Nostell brick fireplace, Ikea fruit bowl, Habitat bowls, Ikea
lamp
|
Over the past week, it's been great to catch up on various tasks
connected with publishing and to make progress in the garden. Ironically
it was designing and publishing my book about the garden
that resulted in the garden itself getting so neglected.
Paul the gardener is making his annual series
of visits to help us out; after trimming back shrubs and a thorough
digging over of the shrub bed, herb bed and the flower border, there's
a wonderful feeling of light and air flooding in. There are stacks
of birds around, checking out the newly disturbed soil, finding
their way to the pond's edge again and four robins have been bickering
around the bird feeders. I feel that I'll be using our garden much
more, now that it no longer looks intimidatingly out of control.
After all this, and taking most of the weekend to paint a forest
backdrop for Cinderella, I find when I look through my
sketchbook that I've done just one 10 minute drawing during the
last week.
This evening, I sit and draw whatever I can see around me. Even
drawing household objects gives me some feeling of tuning into the
universe again. The cushion reminds me a of rock face.
I could sit here and draw, from memory, the wildlife that
I've seen today while gardening but that's a form of storytelling
- it doesn't take me to wherever it is that observational drawing
takes me. 
Richard Bell, richard@willowisland.co.uk
|
Sofa (yes, Ikea again!)
|
