Spring Morning good friends and the woods, is there anything better ?...

Is there anything better than wandering in the woods with good friends on a Spring morning?

I love Winter but this one stayed way past it's welcome but now Spring will not be ignored and there is a 'bursting forth' of everything that is Spring.

The woods are filled with birdsong, the Spring Peepers are chorusing from the ponds now free of winters grip.

The earth smells rich and new and everywhere new life is emerging.

In the sheltered places the sun's warmth is evident, jackets are unzipped, gloves are gone, smiles are on everyone's face.

There is a lightening of one's step

Ahh Spring in the Northern woods …

A 'good to be alive' feeling

What a day!

“And Spring arose on the garden fair,

Like the Spirit of Love felt everywhere;

And each flower and herb on Earth's dark breast

rose from the dreams of its wintry rest”.

~Percy Bysshe Shelley, "The Sensitive Plant"

http://alan-norsworthy.artistwebsites.com/blogs/is-there-anything-better-.html

Thank You ...

Yesterday was one of those rare occasions, a Saturday morning that saw me not out on the trails but dragging boxes into Dublin St Church.

You see yesterday was the 20th Annual Show and Sale, and I was able to participate for a second year.
Not only was it the first show of the year but it was a time to reconnect with friends both old and new, artists and customers.

Walking in I was greeted by many of the participants, warm smiles everywhere.

As the room filled with the hustle and bustle of participants getting their booths ready laughter was the language of the day.

Being part of a show is hard work, no one sees the hours of preparation that goes into such an endeavor but when the booth is finished and I wait for 'showtime' all of that is forgotten.

This day, so many visitors came by, so many familiar faces, many curious to see “what was new”, many just dropping by to say hello and renew a connection.

Some to buy another image.

New faces offering congratulations and kind words of appreciation of my work.

All were very welcome and all left a warm glow behind.

My friends, my constant companions and fellow photographers.
Some bearing gifts, all bearings grins. In particular Patrick and Doug thank you for the “Pain au Chocolat” from our usual Saturday morning haunt .. OX cafe.

Your thoughtfulness was truly appreciated

To Bunny, Ken, 'Big' Doug, Ralf, Paul, Lynette, Gregg, and everyone else who I inadvertently 'ignored'. (I didn't get to stand and chat too long because of the constant flow of visitors to greet).
I would like to say “thank you” for taking the time to drop by.

I need to say a special thank you to Cathy and Brit for all their help in putting this show together and taking it all apart at the end of the day without your help I would have been even more frazzled than I was.

We were all tired (exhausted may seem like too strong a word) but it was a great day …

I am truly blessed.

“Too often we underestimate the power of a touch, a smile, a kind word, a listening ear, an honest compliment, or the smallest act of caring, all of which have the potential to turn a life around.” ~Leo Buscaglia 

Sketching at the Mall

Another Saturday outing and once more the camera stayed in the bag, replaced by a sketchpad and pencil.

Is this photography? I mean I am recording a scene, putting it down on paper but not with photosensitive chemicals but with carbon ..

No matter.

The freedom of just sitting, watching and letting the hand follow the eye is so satisfying. Even if what is happening on the paper before me is not perfect (by a long shot!). It's almost secondary to the enjoyment. 

The freedom to let it happen, to open up to the possibilities seen and unseen.

The freedom to interpret in a non photographic way

The freedom to let go.

Eventually you come back to the present and you find an hour has past and your paper is covered in thoughts and interpretations of what has passed before your eye during that time.

Yes, satisfying ....

"The artist is a receptacle for the emotions that come from all over the place: from the sky, from the earth, from a scrap of paper, from a passing shape, from a spider's web." ~Pablo Picasso

“Ya don't know what you've got 'till it's gone” well temporarily I hope.

Yesterday was the first time in a long time that I was not able to go for my usual Saturday morning outing because somewhere last week I did something, I don't know what, when or where but by Thursday I could barely walk. By Friday I couldn't walk at all without the help of a cane.

So I sent the dreaded email to my friends, “sorry I won't be able to join you this weekend” …

What made it worse was we had plans to visit my old friend Grant who dearly needed an outing. Fortunately the outing went ahead without me.

So what do you do when sitting is a pain in the butt (literally) and walking is out of the question?

Well luckily I have stacks of paper and sharp pencils and a comfy spot to sit.

In the fridge, a bunch of red grapes, in the dining room an unopened bottle of red wine and a selection of glasses.

A still life sketch soon took shape.

Then once it was redrawn on heavy paper, the medium was chosen;

Coloured Pencil...

Yes that was the way to go as this second rendering was to be the work up for the final rendering in watercolour.

I'm quite happy with the result today I may start on a watercolour ….

My quote for the day is, well sorta maybe appropriate to the subject but it is one of my favourites and never fails to bring a smile and a sage nod of the head ...

“When my daughter was about seven years old, she asked me one day what I did at work. I told her I worked at the college — that my job was to teach people how to draw. She stared at me, incredulous, and said, "You mean they forget?"” ~Howard Ikemoto

Sketching and Stress...

Abandoned House - Ridgetown
Originally uploaded by Alan Norsworthy

No photographs from our outing yesterday. It was a day of sketching, talking, drinking tea and catching up with old friends.

We started at the farmers market and ended up in downtown Guelph. Quite a change from our usual Saturday morning but enjoyable non-the-less.

Sometimes 'making an image' does not mean using a camera.
Sometimes it is going back to basics, a pencil and a piece of paper.

Sometimes it takes 1/1000 of a second.
Sometimes it takes half an hour.

But taking the slow road leads to an inner journey as well.
Time stops,
everything around you moves differently
vision is tunneled
hearing and touch are heightened
snippets of conversation are caught, totally out of context but interesting non-the-less
And all the time the mind, the eye and the hand act as one and slowly an image appears. Incorporating all that you see, hear, feel and imagine.
But this is all happening without conscious thought. The mind is free to wander and imagine and control the hand.

So very satisfying, so very relaxing..

Work-a-day stress ?
Whats that ?
Not this day, not when you are sitting quietly with a pencil, paper, tea and friends..

"The time to relax is when you don't have time for it." ~Attributed to both Jim Goodwin and Sydney J. Harris

Changes

Changes
Originally uploaded by Alan Norsworthy

Ask anyone who knows me, they will all attest to my love of winter.
However this one has been a bit too cold and is becoming a bit too long.
So this weekend we walked the Niska Trails here in Guelph 'looking for signs of spring'.
A bitter North wind was there but in the lee of the tree's along the river, a place where the strengthening sun made an appearance there was warmth.

Sitting by the river, listening to her sing on her merry way, freed from her icy prison once again. Listening ,with the sun on your face one could very easily be fooled into thinking spring had arrived.

Then, as we walked around the loop and we approached the Northern side of the woods winter was waiting ...

As we approached the wind saw us coming and raced across the open fields and found it's way through the tree's to send shivers through us.

Two seasons in one morning ....

"It was one of those March days when the sun shines hot and the wind blows cold: when it is summer in the light, and winter in the shade.: ~Charles Dickens, Great Expectations

The One Minute Sketch

Yesterday I began a journey, a journey back.

Yesterday I had my 'first' lesson in watercolour painting.

Constance, my teacher, a very accomplished watercolourist in her own right has been cajoling me, poking me with a metaphoric stick and pushing me towards this day. 

Yesterday I gave in ...

But I had been preparing, recently my friend Patrick loaned me yet another book:

Art and Fear by David Bayles and Ted Orland..

In that book I saw myself:

You see in 1994 'the pen ran dry' and I put away my brushes, paints, paper and all the accouterments of my art. 

I quit, or did I stop ?

" Quitting is fundamentally different from stopping. The latter happens all the time.

Quitting happens once. Quitting means never starting again-and art is all about starting again"

So, I stopped, for 20 years. Now it's time to start again.

But oh its hard and it's frustrating. I look back at what I did and I look at what I do now and wonder,

Why? 

Will I ever be able to paint and draw again? 

Can I get back that which is lost?

Again words come " you are as good today as you can be"  that is not as good as I once was .... but tomorrow will be different, "tomorrow I will be as good as I can be tomorrow."

"An artist's career always begins tomorrow".  ~James McNeill Whistler

p.s To some, the one minute sketch may look like a scribbled mess but to me I see life, 

to me I see the essence of a person, 

to me I see a beginning..