summer fun

summer of '74... my best friend and I decided we would teach ourselves to paint, her with acrylics, myself with oils...

I spent all of my savings to buy paint, brushes, canvases, linseed oil etc., all the trappings needed to wield a brush and look at the world with new eyes

it's one of my fondest summertime memories, one I've pulled out every so often and thought about, wondering where the impetus came from?

to my recollection neither of us had ever expressed a desire to paint, nor can I remember which one of us threw the idea out, but I do remember that however it struck, we were both all in

when the summer ended we each put our paints away and that was that

over time thoughts of painting again grew; I took a watercolour painting course in the first years of this century and though it was enjoyable and I learned a lot, I didn't stick with it after the classes were finished

I kept the paints though, knowing someday I would pick up a brush again, and over the past four years I have - mostly just playing around, painting what I "need", simple things like holly leaves or rosebuds... now I'm getting a little more serious and am working on developing my sketching skills in addition to painting

I've been making good use of the local library since the early days of the pandemic and taken out a number of painting and sketching books

when I was trying to find interesting subjects to practice on I was stymied - nothing appealed really, and I didn't feel like trying to sketch in the cold so I took to copying some of the sketches in the books I borrowed. Copying is such a great way to learn (many of the Masters developed their skills in this way), and makes it so much easier to just get sketching as opposed to finding and "framing" your subject.

In order to make myself a good learning reference I am adding notes from the books to the page so when I look at these I will remember the lesson, kind of a sketching instruction book tailor made for me!

"water" is something I very much need to work on so these first two pages are water studies, the first is three versions of water and sky

next was waves - well, a wave to be precise

this one was a lot harder and there are tools you can use to give better effect but I was working with what I had

pretty pleased with both of these!

then came rocks

oddly enough, I have discovered I have a thing for large rocks and boulders

there was huge rock pile not far from we lived for most of my childhood - rocks big enough for two or three of us to sit on together, complete with a picnic lunch - I want to try painting it from memory so I am practicing rocks

the thing I love about sketching is how absorbing it is... time stands still, the world falls away and there is nothing in my mind except the soft, swift strokes of the pencil scratching on paper

finally I tried my hand at a landscape; again, a copy, but looks pretty much like anywhere around where I live - mountains, trees and a river is common Canadian view here in BC

so far so good... happy enough with these

still seeing loads of room for improvement, lines I'd change, shading I would do slightly different, but overall, a good beginning

the trick now is get more confident, make bolder lines, and hopefully speed up a little

in the meanwhile, it's good summertime fun