cactus – Painting to see : Peindre pour voir

Smile tho’ your heart is aching
Smile even tho’ it’s breaking
When there are clouds in the sky
You’ll get by
If you smile
Thro’ your fear and sorrow
Smile and maybe tomorrow
You’ll see the sun come shin-ing thro’ for you
Light up your face with gladness
Hide ev-‘ry trace of sadness
Altho’ a tear may be ever so near
That’s the time
You must keep on trying
Smile, what’s the use of crying
You’ll find that life is still worth-while
If you just smile

— Nat King Cole

Here in Rigaud the temperature is -25C and the birds are in a frenzy at my feeders. If you are staying inside today, as am I, there is some good reading to do, or cooking, painting, drawing or simply puttering around doing miscellaneous stuff and on Sundays, this is “the” perfect day to do this! So have a wonderful dominical day while I am listening to “Smile” by Nat King Cole -)

Yesterday my black & white drawing of the head of a cactus got viewed as a potential spider and I decided that today I would add some watercolours so that it looked more like itself. I used a mix of two colours only to achieve these hues. These two colours combined together on this type of paper almost appear velvety, don’t you think?

Paper: Moleskine Sketchbook
Watercolours: Q. Gold & Cerulean Chromium Blue
Location: Rigaud, Québec, Canada

20180114-cactus-jane-hannah-loRes

“A friend,” wrote the poet and philosopher John O’Donohue in his beautiful meditation on the Ancient Celtic notion of anam cara, “awakens your life in order to free the wild possibilities within you.”
— B rain Pickings

My first love has to be drawing and if I decide to paint, without drawing first, the downhill trend is quite steep and abrupt, I lose all faculties for pressing onwards and I get all mixed up — really do not know where to put the paints. However, if I draw first, it grounds me and then I can actually do what I want, without the fear of ruining the drawing or painting. Funny huh? This drawing is a triple bonus because the two pots that hold the cactus were created by me during a pottery workshop in Hemmingford that I followed with one of my very good friends a few weeks ago. It is quite surprising that the pots fit perfectly one into the other as it had not been intended that way… I was pleasantly surprised! One of my friends has organized a small communal painting/drawing event where we each paint/draw three paintings in a sketchbook and then pass on to another artist. I am the second one in the list, and I will be passing it on to France in a week or so. I do not know yet if I will paint it or not… another joy of drawing first. I have the choice. So nice -)

This little cactus has grown quite a bit, and it is close to my heart as it was given to all guests for an event that my little niece had organized. I will not see her as much now as recent family events are looming over chances of meeting up. Still… it is close to my heart, as she is. Today Canada geese were flying over my house, in beautiful amazing triangles, honking high and loud and announcing to everyone that cared to listen that Spring has arrived.. our beautiful harbingers of Spring.

Paper: Handbook created by my friend Chi Mai
Fountain Pen: Sailor Desk fountain pen
Ink: De Atrementis Document Ink Black
Location: Rigaud, Québec, Canada