I took a kayak out on the Rondout Creek behind my house the other day.
Brought my sketchbook along, though having it with me felt like a pressure to DO something with the experience. I packed it anyway.
Drawing can be such a connecting activity - with one's self and the world. But getting on the page is not that simple (I have written about this before ! )
I let my irritated, easily pressured part be there, along for the ride.
It felt good to push off, glide away from shore - so quiet and yet full of insects pulsing, water moving, birds calling out.
I pulled over close to the far shaded edge and was drawn in to the pattern of rocks lining the shore - then up to the hanging leaves - and close at hand in the water. I like to work in threes . . .
I drew with pencil - planning to drop in some color when back on land.
Then I added a description of each element on the page.
Starting with rocks along the edge - mirrored . . .
Following the leaves up the vine - climbing
Clusters of bubbles - tiny - close - nameless.
I paddled across the water toward some grasses, which turned out to be young cattails on the bank.
I worked my way down the page from the waving stalks to the broad rocks to the calm water.
Delicate cattails
Smooth & lined stones
Glassy slow flowing water
Rock and water
Stillness - movement
rushing river place
Looking back now I see the three pages as a larger progression that I moved through -
First - the quiet edge - the encompassing view
Second - the rich layering - textured - complex
Third - the rushing waters - life moving - uncertain
I returned to shore refreshed.
You can find a fuller explanation of this three part drawing practice in the 2nd edition of my book -
True Nature: An Illustrated Journal of Four Seasons in Solitude
Available from the publisher's bookstore -
https://www.namsebangdzo.com/True-Nature-An-Illustrated-Journal-of-Four-Season-p/18468.htm
or from Amazon -
