RECUPERATING AND LOOKING OVER MY DRAWINGS FROM 2010, four months after starting my blog Drawing-of-The-Day. The blog's purpose was to make drawing a habit. It worked better than thought it would. It made drawing a commitment I had to keep, pushed me from drawing with markers to drawing with graphite pencils and paint--from painting this and that, to finding what subject interested me a lot. My interest in portraiture came from these first efforts.
 |
| Technicolor Grasses, acrylic on canvas board. |
.
 |
| Bears' Britches, WC markers on student grade drawing pad |
.
 |
Red Deck Chair, Watercolor Markers on Strathmore Drawing pad.
|
 |
| Erin, Graphite Pencil on Strathmore Drawing pad. |
 |
| Sweet Dreaams. WC markers on Strathmore 80lb drawing paper. |
.
 |
| Crystal Candy Dish. WC markers on Strathmore 80lb drawing paper |
..
 |
| .Kelly, Graphite pencil on Strathmore 80lb drawing paper. |
 |
| .Pistachio Nuts, Watercolor on student grade watercolor paper. |
..
 |
| Daffs, Watercolor on student grade WC paper, about 10" x 10" |
 |
| Taylor, Charcoal on Newsprint, 18" x 24" |
.
WHEN YOU SUDDENLY GO BACK TO DRAWING, you try this and that looking for what subjects, which mediums, on which supports suits you best. Eventually, you do recognize your voice. In nearly seven years, I found I am bilingual. Traditional realism and Abstract Expressionism both get me excited. I appreciate that one approach demands resolution and the other does not. I appreciate that one demands precise drawing skills and careful stumbling while the other is gestural, loose and physically active. I also found that I love being retired, past having to have a third career and can enjoy an amateur standing. I can sell. I can gift. It's up to me. I am not tethered to any hitching post; I am a free agent. Will my work land in a museum, the dream of all artists? Maybe? That no longer matters. What matters is the doing.
