But just look at these! They were made from the passenger seat of the car last summer on our return trip from north Ontario. I'm stunned by the delicacy, the quiet airiness. If anyone else had drawn them, I would say they are exquisite. Okay. They are exquisite. Enough of false modesty.
I've been making drive-by drawings for a few years now. They've changed. I no longer attempt to capture the image as I see it. I can't at 110 kilometers an hour. The image is gone by the time I've decided to draw it. Instead, my eye takes a picture. Really, like a camera. In just a few seconds, I've memorized the essential bits, internalized the essence of the scene. And from there, I improvise. There is enough similarity in the landscape for a few miles, that I simply steal a rock from here, a tree from there, a cattail from another ditch, to complete the idea. These little sketches then, are responses to the environment we whiz through so quickly. They are visual haikus.
Made in Strathmore Visual Journal Drawing sketchbook with Pigma Micron pens.