Its not all about photography these days...

Its not all about photography these days.
In recent months a spark was lit which slowly produced a flame. A flame fed by the comments of others and old memories. In the corner of my closet the whispers became more insistent there in the corner sat my sketchbooks, watercolour paints, pencils and pens and long ignored work.

I mentioned in a blog post back in September of last year how I finally I gave in, took down the boxes and with baby steps picked up where I had left off all those years ago. It was the mid 1990's when I stopped painting it was time to put that to rights.

Fast forward to today, the sketchbooks are in constant use, the 'photo outings' on Saturday mornings were followed by tea and conversation. Now there is a new twist; tea, conversation and sketching. Well the conversation dies quickly when the sketchbooks appear but no matter the friendship and camaraderie remain as pencils and pens work to capture what is before us or at least what we see before us.

Yesterday it was Doug and I at Quebec St Mall (a good place to hide from winters icy grip). Somehow an hour disappeared but a drawing or two appeared in the sketchbooks and a "peaceful, easy feeling" to quote the Eagles had fallen upon us.
It's quite amazing how that happens. Maybe it is the returning to something deep within, the need to express what we see using simple tools instead of modern day technology. The time taken is repaid with satisfaction, the longer it takes the greater the satisfaction.

"Art enables us to find ourselves and lose ourselves at the same time". 

~ Thomas Merton