— a Sunday Psalm Albrecht Dürer, Great Piece of Turf /Das große Rasenstück (watercolor), 1503. It might not seem like a big deal. Just an unordered group of wild plants. But look again: the subject – grass & wildflowers – might look rather ordinary, but the rendering of this little piece of nature is not. Das große Rasenstück makes us see…
Florilegium
Or: How my love for walks, nature writing & sketching currently seems to merge in a joyful celebration of all things growing – Phacelia tanacetifolia; “purple tansy” or “fiddleneck” It seems I am about to sketch a florilegium for myself, for the simple joy of doing it – . The florilegium – a short history In…
truth be told
Though there’s an industry built on telling you otherwise, there are few real joys to middle age. The only perk I can see is that, with luck, you’ll acquire a guest room. — David Sedaris (2018)
A Palladian Odyssey
or: Seeing and drawing in Veneto with Liz Steel & a group of wonderful sketchers – If you can see your path laid out in front of you step by step, you know it’s not your path. Your own path you make with every step you take. That’s why it’s your path. –Joseph Campbell I…
Living a More Considered Life
“It is a bewildering thing in human life that the thing that causes the greatest fear is the source of the greatest wisdom.” C. G. JUNG
Be Ready
You Reading This, Be Ready by William Stafford Starting here, what do you want to remember? How sunlight creeps along a shining floor? What scent of old wood hovers, what softened sound from outside fills the air? Will you ever bring a better gift for the world than the breathing respect that you carry…
on making bad art
If you have ever read a better book on making art than Art & Fear: Observations on the Perils (and Rewards) of Artmaking by David Bayles and Ted Orland … I would love to know! Art & Fear is my absolute favorite in the genre of creativity, I read it all the time, and it…
two weeks, two countries
– new instalments in my perpetual nature journals. Week 18: oak and narcissus in my Norwegian journal. … Week 19: a twig of passionflower for my Spanish sketchbook. …
Don’t worry about self-expression
The material should be filtered through you rather than your filtering yourself through the material. Self-expression is a natural by-product of your work, because you are doing it. If the purpose of the project is to express yourself, there is a danger there will be no surprises. — Corita Kent Corita Kent: for the oak…
Simply this:
To pay attention, this is our endless and proper work. — Mary Oliver «White Pine: Poems and Prose Poems» (snapshot from a recent trip to Ravello, Italy)
A few of my favorite things…
Do we really need art … when nature can give us so much beauty?
cloud~watching
All day I tried to paint the sky, clouds passing by. Every attempt a mistake stilted, awkward – – unreal Then I went out and looked up: And as for the first time I noticed; the sky really doesn’t look real at all –
