Trapped

I don't know where I found this or who it belongs to, but it says so much. Which side of the paper traps us?

If someone owns this and would like it removed, please let me know and I will do so immediately.

Seeing

"We must rediscover that reality from which we became separated as the formal knowledge we substitute for it grows in thickness and imperviousness - that reality which there is a grave danger we may die without having known, and which is simply our life." Marcel Proust

I am reading Danny Gregory's book 'Creative License' and his description of seeing is so in sync with mine. To really see and not let the logical side of your brain dictate what is there. You lose yourself in the journey as your pencil or pen travels over lines in peaks and valleys. Everything around you slowly slips out of sight as your pencil takes over and your mind concentrates purely on the form of what you are drawing.

External sounds disappear, you have no realization of where you are or what is around you, just the form. You don't see the object that you are drawing. You see shapes, light and shade. You see colours that instinctively you know how to acheive them.

Then your journey slowly comes to an end. Your boat docks with a slight thud and wakes you out of your zone. You have returned. The trip is a memory and your drawing is the souvenir of the trip.

You can see.

Technorati tags: art, drawing, sketching, creativity, seeing, sunflowers

Roots

“I want relations which are not purely personal, based on purely personal qualities; but relations based upon some unanimous accord in truth or belief, and a harmony of purpose, rather than of personality. I am weary of personality. Let us be easy and impersonal, not forever fingering over our own souls, and the souls of our acquaintances, but trying to create a new life, a new common life, a new complete tree of life from the roots that are within us.” D.H. Lawrence

Technorati tags: drawing, art, charcoal, tree roots, D H Lawrence, quotes

No, I will

I'm such a wuss. A real pushover. I say no and I never mean it. I think no and and I say yes. I always do it. Then mentally kick myself because I don't have time or energy. But I always manage to do it.

Do what you ask? Take on a freebie drawing this close to Christmas.

I promised a friend that I would draw a portrait of her grandson who's about 18 months old. This is the draft sketch that I fit in at lunch time - pardon the salad dressing. Its freehand done from a cute reference that actually was good and clear for a change. That is a rare thing for commissioned work - to get a good image to work with! The boy was wearing his Halloween costume. He was a cow. Yes folks, I'm drawing a baby cow. And I'm doing it for free.

It must be Christmas.

Technorati tags: art, drawing, portrait, grandson, baby, Halloween costume, cow

Too much

I drew this whale about 8 or 9 years ago and rediscovered it among some papers while looking for Christmas wrapping paper. I always seem to unearth long lost things when searching for totally unrelated items.

It was originally a design for a promotional item that didn't make the grade at the time. It was too complex. This wasn't the first and likely won't be the last time that my work is rejected for being too much of something. A number of people when they commission an artist or invite submissions for a specific use don't do their homework very well and research the style and ability of the artist. Then when they receive a cartoon instead of a detailed drawing or a detailed drawing instead of a cartoon, they are disappointed, and the artist is frustrated at having wasted time and effort in vain.

Its a bit amusing in some ways to have your work rejected as being 'too good' I guess. I submitted illustrations for a book that met a similar response. They were 'like finished portraits' Well, yeah. That's what I do. Even at the line drawing level. I can't change my style anymore than I can change who I am.

So for anyone reading this and looking for a realistic, detail oriented artist, here I am!

Whales are one of my most favourite creatures and I have had the opportunity of living near the ocean where I could watch them from my kitchen window or deck, blowing and breaching. I've also gone out in boats to whale watch and to see them close up - very close up - is such an amazing experience. To gaze into the eye of a creature that huge is awe inspiring. Here is a video clip of humpback whales cavorting in the ocean.



Technorati tags: art, drawing, whales, commission, illustrations, humpback whales, whale video

Winter ice

Winter gave a taste today with a little snow followed by hours of freezing rain. It hate freezing rain. It coats everything with layers of ice that makes getting into the car an adventure and makes driving a roller coaster ride. It turns agile adults into people who creep their way across sidewalks and steps. It encapsulates every branch,twig and needle of trees with ice and bends trees to the ground with the combined weight. I can bring down power lines and cause havoc to road, rail and air travel.

It has a pretty side, especially if the sun comes out after an ice storm. Then it glitters and glints, the silence occasionally broken by some of the ice loosening its hold and crashing like breaking glass to the ground.

The weather makes me turn to domestic affairs and plans for the coming season. I cook and clean and bake inappropriate goodies that do me no good. Its a nesting thing that winter weather brings out in me. I want to cook stews and chili, bake bread and cookies, dust off Christmas lights and sort decorations. Just as well this weather isn't a daily occurance or I'd never get any drawing done!

Technorati tags: [winter], [ice], [freezing rain]

Biscuit

Biscuit
June 26, 1989 - December 1, 2005

A year ago today I lost a friend that I had for sixteen years. Biscuit was endearing, infuriating, loving, loyal, disobedient but always constant and he changed my life during his stay with me. He is buried at the edge of the woods with his friend Blue, the cat, who died two days after he did at the age of 18. You are missed my friend.

A Dog Has Died - Pablo Neruda

My dog has died.
I buried him in the garden
next to a rusted old machine.

Some day I'll join him right there,
but now he's gone with his shaggy coat,
his bad manners and his cold nose,
and I, the materialist, who never believed
in any promised heaven in the sky
for any human being,
I believe in a heaven I'll never enter.
Yes, I believe in a heaven for all dogdom
where my dog waits for my arrival
waving his fan-like tail in friendship.

Ai, I'll not speak of sadness here on earth,
of having lost a companion
who was never servile.
His friendship for me, like that of a porcupine
withholding its authority,
was the friendship of a star, aloof,
with no more intimacy than was called for,
with no exaggerations:
he never climbed all over my clothes
filling me full of his hair or his mange,
he never rubbed up against my knee
like other dogs obsessed with sex.

No, my dog used to gaze at me,
paying me the attention I need,
the attention required
to make a vain person like me understand
that, being a dog, he was wasting time,
but, with those eyes so much purer than mine,
he'd keep on gazing at me
with a look that reserved for me alone
all his sweet and shaggy life,
always near me, never troubling me,
and asking nothing.

Ai, how many times have I envied his tail
as we walked together on the shores of the sea
in the lonely winter of Isla Negra
where the wintering birds filled the sky
and my hairy dog was jumping about
full of the voltage of the sea's movement:
my wandering dog, sniffing away
with his golden tail held high,
face to face with the ocean's spray.

Joyful, joyful, joyful,
as only dogs know how to be happy
with only the autonomy
of their shameless spirit.

There are no good-byes for my dog who has died,
and we don't now and never did lie to each other.

So now he's gone and I buried him,
and that's all there is to it.