Imaginary passages, stones, and flowers
Dear Sarah - Day 156 of our daily drawing exchange
June 4, 2025
Dear Nikki,
Today has been a good day for both writing and drawing.
I have been trying to figure out a way to write about Rose's recovery on the island without being tedious, so I put her in a one-sided phone conversation with Polly, who wants her to come back to New York. This gives Rose a chance to talk about how she's feeling about lots of things: the island, Cass, Liam, being stabbed, PTSD, therapy, Anton etc. Kind of verbal journaling (mirroring Cass's actual journaling).
I drew the U-Pick bouquet again (with fewer flowers--some didn't last long) and I'm really happy with what I've done so far--even without adding colour, I think it captures the essence of the flowers. I then tried (twice) to do a loose watercolour of the opening peony (not shown because the results were not good)! I have decided to follow a really good series of watercolour tutorials on YouTube rather than waste any more paper or pigment on producing muddy, blobby paintings.
Today's online drawing exercise was cool--draw a bunch of random large-ish wobbly shapes and fill the spaces between them with smaller and smaller wobbly shapes and then darken the final empty spaces. Now I know how to draw a stone wall, or a cobblestoned street. Yay!
Had tea with a friend, went for a walk, found a free large red flowerpot, which I carried to the grocery where I bought some salmon for dinner. Much better day than yesterday.
Hope your day had some moments of goodness!
XO S
Dear Sarah -
Your days sounds pretty darn good… I won’t go into mine as it wasn’t super productive due to some miscommunication and wrapped up with a condo board meeting.
Did manage to get out for a quick walk down Main Street, which is alive with visitors at the moment.
Have been thinking a lot about the ways in which structures guide us from here to there. Bridges, of course - to provide a way to get over an obstacle. One of the readings in the psychogeography directed reading course mentioned the covered walkways of Paris. That reminded me of a book I have on my shelf and that made me think of how such passages are protected ways under, through, and between.
They are magical spaces and it is so sad that many were destroyed when Paris streets were rearranged.
I am very excited about exploring some of the passages during our trip in the fall… and, if I am feeling brave, I think it would be very cool to try to put one-point perspective to work in situ… (should probably take a ruler along to at least get the guidelines straight). Meanwhile, though, I imagined myself entering such a passage and did this quick sketch.
Looking forward to tomorrow -
Nikki