Park benches

Being the completionist that I am, I always have one project or another on the go. I’ve written already about my reading and walking challenges but my latest is around drawing. This was one of the things I wanted to get better at once I retired and I have practised every day over the last few months. Am I getting better? I guess so then does it really matter, these are personal challenges. I set the rules and reap the rewards. It’s up to me if I think things are improving.

The idea for this latest challenge came from Lynne through an annual A to Z blogging challenge in which she sits down and draws what she sees in and around her home city of Peterborough. My idea, which has been on the boil for a few years now, is to sit down on every bench in Morpeth, my home town, and draw what I see. The aim is not to draw with great accuracy but rather to capture the essence of what I see.

I’ve made a start but, as with all such challenges, that is when the fun begins. It is all a question of definition. What counts as a bench or not? How many people does it need to sit? Does it need to be outside or inside? Does it need to be on public or private land? And where does Morpeth start and finish?

These questions may seem trivial, as indeed they are, yet can be confusing. For example, there is a shopping centre in the centre of the town with a number of benches, yet the land is privately owned. Will I count these? Also the station has a number of benches on the platform. Do these count as in the station or outside? Then there is what to do with multiple benches. The station, for example, has at least eleven on its platforms. Do I draw what I see from each one, even though the views may be quite similar? What if a bench gets moved?

I think I am overthinking this, yet that is an accusation often levelled at me. I have decided that a bench is a seat of more than one person, that is open to the elements and is available for the public to sit on and is located somewhere within the town boundaries as defined by public records. That should do it.

Anyway, I just have to get on with them. I have done two and have no idea how many I have left to go.