Seeing

A good few years ago I used to draw things, especially with coloured chalks, and mostly trees. Time moves on and although sketching is still my preferred method of explaining an idea, and although I still love trees (they are a regular feature of our window displays at The Department), I haven't produced an actual picture for a long time.

Drawing is one of those arts that appears very simple and yet when you have a go turns out to be quite difficult. But given time, persistence and the right teacher, skills can be developed and lessons learnt and like riding a bike two of those lessons have stayed with me - seeing, and letting go.

It seems obvious that to draw something you copy what you see in front of you onto the paper, and yet so often I notice that what I see is actually the picture of that object that lives inside my head not what is actually there and so the first step becomes letting go, letting go of my preconceptions, my memories and past experiences, my idea of what the object is or ought to be and even my wish to make it that way and keep it fixed. All of it has to go, and only then can I see well enough to put the marks onto the paper.

"I never paint dreams or nightmares. I paint my own reality."

Frida Kahlo