There are some days that you don't snooze the alarm-clock. There are some days that you wake up with a tickle, smile on your lips, a song in your heart. I woke up humming Denver's "Country Roads" and withing an hour, took to the Valley's country roads, with my drawing book and art-supplies in tow!
I've walked these roads earlier - but never in sunny mornings, and never ever with a satchel of drawing supplies. As promised to myself, I'd stopped at the first instance that something caught my fancy - it was this tree. I've simply not been able to do it's curves the justice. It wasn't luxurious or majestic - simply elegant.
What was majestic, though sparse, was this scene, replete with the famous "Three Sisters" rocks (see top-left corner), extremely beautiful rock formations and the ephemeral play of sun-and-clouds and light-and-shade. What could be more inspiring! A set of 12 colour pencils initially made me want to reach out for the oil pastels box like the previous one, but the lure of the softness and the precision that pencils give was too much to trespass. I wanted to capture the shadows of the clouds on paper - the darker patch on the left hill is a vain attempt at that. It was a great learning experience in elimination of certain details for the sake of the larger picture.
The big black ants got used to me after I brushed them away 50 times. I must confess, the smiles of the passerby villagers was intriguing - thank God I still don't know what to make of those grins! As the first one, the final outcome does not do justice to the beauty and the serenity of the place. But you know what? I'm grinning from ear o ear for the sheer fact that I did my first "outdoors" today!
