Lists

Dishes are waiting in the sink to be washed, but other things call me first.

Today I have been creating lists of things that I must do. Weekends provide some time to play catch up during the week, but are never long enough to immerse myself completely in something without the interruptions of life.

I have been reading about other people's lists too. Lists to inspire creativity and work and life. Kerri Smith has a wonderful site with lists www.kerismith.com and I like her 100 ideas. Here's a sample :

1. Go for a walk. Draw or list things you find on the the sidewalk. 2. Write a letter to yourself in the future. 3. Buy something inexpensive as a symbol for your need to create, (new pen, a tea cup, journal). Use it everyday. 4. Draw your dinner. 5. Find a piece of poetry you respond to. Rewrite it and glue it into your journal. 6. Glue an envelope into your journal. For one week collect items you find on the street. 7. Expose yourself to a new artist, (go to a gallery, or in a book.) Write about what moves you about it. 8. Find a photo of a person you do not know. Write a brief bio about them. 9. Spend a day drawing only red things. 10. Draw your bike. 11. Make a list of everything you buy in the next week. 12. Make a map of everywhere you went in one day. 13. Draw a map of the creases on your hand, (knuckles, palm) 14. Trace your footsteps with chalk. 15. Record an overheard conversation. 16. Trace the path of the moon in relation to where you live. 17. Go to a paint store. Collect 'chips' of all your favorite colors. 18. Draw your favorite tree. 19. Take 15 minutes to eat an orange. 20. Write a haiku. Read more.

Lists are guides and inspiration to continue. I may take some of Keri's listings and work on them, posting them here when inspiration wanes and my mind won't form words or create images. They are a gentle push to boost me over the block.

Time Management

I'm still gosling-sitting. I feel like Mother Goose. Cute as he is, it becomes rather like watching a two year old. 'Don't eat that piece of lint', 'Don't go into the kitchen', 'come here'. Does a week old gosling understand? Who knows.

As I sit on the floor of the living room, he runs laps around me, looking for all the world like a little wind up toy. He discovered the joys of water tonight, as in total body submersion. A tray of water in front of the fire and he was in heaven. It kept him happy for a solid hour. As I write this, he's sitting at my feet, like a well trained dog, peeping occasionally to let me know he's there.

Art has suffered this week and I have a few things in progress but nothing far enough along to share with confidence. I am still searching for the perfect reference for a female portrait. Finding the right image with the right lighting is harder than anticipated. I am now recruiting friends and family of friends to come up with something suitable. I have an urge to draw something early 1900s and capture an era of simplicity.

A sketchbook is always near by and I try to draw every day if I can. This week is the exception as I have been too busy with the gosling and work and life to dedicate much time to drawing. But I will share a couple of sketches done to keep my hand loose.


There is a weekend drawing event that I participate in when I can. This weekend is images of San Francisco. You have 30 minutes to choose an image of 16, or more if you want, then 2 hours to draw, paint, create your image. You can continue after that time if you want but you must post at the 2 hour mark. Its a challenge to see what can be produced in that time frame. Sometimes its a pleasant surprise, other times a disaster. Tomorrow I will try the images. I have sifted through the references and have found some that appeal. One in particular of Alcatraz in the fog with a sailboat drifting by. Very San Francisco.

Another element that I want to try is a 'sketchcrawl' Similar to a pub crawl but without the alcohol...well perhaps that is an option too. Might make for some interesting drawing and painting.

Orphan

Well another blizzard is forecast tonight with 20cm+ of snow. Just what I need. The horses will never get out again poor things with all the snow.

The orphan gosling is still going strong, but this little guy has attached himself to me which is good and bad. I've put a little stuffed toy in his brooder box to keep him company while I'm at work but he's lonely and when I go into the room he jumps up and starts squeaking.I let him out to run around the living room tonight and he loved it. He follows every move I make. If I move, he follows, if I stop he stops then sits under the shadow of my skirt when I stand. Its so funny. Then when he gets cold I put him under my sweater and he settles down and has a snooze while I get on with what I have to do.

Yes I am writing this with a gosling asleep on my shoulder. The things I do for animals... Now what do I do when he grows up??

Thinking of eggs hatching, reminded me of this drawing of a pan of eggs, but they're not for hatching. It still does amaze me that the difference between using an egg for eating or hatching is simply a matter of applying the right level of heat to a fertile egg. :)

Animals

One of the goals of finding my way to the top of my artistic abilities again is to be able to draw animals. Years ago, it was my mainstay in life and commissions flowed. I will reach that point again and am slowly building a portfolio, but I do take little journeys in other directions too and that is a good thing.

I don't have animal portraits from the past, only current. The past is lost and gone and paintings or drawings of Prince or Fitzroy(yes I know..) may be collecting dust in a back room or attic as the then beloved animal has long since died and another is lying in front of the fire. Or maybe the artwork is still in place and the animal fondly remembered. I like to think it is the latter.

My own dog is here in the January 1st posting. Sixteen years is a lengthy life for a dog, mongrel or not. His portrait is on a dining room wall, with his eyes looking out the window to the woods where he loved to run. His friend Blue, the cat died shortly after he did and both are buried together at the edge of the woods. She was 18. There was a bit of a Garfield/Odie relationship between them as there is with most cats and dogs. Towards the end, they were both elderly with eyesight and hearing fading and squabbles ceased as there wasn't the energy or interest in defending territory. Just an acceptance of each other, even to the point of sleeping on the same sofa -unheard of previously.

To celebrate animals here is a drawing of Blue in her dotage. The original calico cat.

Black animals are the most difficult, aside from white, to draw. Choosing highlights or shadow is all you can choose to make the creature come to life on the paper.

Here is another black animal...a Newfoundland dog.
Dogs and cats are common pets and the most frequently asked for in portraiture. However, horses, birds, ferrets, even guinea pigs have been immortalized for proud owners.

Here is an early acrylic painting of a macaw. And an even earlier one of lions in watercolour. The variety, colour, shape and size of animals always provide endless material for drawings and paintings .

Ink spots

Many, many years ago I experimented with pen and ink, but not until fairly recently did I attempt anything on a grander scale. I armed myself with some basic Micron pens and started my adventure in ink.

These are the first attempts of 25 years ago.

Fast forward to 2005 and into a pen and ink class.
I located a Koh-i-Noor Rapidograph pen then quaked after with the horror stories everyone told me about how tempermental they were. I found none of the stories were true in my case. Either that or I lucked into a forgiving Rapidograph. I didn't intentionally abuse it, I used it. I also lost it. Temporarily. I went to Winnipeg and was drawing while waiting for a taxi to the airport and in the flurry of gathering things,forgot the pencil case with the pen in it. Luckily the hotel staff found it and mailed it to me. Two weeks later. First time I tried it, it worked. I left it standing for days and weeks on end despite threats that it would clog from others. Nope. Still worked. It stopped working only when it ran out of ink. I cleaned it, refilled it and its still going strong.

I llike Rapidographs, despite their price and their supposed temperment.

But I needed different sizes of nibs. And I liked colours that I saw. So I bought more Koh-i-Noors, but the Nexus line and found a true sepia colour that my first pen and ink drawing was done in.

Then I tried a new technique - stipple and wanted a smaller nib so I tried a Staedtler pen. Quick refills, clean, crisp lines and dots that I wanted for the pointillism effect I was looking for so I continued on with the next drawing using that pen. I now have an assortment of pens in an assortment of colours. Pen and ink is more forgiving that I imagined it would be providing that you have the bones of the drawing laid down in pencil before you make a mark in pen. It can be adjusted a little with tones by diluting ink with water and using different size nibs.














I still haven't had a chance to scan in some sketches done over the weekend. Tomorrow it will be done. But I will share a sketch done a long time ago. Its a simple and bright watercolour and makes me feel that winter will be gone soon. Rhubarb shoots pushing through the cold earth are one of the first true signs of spring here.

Creation

What does it take to create art? Every artist has their own rituals and formulas to get the right side of the brain to that place where creativity takes over and the world disappears. It can be a change of surroundings or light, music, or solitude.

In my case, I need solitude to produce anything of worth. If someone is looking over my shoulder, I find it impossible to put a mark to paper or canvas. There is a remarkable shift in thinking for me once I start the process of drawing. It brings me to a place where nothing else exists, just the drawing that I am working on and even that isn't a conscious thought. It is a feeling of watching from outside myself, which I know sounds very odd and Twilight Zone-like. But in fact its just the way my mind takes over the creativity and provides total concentration.

It doesn't happen everytime that I draw, but often enough and usually signals my ability to control hand/eye/brain coordination to produce something that actually looks like it should do!

This is an example of one of those times. A foray into coloured pencil which I hadn't used a lot previously. Now I am hooked.

One of the Chinese goose eggs hatched yesterday and a single lonely little gosling has attached itself to me, so I take it out of the incubator and carry it around tucked under my sweater where it stays burrowed for warmth, peeping occasionally. Tiny claws on big rubber feet scratch my skin and the gosling keeps trying to eat my necklace, often continuing on with nips on my throat. Finally,having other things to do I have to put him back into the incubator where he protests vehemently and bounces around demanding to be taken out again. He is cute and nicknamed 'Blizzard' due to the day of his birth but adulthood turns cuteness into aggressiveness. I will take advantage of the cute factor while I can.

Snow! Close to 70cm fell in yesterday's storm so most of today was spent digging out. My chore was to tackle a chest high snowdrift blocking the greenhouse door where the wood is stored for the winter. Just getting to the greenhouse was a challenge in its own right with thigh high snow in the way, so I half walked, half rolled to the greenhouse, shovel in hand. Here I am having a break from shovelling. Guess I won't need that treadmill workout today!

Blizzards and glass

Another vehicle on my path back to art was trying new or unfamiliar mediums. By joining art classes and online forums and daily practice, I will get back to the point I was before the 'dry spell' began. I am constantly looking for new inspiration for a drawing and took a number of photos of glass and ceramic objects to see if I could come up with something. I did a series of coloured glass votives that turned out well, considered that the sun never seems to shine here lately! I've started mapping out a drawing of one of the photos. It is complex to capture the pieces of light and colour reflected in the glass, but once the drawing is complete, the colouration should go fairly easily. It is true that to paint, you have to draw well first. The drawing is the skeleton that holds your work together. If that is off, everything is off.

This sketch is done with Derwent Studio pencils. I'm not very impressed with these pencils as they are dry and the colour is a bit weak. I think I was spoiled by the Prismacolor pencils. They are so smooth and rich and the colour glides onto the paper, making the colours blend beautifully.

This image is of a friend's dog Bailey. The next sketch was done in about an hour for a weekly drawing event. I prefer drawing animals and people so it seemed to flow at the time.

The island today is being battered by a heavy duty blizzard with 60cm of snow down so far and another 10 to 15cm overnight. There will be a lot of digging out... Just getting to the barn is a challenge with deep snow drifts and strong winds.

Here is the forecast:

St. John's and vicinity8:04 PM NST Saturday 25 February 2006

Blizzard warning for St. John's and vicinity continued This is a warning that blizzard conditions with reduced visibilities are expected or are occurring in these regions. Monitor weather conditions..Listen for updated statements.A low pressure system east of the Avalon Peninsula this afternoon Newfoundland will continue to intensify as it moves northwest toward the Labrador Sea tonight. Snow and blowing snow with strong northwest winds gusting up to 130 km/h are giving blizzard conditions to northern and eastern regions of Newfoundland. Total snowfall amounts of 40 to 60 centimetres are expected for the northern Avalon Peninsula and sections of the northeast coast by Sunday morning with lesser amounts expected elsewhere. The snow should taper off by early Sunday morning as the intense low moves into the Labrador Sea.High waves along the East Coast will result in higher than normal water levels and should be most noticeable near high tide Sunday morning. Also there is a possibility of ice rafting onshore along the notheast coast particularly near high tide on Sunday morning due to the higher than normal water levels.

This was taken during a lull in the storm this afternoon. Visibility is nil at times when the wind blows the snow horizontally.

February Chills

Winter keeps reappearing this month in the form of snowstorms and wind and subzero temperatures. The humans don't like it much as it means freezing water in the barn and cold cars and colder hands, feet and ears. Tomorrow yet another blizzard is forecast with up to 45cm of snow. I guess I'll be inside, creating comfort and art, venturing out only to check on the animals in the barn.

The animals on the other hand, seem to accept the snow or sleet as if it were a summer's day and child-like, greet each day with a sense of wonder. The geese step out into the snow and leave goose foot prints showing where they've explored and then make little impressions in the snow where they sit, head under wing to snooze in the -5C sun. They don't like the wind and it drives them inside. We have been hatching goose and duck eggs. There are 16 goslings hatched so far and more due this weekend. They peep inside the eggs before they pip (break the shell) and if you talk to them , they talk back. I feel a little silly talking to an egg, regardless whether it responds or not!

The horses seem charged by the cold air with it steaming from their nostrils as they snort and toss their heads on the way to the field. Their first instinct is to drop and roll like big dogs in the snow, legs flailing. They scramble up, looking slightly embarassed at such indiscretion, then wander off to munch hay in the stand in the middle of the field til muscles, cooped up in a box stall for a day or two, demand the release of a gallop through the snow.

Drawing has kept me busy with completion of two portraits for a realistic portrait class I have been taking. The first I completed, the second, of Oscar Wilde was done for practice with another bringing up the wings. The concept is circulism and while a very slow process, it does give a realistic impression of skin texture. I will be doing a female portrait as the next project, along with daily sketches to keep loosened.

Here is the portrait of Oscar Wilde, near completion.

My sketchbook is filling up rapidly. I want to buy another but have told myself I won't do that until the first is filled. There are so many types of sketchbooks now. I think the next one will have a heavier weight paper so I can try some watercolours in my sketches.

I ordered Derwent Drawing Pencils from Aboveground Art Supplies in Toronto as I can find little in the way of art supplies here out of the ordinary. They arrived and I have played with them a little, getting the feel for them. I think I will try an animal or human portrait with them, as they have a lovely buttery feel to them and the earthy tones would work well I think.

I dug out sketches and drawings from 20+years ago and that was a trip down memory lane. Its funny how images trigger memories and thoughts. The drawings fuelled thoughts back to lifeclasses done with Tom Greenshields who was my mentor and taught me so much about drawing, sculpture and art in general. He introduced me into circles I never would have entered and nurtured my artist's soul. These memories brought forward this sketch of him as well as one of the drawings done all those years ago in his studio in Hawkschurch, Devon.

January 1, 2006

This is a new foray into the electronic world. It is being done to push myself into drawing and sketching and writing regularly, something that has been neglected over the past few years.

It will be an illustrated snapshot of life around me in Newfoundland and other places as I travel. It may be simple sketches and short descriptions to more complex paintings and longer narratives. But it will happen daily and it will provide a view into a section of my life.

January 1st isn't a time of resolution making for me, but more of expectation for myself, so if I don't make the grade, I don't beat myself up over it. My first expectation has been met already today by starting this. I will complete it by adding a finished portrait of my dog Biscuit, who was put to sleep a month ago today at the age of 16. He is missed and will be remembered always.