Finally, Back to the Drawing Board: Butter Dish

After laboring over the close work of trying to duplicate abstract sketches, training for the eye more than the hand, I needed the relief of drawing something real. My need to practice on a daily basis is obvious! (The little doodly thing in the upper-righthand corner was a drawing of a head of garlic.) And it's clear, too, that I really need the abstract duplication exercises, as that focuses on proportion, one of my weakest points in drawing.

Surprising Obsession and Yearning

My five-pear meditation on Thursday morning was satisfying at the time. That is, it did its work as meditation. Somehow, though, I didn’t feel I’d caught the essence of the pears, and the next morning I drew a single pear over and over and over.

I like the sketchy, not overworked effect of the last drawing, but I still felt something was missing, and I realized I had begun to yearn for --

color! Satisfied for years with only pencil or black ink pen, I am surprised to find a hunger for color growing in me. Fortunately, the little beginner's art kit David gave me for Christmas – what? ten years ago? – includes, along with pencils, colored pencils and pastel sticks. So "back to the drawing board" on Friday evening was a move made with new tools.

This is a big (though still quiet) leap for me to take, and I’m not sure what 2014 will manifest, in terms of my drawing experiments. Perhaps there will be more expeditions into color; on the other hand, there may well be a retreat to monochrome. It doesn’t matter. It’s all just part of looking, seeing, and trying things out. And however obsessive I become over the day's subject, the meditative practice of drawing continues to provide a calm oasis in my world.