A good book
A cool breeze on the back porch
Peace and quiet
Heaven.
The Holiday Afternoon
Nature
Two Whales – Watercolor Sketch
I love whales. All creatures in the sea. Actually, all creatures. I have a bunch of whale photos from a no-longer remembered source, and they’re all beautiful. I’ve been wanting to do something with them, so I did.
I know nothing of how to properly do watercolors; I just play around – my ancient Crayola watercolors and one brush. (I have more brushes in my studio, but was too lazy to go upstairs.)
My theory is that anything that gets you to draw, paint, write, compose – if you like that one thing? Do that.
The Artist Date
It’s the weekend. I have chores to do and a few other things to catch up on, but what about tomorrow?
Maybe I’ll take myself on an Artist Date, I thought.
What is an Artist Date? It’s one of two basic artists’ practices proposed by Julia Cameron to inspire creativity. The other is The Morning Pages. She introduced these in her 2002 book, The Artist’s Way. (She also has many, many more ways to get your inspiration moving.)
The Morning Pages is a daily writing exercise, three pages of stream of consciousness writing done in the morning to kick off your day with inspiration.
But the Artist Date – that asks a little more of us. Ms. Cameron asks that we take ourselves somewhere each week – by ourselves – for a block of time to “nurture our inner artist.” The cool thing about the Artist Date is that it can be anywhere – take a few photos by the river; people-watch in town; go to a museum, gallery, library, some special shop; take pictures, sketch, read, or just watch. But go by yourself.
As we are creatures who seem to be always facing schedules and tasks, taking that time for ourselves, and BEING by ourselves, may be a bigger ask for some than you think. Or maybe not. You just may love it.
Pictured above was an Artist Date I took in Clinton some time ago. I realized that I have a perfect opportunity to take myself on a date this coming Tuesday, and so I shall. Stay tuned.
Learn more about Julia Cameron’s The Artist’s Way and get ready to be inspired!
Pushed by Change
We all come upon times in our lives when change becomes unavoidable.
Circumstances become such that we no longer have a choice – something has to give. The upside is that being pushed when we’re too tired to even run can sometimes yield the most unexpected and life-changing results.
In Anna Quindlen’s Still Life with Bread Crumbs, Rebecca Winter, a relatively famous NYC photographer, faces those circumstances. She suddenly finds herself with overwhelming financial responsibilities due to family obligations no one else can carry, and a diminishing income due to a narcissistic husband and abusive agent.
To save money and sort out her life, she rents a somewhat ramshackle cottage in upstate New York. There Rebecca finds the unexpected – a very different kind of life, the life she hadn’t known she needed and the life she was truly made for.
What an excellent read! I have read both fiction and non-fiction by this Pulitzer Prize-winning author and journalist. She has never failed to capture my heart, imagination, or intellect, often all three. Highly recommended. 4 stars.
p.s. Inspired by this novel, I’ve decided to return to Quindlen’s Thinking Out Loud and finish reading!
The Drawing Process – A Manatee
Does everyone’s drawing process start out the same – with an idea, and some idea of how you want it to look?
In this case, I did a couple preliminary sketches in pen and ink to get a feel for the manatee’s contours, and then went to a full page to do an underlying sketch in pencil. I figured I’d clean it up and proceed with what I had in mind. What you see isn’t that.
Then I realized what I’d had in mind was never going to happen. I decided to start sketching with just one brush and my watercolors and go from there. See what this little manatee wanted.
Letting one’s art or music or writing evolve is, I believe, what creating is all about. I’m not sure why, after all this time, it still surprises me that the result is nothing like what I imagined. Yet I like it.
I often come back and look at the drawing a ridiculous number of times, as if it might disappear, or maybe I never did it at all. But each time I see it, I smile.
It’s always a shade of me I’m still getting to know. Do you know that feeling?
p.s. Also known as sea cows, the manatee is one of the gentlest creatures on the planet, and a threatened or endangered species, depending on their location.
Still A Dreamer 