It’s been a busy old month at Chez Beckford. Between projects and challenges and the daily grind, it’s been hard to find a moment to sit down and record it all, but things are finally starting to slow down, so here’s a quick roundup of what’s been happening. Running for MS research I mentioned in…
Category: Art
Writing escapes and French breaks
Tempus fugit to the max! I could hardly believe my eyes when I looked at the date of my last post and saw it was somewhere back in the foggy beginnings of March. Has it really been six weeks since I went to London? Surely not! There is something rather odd about how time moves…
Back to Basics
It’s been a hot minute, but here we are, back to the basics of good old fashioned blog writing. No matter how many fancy new platforms I try, I always end up back at this place. Back on my self-hosted, self-controlled website; back to the roots of what words mean to me. Last year in…
Sitting with thoughts
I decided to take a couple of weeks away from the blog, not from a lack of ideas, but from a need to sit and think about some big concepts and feelings I am having about my work and about creativity in general. So, instead of finding words to describe all of these thoughts, I…
The Highs and Lows of Life Drawing
Over the past year, though, I have noticed a change. Call it a personal maturation, or a solidifying of something. I find I no longer feel the same joy of discovery in throwing everything at a page in a creative frenzy. I want to slow down. I want to finesse. I want to hone my technique. So, I have started to taking life drawing and portrait classes.
Creative reciprocity
I almost wasn’t going to post anything this week. I’ve been dragging my heels, writing wise, over the past few days because of a whole bunch of life stuff that took up a lot of time. This means I have had little energy to sit down in front of the computer to put anything into type. But when I can’t write the best thing to do is dive into my sketchbook to get the creative juices going, so this morning I joined a couple of friends on zoom for a bit of sketchbook practice.
Going Gaga for Gouache
I have always considered myself pretty polyamorous when it comes to art media. Paints, pastels, markers, charcoal, pencils, ink: I have loved them all. I even flirt with a bit of collage from time to time. But I have never felt a particularly strong affection for one over the others…until now.
Why running is like art
I like to run. It’s the one form of exercise that I consistently return to after falling off the taking-care-of-my-health wagon for the umpteenth time. I do not run fast. I do not take part in races (anymore) and my maximum distance is 15km. But I do really like to run. A couple of days ago, as I was plodding along in kilometre six of a ten kilometre trail, it suddenly occurred to me that running is a lot like writing or making art.
Pondering Pigeons in Paint
Last Friday I received an invitation from a friend in my weekly art group to join in Emma Carlisle’s 3rd Patreon birthday bash. This was a lovely suprise! I’ve followed Emma Carlisle for a while because I love her illustrative style and the way she presents her process. So, on Friday evening I sat at my desk, my Zoom app open and ready to go, and my trusty drawing kit close at hand. It’s been a while since I’ve done any sketching, so I was looking forward to seeing what we would do.