Sunday, February 12, 2012

what a difference a day makes!

In the winter here, Mark Mellor runs a drawing group at the Boothbay Harbor Art Foundation on Tuesday mornings. With my broken right arm, my operative arm, I wondered how I was going to deal with this. The drawing to the left is a product of my left hand. What I discovered was that I could draw with my left, but the result was looser, more 'painterly', and often more interesting than what I was doing with my right hand.
I don't know if that's because my right brain - tied to my left side - is 'looser,' or if my left brain - tied to my right hand - is just more precise. But that is what I learned about my 'handed-ness.' Now that the cast is off and I'm not even wearing a brace much, I'm going to try and do more stuff, using both my left hand for the big image, and my right for the more precise work. We shall see what develops.

On the note of doing more artwork, I was asked to join the River Arts Gallery in Damariscotta, and become part of the online gallery, Art Collector Maine, or www.artcollectormaine.com. It is sponsored by the Maine Home and Design Magazine, and has a quite brilliant strategy for marketing artists, and making them more available to collectors without charging a commission. Us artists are very excited about this website, and hope it expands our audiences. So check it out!

The days, finally, remain spring-like one day, and then turn winter-like with quite vicious temperatures on the next. The snowdrops are still up,but today their heads are drooping. The temperatures are down nearly to zero here beside the water. When there is no snow, as is true now, the cold seems even harsher. But still, it's better here than inland. Across northern New England the temperatures have fallen down below zero with quite nasty wind chill factors. I am glad to be beside the sea. Drawing pictures of a lovely lady with a yellow straw hat, is a delicious way to imagine a very different wind chill factor outside, at least on Tuesday mornings. And tomorrow, we are promised higher temperatures!