Six Lovely Things
1. This month I’ve been thinking a lot about walking, because I’m preparing for the Big Walk For Little Kids and, by coincidence, I’ve been reading a fascinating Rebecca Solnit book I got from the library about walking, called Wanderlust: A History of Walking. I was particularly interested in the section on walking in contemporary art, for example Marina Abramovic and Ulay walking the Great Wall. Solnit states:
“Thinking is generally thought of as doing nothing in a production-oriented society, and doing nothing is hard to do. It's best done by disguising it as doing something, and the something closest to doing nothing is walking.”
For me walking is - aside from a way of getting around - both a form of meditation and a way to explore and appreciate urban and natural environments. If I’m stuck with a project or feeling uninspired I’ll go for a ramble in the local area. For the Big Walk I plan to do a few longer walks a bit further from home, including the walk from the Art Gallery of New South Wales around Mrs Macquarie’s Chair and the Botanic Gardens, and the Rose Bay to Watsons Bay walk. I feel lucky to live in such a beautiful city, and I’m going to document these longer walks with photographs and videos, making it into a kind of art project.
2. During my local walks I’ve been seeking out jasmine, wattle, magnolias, and cherry blossoms, as it’s almost spring and they are all in bloom now. I love the scent of jasmine or wattle wafting on the breeze at this time of year. I’ll go out of my way for a blooming jasmine bush so I can stand in front of it and inhale the sweetly scented air. I also buy small bunches of jonquils about once a week because they smell so delicious, as well as looking pretty in a blue vase. They sit on my work table and cheer me up while I’m busy working on art projects.
3. Another lovely thing I’ve been thinking about lately is the children’s book The Crab Ballet written by Renee M. LaTulippe and illustrated by Cecile Metzger.
I find Metzger’s illustrations so delicate and beautiful and was inspired by them to create some more gouache and watercolour illustrations of characters. To get delicate colours similar to Metzger’s I use white gouache and mix in watercolours. The result is pale and chalky pastel colours. Some art teachers I’ve had in the past don’t like “chalky” colours, but I’ve decided I do like them, especially when mixed with a few pops of brighter colour. I made this illustration of a moth man using this technique.
4. Speaking of watercolour, I recently picked up the Colour Meditation Deck by Lisa Solomon. It’s a kind of tarot card-style deck but with suggestions on each card for watercolour exercises to experiment with colour. This is exactly the kind of thing I love to do to relax and play. I’ve only done one of the exercises so far but I plan to dip in to it whenever I feel the need to refresh my work or experiment with colour schemes.
5. Another way I loosen up and play is by doing what I call “inky portraits”. It’s kind of like a side project at the moment and I made a separate Instagram account for them. I’ve written about the method for these in a previous blog post, but essentially I start with a blind contour drawing with pencil, in other words drawing from reference without looking at the paper as I draw, and then I go over the lines in ink and brush and/or dip pen, adding as much shading or detail as it feels like the drawing needs.
6. I’ve also been working on some larger pieces with a view to working slowly, enjoying the process. I recently finished this piece, a drawing of nasturtiums in an abstracted ink texture setting, and it’s now at the framer’s.
I like to do things slowly, whether it’s making art, cooking/baking, or walking, and I love this poem from Rilke on the topic of slowness, which I’ll finish with today:
The Press of Time
We set the pace.
But this press of time —
take it as a little thing
next to what endures.
All this hurrying
soon will be over.
Only when we tarry
do we touch the holy.
Young ones, don’t waste your courage
racing so fast,
flying so high.
See how all things are at rest —
darkness and morning light,
blossom and book.
