I attended a Real life Life drawing session on Saturday. It was at The Art Room in Footscray in Melbourne. I have been twice in person in previous years and a few of their Zoom sessions in lockdown. This session involved me catching a tram and train, so was another big adventure. It was so special to do something normal. I had such a wonderful time. It was also a great atmosphere to be a room full of creative people.
There were 20 people sketching. We all wore masks except the model (by general agreement) .
I was able to purchase A1 (big) paper on the spot – For the quick sketches, I used thinner newsprint and thicker cartridge paper for the two long sessions. This is a wonderful service as I don’t have this at home and don’t want to be storing it there. There was also a variety of art materials to use on the day – different thicknesses of charcoal and different colours. For the last two longer sketches I used my watercolour pencils.
For the first time over two years I have met with Urban Sketchers Melbourne.
They did not meet up in our year of lockdown in Melbourne. In normal times I have my art classes on Saturdays and I rest on Sundays to refocus and revitalise for my working week. This means that I do not get to attend events.
There was the added bonus, in that the event was in my local suburb, so I did not have to catch public transport. I am still uncomfortable with the level of non-mask wearing on public transport even though it is compulsory. It was lovely not to have to wear a mask outside.
There was a sense of normality with a sketch group. It was 15 degrees, chilly but not nasty weather. We had been advised it was on a crossroad and could get cold. By the end of the morning, I was chilled to the core.
We met at 11.00 am . I set my phone timer for 30 minutes. We were at the corner of Gisborne and Albert streets East Melbourne. I spent 30 minutes at three corners, capturing what I could while chatting to Evelyn Yee. The 16 of us then had a ” throwdown” and photoshoot and chat catch up at 1.00pm.
As I said, It was wonderful to feel normal again !
1-7th June 2021 is International Nature Journaling Week! “Nature journaling allows us to open ourselves to wonder and explore with joy.”
It has an amazing website with so much information – links to free podcasts, interviews, articles, for students, teachers, beginners, those who want to explore ideas and learn more. The depth, breadth, and quality of the whole website is something for all involved to be proud of. It is only the second year and word is spreading to the importance of nature journaling.
One of my “sketching hats” is nature sketching, along with urban sketching, food, objects and whatever else I see. This week it was a wonderful to read and hear other people from around the world share their knowledge and experiences. I have only watched and listened to a few of the podcasts. I will continue to dive into these and be inspired.
And there are daily themes. This blogpost includes my responses to those themes. 1ST JUNE – WORDS 2ND JUNE – PICTURES 3RD JUNE – NUMBER 4TH JUNE – I NOTICE… 5TH JUNE – I WONDER… 6TH JUNE – IT REMINDS ME OF… 7TH JUNE – MINDSET MATTERS
Words
I always write on my pages so that is not new. Today I had hoped to expand my use of words. it is a little more descriptive. I tried to find a poem about winter, but nothing matched the scene before me. I was trying to hard.
Pictures
After the news of continuing lockdown in Melbourne I walked out to the nearby Fitzroy Gardens for relaxing, focus and enjoyment in the natural world. I had hope to find something extra special to draw. At first, I was disheartened to come across a dead possum, but realised it was a treasure of nature. So I took a few photos and drew them at home. Yesterday’s prompt for International Nature Journaling Week was Pictures. i usually sketch on location, so this more studied drawing at home challenged me. I had to think about format and how long to spend on this.
Numbers
I learned today that numbers are another language for describing the natural world. adding new resources to the way to think and record. They focus you to be specific, think differently. This can be done through Counting, Measuring, adding Metadata (date, time, temperature, tides ) Estimate (flocks of birds) or Graph/chart to visualise. I chose COUNT to include as part of my daily walk-in lockdown. However, I could go out for this walk without sketching. The crow is below. He landed next to me on the ground when I was counting the birds around the pond. I grabbed a black pencil and got some lines quickly on the page.
I notice
By noticing we pay close attention to what we notice around us. I learnt that observation is one of the key elements of nature journaling and it is a skill that we can exercise and develop. One of the suggestions was Magnifying tools . This jumped out at me as an opportunity to use my new magnifying lamp that I purchased and wrote about recently, This is a tiny (about 6 cm) wrens nest that was attached to a geranium outside of a window. It was give to me a few years ago and today I was curious about how it was attached to the plant, so I focused in on that. The threads are like spiderweb, built up. There are some very fine threads. Incredible. I am going to spend more time on this.
I wonder
When I am nature journaling, I slow down enough to wonder, I always ask myself question “I wonder” but rarely follow them up with research online or answer questions in my journal. It is a rabbit hole that you can go down and go in all sorts of directions. I am not sure how far I want to go, my joy is always on the drawing.
I also realise I need to decide WHO I am adding the information for. MY sketches are always for ME but who I am writing that information to share? To international readers – ie do I need to write that possums are nocturnal or rainbow lorikeets fly in large noisy flocks. Or do I only add new things I observe or learn?
I am usually returning to the same places and sketch the same plants/ animals. I have been slowly, subconsciously building up my knowledge about them and asking myself more questions.
There are still some prompts to complete and more days to go. Learning new things is always challenging and takes time. I am going back to the website and the sessions and am going to watch and read more. I encourage anyone who has the slightest curiosity about any of this to look at the wonderful website. Nature Journaling Week
