Canada Lake

I'm sitting on a dock early in the morning drawing the water and the distant hills. Two specks float into my field of view. What are they? Small birds perhaps …or a loon maybe?

They are two insanely small spiders about a foot from my nose and they are parachuting through space from a tree on the shore. They do not know fear. It's that simple. I think they are unable to experience this emotion which I am all-too familiar with. They just cast out a line and step out on the morning currents. What if they land in the water? In the grand scale of evolutionary time, the fact that a wooden dock or a human (me) is there to intercept these spiders, is completely undependable.

At least one of the spiderlings was lucky: I saw it scuttling away on the page of my sketchbook. I blew a little and sent it on its merry way.

As dawn gave way to morning, the lake became the stage for other animals on different errands. These boaters motored along like arrows to get bread, milk and the newspaper from the local store at the far end of the lake. Their only problem, from a cosmic perspective is that they knew where they were going. What if they, like the spiders, stepped out on the currents and let the breezes take them to a new shore? Could they walk on water like Jesus?

Nice day for a walk!

Canada Lake 08-17-11
© 2011 Rob Dunlavey
colored pencil

Colored Pencils

I'm having fun drawing with colored pencils this summer. They're portable and I carry a pocket knife to sharpen them. I have an old plastic tray filled to the top with these pencils; I'll never run out.



I've inherited many different colored pencil sets over the years. Some are quite nice and of high quality. Many are run of the mill cast-offs from my kids. There was a while where for every birthday party we had (the ones where the parents of the birthday guests think of and buy the presents) my daughters received comprehensive "art kits". These sets included magic markers, crayons or pastels, some lackluster watercolor cakes and a rainbow assortment of colored pencils. So, yes it's true, I can count Toys R Us and the local CVS pharmacy among the more respectable art material suppliers (Dick Blick, Pearl Paint and even Sennelier).



Here's a smattering of what my febrile brain came up with in the land of colored pencils last week while I was on a short visit in New York's Adirondack Park:

Stream, Kane Mountain, New York (colored pencil)

Stream, Kane Mountain, New York (colored pencil)

I've found colored pencils to be perfect for these nature studies I've been focusing on this summer. The soft creamy texture seems to be pretty forgiving; I never carry an eraser.

shy alligator (inspired by Alain Lachartre "Les crocos")

Lighter than air machine

I'm liking this diagrammatic style. Perceptive readers will detect DNA from Richard McGuire and Blexbolex. Just giving credit where credit is due.