21 May 2011 - Late

Catching up to Four-year-olds.

About thirty years ago my friend Ruth reported what her 4 year old grandson said while they were drawing together.  He stopped drawing and bounced around enthusiastically telling her all the things he knew how to draw; "I can draw a house, and a tree, and the sun, and a truck, and a boat, and a firetruck...and...and...I can draw anything I see!"  We realized that he truly understood what drawing was about - and then some.  When I drew this, I realized that I had now caught up with this 4-year-old!  How exciting!  I can draw anything I have seen - and some things I have not.

Heading North out of Lunenburg

I drew this just before going to sleep, to settle myself before turning out the light light as I was quite wound up from a very social day of visiting or meeting up with people I hadn't seen over the winter.  This was the Victoria Day weekend, the start of summer - not that the weather was summery.  Nevertheless, this weekend always brings a return to sociability after months of hibernation.

This is what I saw when I lived on the South Shore (of Nova Scotia) when driving from Lunenburg to Highway l03 or continuing north to the valley, where I now live.  I've always loved all those rolling hills spreading out before me as I come down this hill; the Mammary Hills I call those two on the right.  When I lived there I'd tried to draw this as it appeared to me, but could never fit the view onto a page, and a big canvas didn't make it any more possible:  the loomingness of these hills was lost when I attempted to put it into "standard" one-point perspective.  Then, last Saturday evening that grand computer in my head clicked in, opened a lost program for my imagination, and retrieved the file folder make this drawing.  One among the myriad of wonderful things human brains can accomplish...and none ever exactly the same.