Drawing My Favorite Things

I have two Black Cherry trees on my hill that I love to look at and draw in any season.  Sometimes, when I go out with my nature journal, I try to find "something new and interesting" to draw, as if drawing old favorites is bad or wrong.  My Hobgoblin (inner critic) shouts that these favorite subjects are unimportant, and overdrawn.

Yet, often artists develop their craft by working in a series, taking one subject and drawing it in different seasons, in different light, with different materials, etc.

I recently read some wisdom from artist Louise Fletcher, who reminded me that the things we love are important to our art, even though other people might not appreciate them and so we feel they are unimportant too.  

We often downplay the beloved subjects our muse is just begging us to draw or paint. For me, it's scraggly weeds, little treasures like acorns and leaves, and these two Black Cherry trees.

Emboldened by Louise Fletcher, I sat in the grass Saturday and let myself revel in the beauty of these tree friends.

I used only a black colored pencil, studying the wriggly branches and the light and shadow in the scene.  A flock of starlings swooped through, so I included them in the drawing to express this season of flying leaves and migrating birds.

Simply sketching a favorite scene like this one brings me joy. As I draw, I observe closely the way the tree limbs twist and branch, the way the leaves flutter on the wind, and the shapes and shadows of the brush around the trunks.

 What do you love that you may have overlooked as being unimportant?  I hope your favorite subjects get to be the center of your creativity!

Find Your Joy Taster Course with Louise Fletcher

I've begun the Find Your Joy Taster Course -- a free online class offered by abstract landscape artist, Louise Fletcher.  The assignments are exciting to do, and they uncover so much within me -- what I like, what I don't like, how I feel about failure, why I paint.  

The instructions for the painting above were to take a 22" x 30" sheet of heavy paper, tape off the edges and tape off 6 "windows," and then paint as if the whole paper was your canvas.  For our palette, we were to choose one each red, yellow & blue plus black and white.  Then we were instructed to set a timer for 30 minutes and paint what felt good.  If it didn't feel viscerally good & make us happy, we were to stop and choose some other approach.  

Louise said to act like Kindergarten children and simply play with the paint.  Let go.

I gessoed up my sheet of illustration board, squirted out some paints, and let loose.

Holy cow!  The experience felt fully engaging, empowering & joyful.  I loved the sensation of swirling the brush thick with paint over the illustration board.  Bright color contrasts and quick scraping back with the brush handle felt natural and expressive. I fell in love with this form of painting.

I recommend that you check out Louise's YouTube page here and her website here.  Watching her YouTube videos has helped me shape my own art.  Maybe it will help you too.