"All of us are watchers - of television, of time clocks, of traffic on the freeway - but few are observers. Everyone is looking, not many are seeing."
--
Peter M. Leschak
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I just spent three days at a Watercolor/Nature Journaling workshop at the
Sitka Art Center on the Oregon coast. The class is taught by Jude Siegel, who is a well-known Oregon artist and teacher. Her book "A Pacific Northwest Nature Journal" will be a guide for me in further pursuits.
My sisters, Carol Ann and Kathy, took the class with me and 12 other aspiring students. We were taught many things in this short time, but over-all I became so aware of the importance of really NOTICING what is before me.
On the second day Jude gave us each a cherry and said "Do not eat this." She asked us each to think of a characteristic of the cherry and then went around the class to ask each of us what we saw. The first person said color, second person said it looked like a small apple (just what I was thinking I would say when it got to me) on and on--the sheen, the dimple, the reflection...When it got to me I could only say, "the stem is green". Jude said "what color green?" I said "pond-scum green" (easy--it is my favorite color). My point is that there were 15 different observations of the cherry.
Jude (in photo above and sister Carol Ann in background) is a retired teacher and an accomplished painter and writer. She encouraged all of us to concentrate on our own work and found positive points in everyone's work. In journaling we are to please ourselves. She walked us through drawing exercises and we went out to sketch small sprigs of nature--leaves, salal berries, foxglove, ferns, cones--all bits of the surrounding forest.
We drew and she taught us about thumbnail sketches, doing "studies", how to notice the layers in a landscape, about the importance of perspective--much to absorb.
She taught us about leaf printing, applying rice paper, glazing, pressing leaves or blossoms in contact paper, and tracing. (Yes, it is OK to trace once in a while). The painting is a different story and will require much practice and work to master the color mixing and various techniques.
We had an hour each day to work outside and draw and paint. I chose a spot overlooking a tree, the meadow, and a bird bath.
I really did try to concentrate, but it is much more difficult than I thought it would be. At any rate, I am going to share my "first effort" below...
After the three days, my sisters and I were noticing EVERYTHING around us with our newly developed and heightened senses of awareness. We were EXHAUSTED from looking with our new eyes.
I hope this stays with me throughout other areas in my life-=-antiquing, home decorating, even wardrobe planning. I still have a long way to go with the painting and sketching but I really am going to work at it!!
I am going to write this quote in my journal:
"A heightened sense of observation of nature is one of the chief delights that have come to me through trying to paint."
--Winston Churchill (yes he painted watercolors)
the new sharp-sighted me....
Gayle@starsantique.com
...
signing off
