Hunkered down like everyone else, I’ve found comfort in doing art – I’ve kept up with my Daily Drawings and am online with the Vancouver Urban Sketchers who have started to gather together virtually. We’ve pushed the rules a bit – we’re not necessarily outside drawing the urban landscape but we’re still drawing stuff!

I’ve also been drawing my anxiety. We’re all anxious, right? And we have to find ways to deal with it like keeping in touch with friends, meditating (not enough, but anyway…), beer, (did I say beer?) and silly cartoons:

This is today’s daily drawing, by the way. And, really, I haven’t reached the official retirement age. I also know of people older than me** who appear to have the energy and vitality of people much younger.

Yesterday, the urban sketchers did “Food & Drink” and I participated by spending time drawing my lunch:

This was also my Daily Drawing. I had the time, so I spent a couple of hours on it for a change. I think I mentioned that I’m accountable to another artist for the Daily Drawing so I asked if I could include one of her Dailies in my blog. The artist is Lori Fillo and this is one of my favourites:

Stay hunkered and take care!

*This is also a good time to read and here’s a suggestion: “Love in the time of Cholera”, by Gabriel García Márquez.

** Of course I’m a fan!

I’ve just started a daily sketch exchange with another artist. There are no rules, no judgement, and you can take 5 minutes or 5 hours. You just sketch and exchange – every day. I love it. I have done a sketch every day and just not cared about being perfect, drawing well, judging my work or worrying about how much time I should spend on it to make it “better”. I just do a sketch. I did one at the office last week because I knew I had no time later. 5 minutes – that’s it. I grabbed an old piece of cardboard and a felt pen and drew the plant on the counter while I waited for my ride. One day I drew someone on the skytrain (very quickly before they noticed and became uncomfortable!) Today, at my first Urban Sketchers gathering in a while, I did three sketches! Normally, I go to one of these sessions and fret about what to draw, worry the lines and feel anxious about the result. But now – I don’t care! I just draw. I posted two of my sketches on the urban sketchers site (here’s the link). Below is a smattering of the dailies, including one of Aunt Cyn – a “sketch” after my first Tai Chi class of 2020…