I Don’t Do Nature

I draw people and occasionally, at a push, animals but I don’t do nature. I’ve just finished Martin Gayford’s book about his conversationas with David Hockney and he discusses his new-ish paintings from the countryside surrounding his home in the north of England, so I thought I should break out of my comfort zone and give nature a go. He talks about how artists interpret what we see, rather than slavishly copy it and how we decide what to focus on, what marks to make, what materials to use in order to interpret, and when he put it like that, it seemed less intimidating. I think that when I’ve tried it in the past, I’ve aimed to be too representational and tried to do something like botanical drawings and really, that’s a whole different genre in itself and not something that particularly interests me.

So I had a bash today using my Faber Castell Pitt drawing pen [size S] and Aquarelle watercolour pencils into an A6 watercolour pad. This is a corner of our new ‘pond’ down on the allotment, which is an old bath and a plank of wood. We’ve had it a fortnight and already the native flag iris and pondweed I transfered from our garden pond have established themselves along with a newt and loads of insects. I’m going to draw reguarly from nature for a while and get some practice in.