Getting there

For me, it has always been about the journey rather than the destination. I know this sounds like a cliche yet I don’t mean the physical act of traveling somewhere but rather the movement from one particular position to another. At work I was far more interested in seeing movement towards a desired objective rather than necessarily getting there. In life there is no certainty and in many ways there is no end. To travel hopefully is a better thing than to arrive, as they say.

Even now that I am away from work, I still take a similar approach. Some of the challenges I have set myself are not about getting to a fixed point but rather to enjoy travelling along the way. Walking up the Wansbeck is a case in point. I will get to the source eventually yet it is the pleasure of seeing new things and being out in the open that was the real point. The destination is just an excuse. My reading books from around the world is another. I won’t stop reading when I get to the end, indeed I already have a couple of other things in mind.

It is my drawing though that I wanted to talk about. When I retired, I felt that I could doodle a bit but couldn’t draw properly, whatever that means. I took some lessons which taught me some of the rudimentaries and, more importantly, showed me the kind of drawing that I was happiest with. I want to be more of an illustrator.

Since then I have been practicing on a fairly regular basis, looking for suitable illustrations on the Internet and copying them in my work book. Some have been awful while others have been, though I say it myself, pretty good. For some reason I have focussed on animal heads and have drawn a very acceptable horse, zebra and elephant. Yet it is my sheep that has got me excited, not that it is particularly good though it is clearly identifiable as ovine. This is the first time that I have drawn something successfully from a photograph rather than a drawing. This is a major leap forward for me.

My drawing is still work in progress yet my direction of travel is definitely forward and that pleases me no end.