Drawing. I do it. I'm working on a small drawing about 10in x10in. of some long dead lilies. Looking down. It's very difficult. I wear the difficulty as a criticism of my competence. I travel hopefully but bearing in mind potential disaster. Even the slightest change in my position changes relationships throughout the subject. Sometimes I cannot tell if I have made a mistake, or if the subject really looks like that. It takes me back to teaching. I felt always that the value in learning to draw was to be found in the resultant ability to look, to question, to take nothing for granted. So the child's ultimate ability to describe something 'accurately' was second to his/her growing capacity to challenge and wrestle with preconceptions. Similarly in teachers' relationships with children. Our initial position and our ability to shift and to see anew is vital.
I have done some more to one of the grey paintings. I was trying to 'whisper' the vase of roses onto the canvas; it is difficult not to shout sometimes when I cannot make my point. The pit of sentimentality threatens. I try to stay away.
