My birthday sketch!
Spent my birthday floating in a salt water float pool. Kinda freaky..... like you are floating all alone in space......
Plein Air Workshops Coming Soon!
Plein Air Workshops will begin..........as soon as the snow melts!
Hoping to begin in April!
Fleet Street
trudging through the deep snow
I reach my destination
I sit
back now against the stone escarpment
I unpack my pochade box
my backpack is my studio
You can see
the Fleet Street plant
150 years old
through the arches of the stone bridge
recently restored
Mauve sky
sap green and ochre in the water
punctuated by deep hues of Prussian Blue
It is a time to sit
meditate
sip my tea
take it all in
brush full of paint
the first stroke
we are in the deep of winter
but soon the kayaks will arrive
"GEAR-UP!"
2 1/2" X 5" LUNCHTIME SKETCH
2014.01.24
"The easiest thing in the world to do is not do!" (Variation of William Goldman quote)
It really doesn't matter how much one loves to do something - you still must have the discipline and the motivation to do actually do it.
Art is a lot like running. I love to run. I also love to sketch paint and draw. Sometimes however, it is hard to find the inspiration to make art, just as it is sometimes difficult to lace up those shoes and get out the door. It is a lot easier to role over and go back to sleep.
There are a couple tricks that I have found that work.
If you want to get in the habit of going for a run, gear up. Put on your running shoes, running pants, jacket and hat. Even if you don't feel like running, gear up anyway. You will instantly feel totally inspired to get out there for that run. Here in Ottawa we have had several weeks of minus 20 to minus 30 degree Celsius weather with wind-chills down to minus 35-38C - not exactly inspiring weather for running. It is amazing how even in this crazy weather, when you gear up, the cold becomes a non-issue. It just takes that first action, to put on your shoes.
Art is much the same. Somedays are way harder than others to start painting. After a demanding day at work, the couch is awfully inviting. So to battle the temptation of doing nothing, I use the same trick as with running. I gear up. I carry a sketch book with me always. It is nothing special - just a small 3 1/2"x5" pocket sized moleskin sketchbook, and a few pencils or a fountain pen, and maybe a small watercolour kit. If it is pocket sized, it is easy to carry. Anything larger won't see the light of day from my knapsack. Having my sketchbook on my person inspires me to simply look at my environment and sketch. It has to be easy and very convenient for those times when I see something I want to record. So if you want to do more art, don't burden yourself with setting up large canvases and thinking too hard. That is like saying I am going to run a marathon tonight. Keep it simple. Sketch every day, and just like running that marathon, the daily habit will give you the discipline and motivation to tackle that big canvas.
Today's Sketch - "Sure it's cold....."
We are certainly having a cold winter, but there is nothing better than getting out and enjoying it. After all, isn't that what being Canadian is all about?
"38 YEARS TO BANJO GOD"
I had my first banjo lesson of 2014 yesterday. I was thinking about how long I have been taking lessons, which is just over a year now, and just how far I have come. I can actually play a couple old time songs now - or should I say I can massacre a couple old time songs. I am always amazed at those people who an play so well and make it look so easy. Bastards! How do they do it?
As with everything in life, to get good at something you have to practice......a lot! To get really good, to the point of being an expert, you have to be completely obsessive and pretty much practice all the time. In Malcolm Gladwell's book "Outliers", a terrific read by the way, he boils it down to ten thousand hours of solid practice to master any skill. Gladwell backs up his hypothesis with some very compelling evidence. Obviously some people certainly have some natural aptitude, or what we call talent, for some things, but I think this only avails that person with a small advantage - the rest is simply hard work.
To put this into perspective, lets use banjo as an example. Based on the ten thousand hour rule, if I was to practice 15 minutes a day, 7 days a week, it would take me 109 years to master the banjo.
A half our a day would reduce this to 55 years. One hour a day, or seven hours a week would take 27.5 years. Ten hours per week, 19 years. 20 hours a week, 9.6 years and 40 hours per week,4.8 years.
Holy Crap! Based on these stats, I should be really good by the time I am 90 years old - 38 years from now! Haha!It's gonna be a riot in the home!!
It is a really good thing I love my banjo, but maybe I better ramp up the hours!
I wonder if Janice would mind me taking up the bagpipes..............
"Gobi Desert Day 14"
The Wrestlers
The i2P team timed their expedition perfectly, hitting two separate Erlin Gurvaan Naadam festivals in the Gobi Desert. Erlin Gurvaan Naadam quite literally means "the three games of men", comprising of horse racing, wrestling and archery. These festivals are held midsummer all across Mongolia. This small painting screamed for abstraction. I decided to capture the shear mass of the wrestlers in blocks of colour foregoing fine detail to capture the essence of the wrestling match.
