 |
Hubby in a borrowed kayak
before the rains |
Rain, at last! Not much yet today, but more will arrive by
nightfall. Western Washington has endured a shockingly dry summer. Sure, I
could have said “enjoyed” instead of “endured, but it’s so unusual, it feels
weird. Our “endless” summer started July
1 and ended today with the first autumn drizzle.
You can almost hear a sigh of content from the flora . . . as
the cushion of moisture snuggles up against the evergreen needles and deciduous
leaves to bring relief after the more than one hundred days without noticeable rainfall.
The river that runs by our home is lower than we remember
seeing it, without its usual intake of runoff. There’s enough cracked mud along
its shoulders for dogs to romp when their masters let them off the leash to
chase thrown sticks, and the blue herons that regularly stand knee deep in the
water as they wait for fish now stand in water only ankle deep. Although our
lack of rain is not officially a “drought,” it has affected every living thing.
The weatherman tells us to brace ourselves for a deluge headed
our way tonight. Although I hope he’s wrong about how much precipitation to expect, I know I
will love the sound of rain on the roof when I awaken in the middle of the
night. After all, I’m a native of western Washington.
Once a month the Wall Street
Journal puts out a glossy, full-color magazine called (unoriginally) VSJ Magazine. It’s included in the last
Saturday of the month’s newspaper in subscriptions to the daily WSJ. Filled
with high fashion photography and full page ads from companies, such as Tiffany
& Co., Hermes, Saint Laurent, Dolce & Gabbana, it reflects a reality that is entirely off my
radar. I generally pitch it into the recycle bin without looking at it.
Recently, though, I’ve discovered something fun I can do
with it—sketch! As a dabbling artist, I have spent untold classroom dollars to
utilize the models that art classes provide. Now I am taking advantage of the abundance of full page photographs
accompanying the ads and stories about today’s fashion trends (and trend setters). With more models
than I can use, I can practice finding light and shadow on faces and bodies. Here
are a few of my October drawings. All are done with a #2 pencil. Soon I will pull out my pencil box in which I
have pencils of varying hardness—so I can eventually depict many more shades of
grey. Not fifty, mind you . . . but maybe twelve.
