Porch Sitting

When I was 10, the bookmobile came near my house. I always brought home all the books than I could carry and stacked them on the front porch next to my favorite chair. Even though I knew there would be no more for two weeks, I read them all in just a few days while shifting into the kinds of contortionist positions I can only dream of now. I went to worlds beyond my imagination in those marvelous books. Now I don't have to wait two weeks for the bookmobile, I can make the trip to the main library which is just five blocks away and I still have stacks of books by my chair.

Fifty years later, I discovered another way into imaginary worlds and now I spend way too many hours on my computer soaking up images from museums, having conversations with artists and dreaming of places I'd like to go. And, with a laptop, it can all be done on the front porch.

One of my most used sites is Artcyclopedia.com Its statistics show 8,407 artists listed; 2,278 art sites indexed; and access to about 180,000 works of art. And now, I've discovered that I can have the Art News page connected to my blog subscriptions -- more worlds -- does it get any better? I think I'm a kid again!

Comment: This fast loose sketch (4.5" x 5.5") was done with a simple pen and a waterbrush while I was waiting for friends. I was interested in the reflections in the door, the black-green wicker and the swing chain, so perspective is mostly OFF and the chair just got in the way.

Tiny Lessons Learned

I learned a lot from these four baby sketches -- each is 2" x 2" and was timed for 5 minutes. I learned
--that it is not easy to get good depth in such a small space,
--that I don't like to do chairs,
--that looking up is harder than looking out and
--that sometimes 5 minutes is too long; other times it's not enough.