Daily drawing

When I have the most to do, on days with my longest lists, when I can't afford to be in the studio all day, I always put 'make a drawing' on my list.   It's hard to get through a long list, so before dinner I stop everything else and make my drawing. 

I'm reading a book of mindfulness exercises, hoping to find ideas for our exhibition at StowHealth and obviously I am practicing a bit of mindfulness as a result. (I wasn't sure what mindfulness was until I began reading the book). I like the book particularly because it uses paintings as a way into the exercises.  When I paint and draw I guess I am 'mindful', the world falls away and the space between me and what I see changes.  It is always difficult to tear myself away from something beautiful that I am looking at, it's easy to overwork a piece.

Another thing I am trying to do is to appreciate my flowers.  I walk through the garden, smell them, look at them but I also pick them and put them on the table.  Today I cut some flowers, pinned a two page spread of a map to the wall, grabbed some cloth, began to look and to find the space between me and my subject with my pastels.

Monday's model

Emily was asked to pose for 15 minutes today.  After a summer hiatus of drawing from the model, I could have used some quick poses to loosen me up.  Instead I began with charcoal on A3, measuring with my eyes, drawing, redrawing, teaching myself to LOOK carefully, trying to identify what makes Emily 'Emily'.

I used pastel for the last three drawings, this was the final one. I drew over something else.  It's 13 x 22 cm. My new fixative darkened it a bit.