Nikki Tate's Blog, page 6
May 13, 2018
Lines (12/365)
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The lines seemed to go a little better than the wobbly circles of yesterday… with the exception of trying to draw a square using a series of parallel diagonal lines. That was so not happening, especially when the lines angled down and to the right… clearly some neurological rewriting needs to happen before I get that right. My triangles are a bit asymmetrical and my straight, vertical lines all tend to have a bit of a leftward leaning tilt, but overall today’s exercise was not quite as painful as my efforts yesterday.
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Composition No. 10, Piet Mondrian (1940-ish)
Piet Mondrian jumps to mind when I think of nice straight lines put to good use. What I didn’t expect was to see Van Gogh popping up in the Getty Museum’s handout intended for students learning about the elements of art. Line, of course, is one of those basic elements…
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Wheat Field with Sheaves and Arles in the Background, 1888 by Vincent van Gogh
Check out all those lines!! There’s no real drawing going on here, per se… and yet… That’s a wheat field! And smoke from the factory chimneys! And stubble… and the impression of a real place made up of a bunch of short lines! Here’s a link to the handout, in case you want to have a go at filling in all the boxes with different types of lines.
I confess I was inspired and decided to give the line-making another go, this time based on the little boxes on the Getty handout…
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It’s no wheat field, no Arles, but I can see how mastering some of these basic elements could prove useful someday.
Dad concurs. Right under the greeting ‘Happy Mother’s Day’ he texted, “Lines are really neat…” and then went on to illustrate with some quick examples. They were a little different to the Getty categories… Dad’s examples were:
static straight lines
straight lines showing slight movement
more interesting/complex movement, still using only straight line
quite a complex pattern, though not using many more lines (just varying length, angle, relative positions). Here’s my rendition of Dad’s example…
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No wonder I was having such trouble with circles! I was running before I could walk… I’m thinking maybe tomorrow I need to go back a step farther and maybe try a plain dot. I’d ask, ‘How hard could that be?’ but I am thinking even a dot could present mysterious challenges I can’t even imagine…
May 12, 2018
Take the Lowly Circle (11/365)
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If you’ve been reading along for a while you will know I’ve long been hankering to up my game in the visual art department. Ok, more accurately, to have any sort of game at all. They say you need to start somewhere, so today I pulled out paper and pencil and tried to draw a circle.
My. God.
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How hard could that possibly be? Hard!!
But if one masters the skill of the perfect freehand circle, one could go down in history. Like Giotto, the Italian painter who could, according to artistic legend, draw such a perfect circle it seemed he had used a compass.
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This is a mural designed by Dad (shown here in progress) down in Ottawa, Illinois. One of Ottawa’s claims to fame is a glass factory where they made marbles (that’s a giant marble in the middle).
When I mentioned to Dad I was attempting to draw (in general, circles in particular) he immediately mentioned the ‘perfect O of Giotto.’ How could I not have known of this guy’s special talent before now?
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APC Patrol Cyprus (1974) by E. Colin Williams (Note: circle turned ellipsis when viewed from an angle… I guess practicing my circles isn’t just a lame exercise…)
Giotto, turns out, didn’t just draw endless circles (though he must have drawn a few in his day to get so good). Though exactly who did what is hotly debated in art historian circles, this one is most likely Giotto’s work.
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St. Paul (late 1200s) by Giotto di Bondone (Giotto)
One of my favourite factoids about the painter was discovered after an analysis of his front teeth upon his death. Apparently, they were worn away in a way that indicated he had spent a lot of time clenching a paintbrush between his front teeth!
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Extraction of a Tooth by Gerrit Dou, 1630-ish
Note to self: if I ever dare to touch a paintbrush (after today’s painful experience with a pencil and a circle, I’m not sure I’ll ever get there), I will be sure to put it down when it’s not in use!! I need my teeth!!
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Alberta Schoolhouse Doorknob by E. Colin Wiliams (Here’s another painting by Dad, this one featuring several pretty good circles…)
Dad’s hot circle tip: Practice!! And… ellipses are more difficult. People think they are pointy at the ends…
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Dad sent this helpful illustration of what not to do in the ellipsis department…
Keep on drawing!! See you tomorrow…
May 11, 2018
So sweet, the return of spring… (10/365)
After a day spent buried in receipts (yuck!) [image error] it was lovely to sit outside this evening and enjoy our meal on the deck…
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Here’s to many more before the days start getting shorter…
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May 10, 2018
Elk! (Day 9/365)
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I was cycling home this afternoon, hurrying because the weather had changed for the worse in the hour or so that I’d been out, when I spotted these gals… The resident elk herd was enjoying the fresh grass right beside the main road leading into town.
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American Elk by John James Audubon, 1845
I only saw cows and youngsters, no bull with this group (I just learned that tidbit – the males are not bucks, as I would have thought…) who were eating and lounging and paying no attention to traffic or cyclists waving cameras in their direction.
For your edification, a few useless facts about elk:
There used to be 6 sub-species of elk in North America, but two are now extinct
Mature bulls can weigh more than 700 lbs (explaining why it’s such bad news when they are hit by cars on the highway)
To attract females, males urinate on themselves, soaking their hair and making sure they are nice and smelly (rather glad males of the human species don’t indulge in such delightful behaviour)
Utah has claimed the Rocky Mountain Elk as its state animal
An adult elk will eat about 20 lbs of vegetation in a day
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I’m sure the local elk are enjoying those luscious, fresh green leaves as much as I am! Spring is springing!!
What’s your favourite local wildlife species?
May 9, 2018
Christmas is Here!! (Day 8/365)
Guess what was waiting for me in my mailbox after we got home from the BVI?
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It’s the Advance Reading Copy of the newest book!! Christmas: From Solstice to Santa will be out in September, 2018 – in plenty of time for stocking stuffer season…
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That’s a somewhat younger version of me sitting on Santa’s knee…
As always, the book looks lovely thanks to the hard-working team at Orca Book Publishers! Also, a special shout out to Dani, co-author, daughter, and Christmas-lover who came up with the idea for the book waaaaaaaay back when… it’s so cool to see this inching toward final publication!
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Also waiting for me once I was back in regular contact with the virtual world was a message in my email in-box. What a relief to read the wonderful note from my editor, Sarah, who says the first draft of the book about medical assistance in dying is in reasonably good shape. By this I mean, it doesn’t look like I need to go back to the drawing board and completely rewrite everything, which is most excellent news. Of course there are all sorts of issues to have a look at, some things to move around, and a few gaps to fill, but overall, we are off to a great start with this book about our ultimate ending! (Tentative title: When the Time is Right: Choosing to Live, Choosing to Die)
All of that’s fine and dandy, but let’s get back to Christmas… and, art – which, if there’s going to be an over-arching theme to the posts over the coming months, it will likely be that… Art, I mean… not Christmas…
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Christmas at Home by Grandma Moses
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In case you have always wanted to know what Grandma Moses (1860-1961) looked like, there she is… Her full name was Anna Mary Robertson Moses and what is most inspiring about her is that she didn’t get serious about her painting until she was 78!! Which means I have decades in hand if I get my finger out and start doing some visual art now…
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I can’t say this is really art, but it probably counts as a decorative element in my journal (or, a doodle). And, yes, we did get stuck in the Puerto Rico airport for a bit as a result of an unfortunate ticketing error that had us boarding a plane bound for Tortola while we were still in the air travelling from Chicago… Obviously it all worked out ok because I’m now back in Canmore, but we did have some sweaty moments while trying to sort it all out!
I’m a bit too jet-lagged to write much more today (if you didn’t clue in based on the rambling incoherent somewhat disorganized nature of this post), but it feels good to be back, unpacked, laundry done and looking ahead to what’s coming at me over the next few weeks. Hint: more sailing, some school visits, climbing, the Camino book, art-related projects, and a bit of Shakespeare… Stay tuned!
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Calendar – 1902 by Theophile Steinlen
Note: What the heck – given I’ve now passed the 40-days-needed-to-create-a-new-habit mark, I’m going to set my daily blogging goal at 365 days and see if I can keep this streak going. Though, I wasn’t actually going to count the blog posts in April. If I counted the AtoZ posts, that would make this #38 and not #8. But really, who cares? I feel like this is the start of a new challenge embarked upon without the benefit of the inherent structure of the alphabet… and that, for some reason, feels quite daunting.
May 8, 2018
En Route – Heading Home
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Flying back from the BVI via Puerto Rico and Chicago after a week that was equal parts stressful (unfamiliar boat, mechanical problems, electrical issues, under-experienced crew, under-experienced captain, spicy winds, seasickness, sunburn) and wonderful (warm waters, quiet anchorages, beaches to explore, reefs to snorkel, shorelines to paddle along, the Baths for bouldering).
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A strange, sometimes uncomfortable bonus was spending most of the week device free, which meant meeting and chatting with people on the dock, chatting with each other, looking at the stars, feeding fish off the back of the boat, watching the sun set over the islands, going to bed early and getting up when we were done sleeping – all without being interrupted by constant beeping and buzzing and vibrating.
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The exceptions to that idyllic break came during times of crisis – engine alarms, blinking electrical panels, dead batteries, a dying engine a that triggered flurries of trouble-shooting messages on a cell phone that we kept alive with a solar panel and saved for navigation and disaster interventions.
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All that said, I learned a lot this week and challenging though it was at times, can’t wait to go back for more. Not the problems, of course, just the good stuff!
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May 7, 2018
Day 6 – Return to Peter Island
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Found some bouldering problems on Peter Island making our return to the anchorage a perfect trifecta… climbing, kayaking and snorkeling all in one day…
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Being off the grid completely for a couple of days made posting impossible and now packing to come home – will try to post more tomorrow en route.
Day 5
No power + no internet = no post
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But sometimes being offline is soooooooo much fun! The Baths, BVI – one of my favourite places on the planet!!
May 5, 2018
Cane Garden Bay (Day 4)
Well, we are certainly having our challenges on our mini boating getaway! We’ve been worried about our batteries not charging and this morning kept a close eye on gauges while we were practicing mooring ball pickups at Peter Island. The ball handling went very well with Fabio and I taking turns at the helm and on the foredeck. Alas, the engines were not putting anything back into the batteries so it was back to Manuel Reef to plug back in and get sorted out.
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Not wanting to waste the day, we rented a car and drove up and over Tortola (the roads are steep!!!!) to Cane Garden Bay where we had a picnic, swam and watched various seabirds (pelicans among them) diving for the small fish that were swimming about in the shallows with their human counterparts.
Then back to Road Town for a few more supplies before our planned early departure for The Baths tomorrow.
We will get there!
(And, more photos to come when my internet connection is a bit better)
May 4, 2018
Peter Island – eventually
A bit of a scare this morning when we tried to leave Norman Island and our port side engine died… tried troubleshooting by phone and wound up limping back to Tortola with one engine… Turns out the fix was simple – someone (yeah, quite likely me when I was checking the oil) knocked a valve on the fuel line so it was more closed than open.
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[I’ve tried several times to upload an image or two – no luck. In the interest of not skipping a day, I’ll post this without and add them later].
No serious damage done and we were off again, eventually winding up on a mooring ball very close to a small reef in Great Harbour.
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Temporarily bamboozled by an odd style of mooring ball, we entertained the neighbours by attempting several tries to snare a ball and get ourselves secured. Once we did we had just enough time to get into the water and do some snorkeling.
Then, back to the boat for a barbecued fish, a bit of lettuce and some instant mashed potatoes, which sounds pretty basic but was quite delicious.
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With any luck tomorrow will be a bit smoother (not just in terms of engine trouble but also wind – it’s been pretty breezy at 20+ knots which has made for some noisy nights…
