and watercolour paints with him on every flight.

“It helps you observe,” he said.

“Taking pictures can do things that sketching can’t; I can capture something without having to invest the time. It’s fulfilling to see things and really look.”

He goes through one or two black books a year. Among the scenes of architecture and the America’s Cup are his airline sketches. The “more elaborate” pieces will encapsulate the entire journey across two pages — a montage of scenes from the plane and the terminal.

Mr Gardner started teaching at his alma mater, the Rhode Island School of Design, in September, sharing the role with another architect. He flies every weekend and returns on Tuesdays.

He said the “neutral environment” and familiar landmarks — “the exit sign, the curtain, the wing, the screens” — helped him clock his own moods.

“The last one up felt a bit like a bus ride,” he said. “The mood you’re in on the plane is influenced by what you’re going to be doing when you’re up there.

“I got up there, exciting things were happening and coming back wasn’t a bus ride.”

His airline sketches were featured on CNN Travel this month. He had started sharing them on Instagram after being encouraged by his students.

“I do this for myself. I only just decided to put it out there publicly because my students asked, ‘Why aren’t you online in some way?’ And the flight attendants will ask, ‘Where can I see your work’?” he said.

It is his first real foray into social media. “It’s distracting. And it’s addictive,” he said.

“That’s also a little bit why I enjoy painting and drawing on paper versus doing it electronically. Even though they’re amazing tools, it’s really nice to get away from the computer, the iPad and phone, just like talking to someone across a table is a much more fulfilling experience than on the phone or Skype.”

Last summer, he took an informal retreat at RISD and painted for three weeks.

“The head of the RISD painting department is a friend of mine, David Fraser. He came in, we had a chat and he said, ‘I’ll see you in a week. Don’t feel like you’ve got to finish, just draw, paint whatever and then let’s chat about it.’

“At no point in the three weeks did he say you have to produce this or finish this or get this right or wrong.

“That’s really where the value of it is.

“[With the airline sketches] I have no idea how the page is going to look when I start. And that’s kind of counterintuitive because in life you’re usually meant to structure things and know where you’re headed. There’s something lovely about just starting something and not worrying about how it’s going to finish.”

Although he has kept a sketchbook since he was in design school 40 years ago, he only began sketching consistently 20 years ago.

“In my 20s and 30s I wasn’t as attentive as I am now, but in my late 30s, to sort of stave off any midlife crisis, I thought to myself, ‘What can I do that I’m not doing that fits with what I’m doing’?” he said.

“There’s something really nice in life to actually making things.”

He is a regular contributor to the Bermuda Biennial and is more comfortable submitting a large installation rather than any painting or drawing.

One year it was a wall of Bermuda Stone birthday cakes with 400 candles. In another, he realised a glowing triangle screen over a pool of water.

Triangle made it into The New York Times. The move to fine art, like his sketches, is slow and unintentional.

When pushed, he admits: “I must be an artist.”

He adds: “I have a day job — I’m an architect.

“I went to a world-class art school and I feel like I’d have to be serious about it and to be serious about it you have to take the time and you have to sacrifice something.

“There’s a lot of really good creative people in Bermuda. Being able to go away and be very much immersed in that environment and then come back and feel those people around here is very exciting.

“[At RISD] we’re not just creating a project, but an environment [where students can learn] to think about creating really interesting structures, architectural buildings that are progressive and innovative while still doing their job.

“To do that requires a very different way of thinking. What can you do with space and stairs and light so that you get an environment that’s rewarding while also doing its job?

“It requires your mind to think a little bit more philosophically. It elevates your level of thinking and what’s really nice is that you can apply that back to an everyday solution.”

It is reflective of the way he works at his firm, Cooper Gardner, which is currently working on Morgan’s Point.

“We’re doing a variety of residential and small jobs. You can go to anybody for a set of drawings and get permission and get it built, so why come to us?

“You get a level of thought, a certain way of thinking and a desire to create a space that will give you an experience.

“So I get obsessed about the curtain on the plane and what it’s really doing,” he laughed.

“It’s all about people really in the end.”

Follow his flights on Instagram: @noj.design