So many times, on my daily walks in and around our neighborhood, I’m thinking, “Gosh, I wish I had my sketchbook!”  I see so many things, big and small, tangible and intangible, that I want to get down on paper, to remember, to honor, to chronicle.  But alas, the difficulty lies in whether I want my walks to be more exercise oriented, or more laid-back and sketch oriented. Typically, I choose the exercise, and then tell myself I’ll come back later to draw one or two of the several things I noted for drawing.

But do I go back? A day has a way of rolling forward and not allowing a return trip.  Or, when I DO return, the light has changed, the leaf has blown away, it just isn’t the same.

So, I’ve taken to coming back home and getting down, from memory, those things that captivated me along the route.  It’s kinda cool…to sketch out briefly the little beauties I found on my walk.  In  many ways, the sketches from memory are free from the constraints of “gotta get it right”, and from all the distracting details my eye would have to wade through to draw only the thing that captured me.  When you draw from memory, your mind’s eye has already done the weeding out, and you’re left with a more focused drawing.

I’m hoping to walk today…perhaps you can too.  And then afterwards, sketch the things you saw, the lovelies strewn along the way.

I believe it may be the highest purpose of art…to capture, translate, and then share with others, the lovelies strewn along our paths.