Month: June 2019

Each day has its own individuality of colour.
— Hawthorne on Painting

Flowers are in bloom here in Quebec, just in time to cooperate with my slowly recovering energy levels and the urge to draw. For those of you who did not know, I had an operation and now all is well — finally. I am starting to live again and it feels so good. Here in Rigaud the bugs are alive and feisty as we had a cold spring and I think that all of the mosquitoes waited to emerge at the same time in my backyard… real little pests they are, but the birds are singing galore and they are feasting and feeding their hatchlings.

I had never realized this before, but drawing and painting need high concentration levels and energy. You have to be in the moment and you have to stay in the moment, for quite a while I might add… so could we call drawing or painting a “meditation in observation”? Well I guess that it depends if you draw/paint directly from observation as plein-air artists do, or if you draw from your imagination with references? Or if you draw from your imagination without references? Have you ever tried without references? It is really hard but it is essential in developing your visual memory.

So no matter which way that you draw, and I do recommend that you rotate your habitual way of drawing to accommodate all three ways, drawing is good for you!

Fountain Pen: Pilot Falcon SEF
Ink: De Atramentis Document Black Ink
Paper: Stillman & Birn, Gamma Series 9″x6″