Drawing; a healing art.

In 2003, after years of dormancy, I began to draw again.  It started with a simple pear.  I was sure I could render it three dimensionally using colored pencils.  Thus began a rekindling of confidence in my artistic ability which is still alive.  That year, on my summer vacation at Beach Haven on Orcas Island, I was surrounded by the beauty of ocean vistas, wildflowers, and the rustic cabin I stayed in.  Everything seemed to vibrate and invite me to take a chance, put pencil to paper and see what happened.  My sketch pad was 4″ by 5″ and still is as small as I can find.

As I look back on this now old but then new beginning, I am inspired to see that my drawing evolved, became more precise, vivid, always stayed impressionistic.  Now, after a rest from forcing myself to produce, I am once again ready to enjoy being the artist I am.

Beach Haven Sunset (2003)

From our little cabin on the pebble beach (ours for two weeks in July that is!) the sunsets are often just like this.  I had never tried to render a natural occurrence like a sunset before, so this was a breakthrough drawing for me.   Later, I drew the front of the cabin, thinking how cool it would be to show the sunset’s reflection in the windows.  But I chickened out!  The drawing of the cabin was complete, but it had blank windows for another six years.  In 2009, I finally had the courage and skill to add window reflections.

Beach Haven Reflections (2003, 2009)

All that summer of 2003, I saw the world around me as one big invitation to draw!  I was hooked – again – and loved it.  I drew inspiration from…

frogs…

                                                              flowers…and even fir cones.

2005

In spring the urge to showcase flowers led me to purchase a wider variety of pencils that helped me better define the three dimensional quality of little tiny blossoms, as in this dreamy impression, “Forget-me-not & Sweet Peas”.

In the next year, I was moving my 20/300 glasses down my nose so I could look over them at my subject “eye to eye”.  The clarity I saw with just my eyeball a few inches from my subject, brought another level of sharpness to the subject.  It is one of the reasons I have yet to take the plunge into lasik surgery.

My sketch book has just four drawings from 2006, and six from 2007, and they show an evolution to more vivid colors, and confidence in composition. 

In 2008, I resolved to complete at least one drawing a month, and indeed, it was my most prolific year.  Flowers and plants were my primary subjects, though birds also attracted my interest.  To see those drawings please click on the page titled Drawings:  2008.