I hope you all saw my last post, about a reader’s adventurous plans for an ex-pat retirement in Portugal. I’ve always daydreamed about living in Europe for a year or so, and Carol’s description of their impending move fueled those imaginings, a welcome distraction from my current home-defined lifestyle. . .
Today’s post is all about that domesticity. Since my plans to be in Sicily, sketching with Samantha Dion Baker at the Anna Tasca Lanza Farm School have been rudely scotched, I’m trying to keep up a daily sketch journal right here at home. For now, I’m working on very small pages (in a Stillman & Birn mini watercolour sketchbook), so even when I have a busy day, I tell myself that I can surely find ten minutes to fill a small surface. That’s mostly working (you’ll see I’ve missed a day or two, here and there), and the little pages are gathering colour as the Covid-confined weeks pass.
All is not lost — see? I’m sketching Sicily. . . just not sketching IN Sicily. . .
To save you from a kink in your neck, I’ll transcribe my notes here: I’ve been using some of this extra domestic time to wash all my woolens, blocking them on the floor, boxing them away until the fall
That’s it for this Rainy Wednesday post. We have a short run of sunny days ahead, according to the forecast, but first a very wet mornings — the garden welcomes it, but it will make my morning run nasty. Ah well. . .
Comments open (although I do hear that Blogger’s being obstructive — thanks to those of you who persevere!) and they’re always so welcome and keep me coming back here. Happy Wednesday!
I really enjoy looking at your sketches. I'm beginning to think of sketching as a daily activity. I haven't taken my watercolours out although we've got a distressed table on the balcony that I could use when M. is not practising ukulele. Covid-19 days have their own rhythms (no pun intended). As the scientists are speaking more of subsequent waves, it seems that we can make no plans. Hopefully, you will get to Italy sometime sooner rather later. As I look at my walking holiday photos, I would like to be able to do another walk in 2022.
I will be 70! My goodness!
I admire your lovely sketch book. Those plant pots are lovely. I keep thinking I will get back to my drawing that I tried to rekindle a few years ago, but somehow stopped. I don't know why but I need to know I'll have the house to myself for an hour or two before I start. I'm so not into sharing my endeavours, not hearing "helpful" comments to correct my mistakes. I want to snap, "Don't you think I know that? If I could make my hand do that I would" or the like. And that would not be conducive to a harmonious household. Ha.
I am patiently waiting for a sunny day to wash my wool sweaters and dry them in the yard. An old google maps photo of my house had these multicolored dots in the back yard, when I zoomed in, a saw they photographed my house the day I washed my sweaters and dried them on the lawn in the yard.
I do envy you your drawing ability! Not in my wheelhouse, sadly enough, but I love watching what you capture in your sketches – the immediacy, the single moment of a bleeding heart or pots on the terrace.
Mme: I think you're right — no clear road marked "Back to Normal" ahead, and I think it will best behoove us to stay flexible and as accepting as we can manage. . .
Sue Burpee: Mine seems to come and go, my sketching, and it's always tough to start up again if I've left it a while. . . .Funnily, the praise can often bother me as much as the constructive criticism. I've been known to assume I'm being patronized, when he's actually being sincere 😉 Poor guy can't win. . .
KPD: Thank you for this image — I love it! What a wonderful way to be represented on a map!
Carol: You never know — would have sworn it wasn't in my wheelhouse either until I took just the right (short) class . . . . mind you, there are enough other activities in life to keep us busy without a sketchbook so . . . 😉
Enjoying your day-in-a-life sketches. The eucalan sketch reminds me of the need to wash my woolens, too. Although we're due for a cold snap this weekend, so will put it off for now. Not like there won't be time for it later…
It's funny to see a bottle of Eucalan as an objet! Why not? I too am in the midst of sweater-storing (even though we still have frost warnings and flurries in the weekend forecast!)
If you still feel like living abroad for a year, what do you think of a home exchange? You are in the enviable position of living in the city many would want to live in for a similar period. I have friends who have done it for years, and have have only good things to say about it.
They are so beautiful! I like especially 2.,4.,5. and 6. sketches
Dottoressa
My favourite is the sketch you had on Instagram. Sorry I never commented there, but always follow you. It should be framed in my opinion. As soon as any Art is framed it elevates to another level. Maybe keep a sample frame just to have a look. Once you see your sketches framed you will be really pleased.
Ali
I love the sketch of the leeks (would you care to share your recipe of the porrata?)and the Sicilian Dreams.
KPD's story of the Google Maps photos reminded me that when I discovered your blog, you were still living in your former home. Being very ignorant about Canada, and the West Coast in particular, I looked up your island on Google Maps and recognised your house by your two red deck chairs. I felt a bit intrusive, though, so I never did it again.
Mary: I probably should have waited as well — we have four or five days of sunshine predicted and they would have been perfect for drying outside. . . on the other hand, no danger anyone else would see the sweaters I laid out on towels on the floor . . . 😉
Duchesse: At least I haven't yet followed Marcel Duchamp. . . 😉
We exchanged homes once, decades ago, swapping with a family in Blois for several weeks, and that was very good. I'm open to exchanging again; Paul has some reservations at the moment . . . . we'll see. It's an attractive possibility in many ways.
Dottoressa: Thanks!
Ali: You're very kind, and my Inner Critic has been silenced for a moment. 😉
Eleonore: I'll pop the links for the Porrata into my next post. . . Oh, I so loved those chairs. We started with a red and an orange, I think, and then added a pink and a yellow. . . .Our (ex) neighbour has them on her deck now. . .