When I was a little girl, I read a lot of books. I knew lots of words and I wasn't afraid to use them. I can remember teachers being very impressed by 'the range of my vocabulary'. These days, the language I am interested in is the language of art. If you read this post you'll see what I mean. How do I say what I want through my painting? Roz Stendahl, the artist whose blog I linked to, is constantly looking for new ways to say what she wants to on the page. If this is a language, I am still learning the alphabet. Quick brushstrokes to indicate sea or rocks. Soft, cool shadows to show land in the distance. Layering colour and creating forms.
The thing is, like with any language I have to practice to get more fluent. And so I keep drawing, keep painting, and sometimes it clicks and everything falls in to place. Like when you manage to order your meal in a foreign restaurant without the waiter laughing at you.
These sketches are just from a couple of afternoons out last month. One done on location, and one from a photograph. I do enjoy sketching from life but sometimes it just isn't possible (especially when you're on a muddy walk). Either way, fresh greens and spring flowers make for much more interesting pages.
No comments:
Post a Comment