On my daily walk I always take two drawing books and a camera. And I hardly ever draw, but I always take a picture. These are recent shots, the birch trees from 30th September and the hedge from a couple of days ago.
I find I keep coming back to the same motifs. I've been walking around here for, what, 30 years now, and there's a handful of places where I generally stop to take a look and plan a painting.
This past two years I've started to organize them into a framework, picking out themes and subjects that I'll get around to. Not so much wishful thinking as long term planning.
I can recommend the daily walk to anyone. Quite apart from the health benefits, it tunes your eyes up. When you look at something for long enough, you start to see it. The turn of the leaves this past week, for example, from a surprising, straight-out-of-the-tube yellow ochre to this morning's burnt orange that doesn't fit into any colour space you've ever heard of.
And while we're on that subject, have you ever looked at shadows on snow? Jesus, that's some colour out of space stuff going on right there. I look forward to this winter's snowfall with something like junkie anticipation. Which realization means I sometimes think my enjoyment of what I see might be a little unwholesome, or at least unbalanced. The truth is, with nothing in my system stronger than porridge and tea, when I walk out of the house in the morning I'm tripping on what I see. Everything's so damned beautiful.
I find I keep coming back to the same motifs. I've been walking around here for, what, 30 years now, and there's a handful of places where I generally stop to take a look and plan a painting.
I can recommend the daily walk to anyone. Quite apart from the health benefits, it tunes your eyes up. When you look at something for long enough, you start to see it. The turn of the leaves this past week, for example, from a surprising, straight-out-of-the-tube yellow ochre to this morning's burnt orange that doesn't fit into any colour space you've ever heard of.
And while we're on that subject, have you ever looked at shadows on snow? Jesus, that's some colour out of space stuff going on right there. I look forward to this winter's snowfall with something like junkie anticipation. Which realization means I sometimes think my enjoyment of what I see might be a little unwholesome, or at least unbalanced. The truth is, with nothing in my system stronger than porridge and tea, when I walk out of the house in the morning I'm tripping on what I see. Everything's so damned beautiful.
