What you see

quote by Annie Dillard from Pilgrim at Tinker Creek
graphite and walnut brown Faber Castell Polychromo in Windsor Newton small sketch journal

This has to be one of my favorite quotes from Annie Dillard's Pilgrim at Tinker Creek. "Cultivating a healthy poverty" she says. Sometimes I find it all too much. Too much clutter, too much visual stimulation. Often I am just looking for that elusive simplicity.

This also speaks to paying attention. I am guilty of not noticing what is right under my nose. The process of drawing, I have found, is largely a matter of paying attention. Learning to see as much as learning how to make the mark. I am enjoying finding things from nature to study and draw in this little sketchbook. Usually at some point while working on the drawing I am surprised that what I thought I was seeing isn't really what is before me. Drawing these natural objects is forcing me to take a closer look.