Where Am I?

This wasn’t a vacation, it wasn’t a work trip, and it wasn’t a family vacation. It was a different thing altogether. This year I’ve put a lot of thought into where my work comes from and why I paint what I paint, so when we arrived, I was super-aware of how I was experiencing this place, but also trying to ease into it since we were going to be there for so long. I was also overwhelmed with the sketching possibilities. Everywhere I looked there were interesting landscapes, cool rocks, new-to-me plants, and BOATS!

So I kind of surprised myself when, instead of easing into it by sketching coffee cups or everyday items around the house, I went ahead and sketched the big hill that loomed over us across the body of water outside of our house.

The spot we were staying in was on The Narrows, which connects St. John’s Bay with St. John’s Harbour. The hill across from it is Signal Hill, and no picture we took did it justice – it was a presence we could feel at all times. We watched the sun move across it all day, we watched people hiking on it, we heard the cannon go off at least once every day (that was fun). And the water – I always have to think really hard about drawing water. Is it a color? Is it a shape?

When I went to New Zealand earlier this year (I know – isn’t it funny that we went to New Zealand and Newfoundland in the same year?), I had this one big grounding experience that helped me know what to do with myself while I was there. I still made crappy sketches, but that’s all part of the process.

In St. John’s, over the four weeks, I had this as a series of experiences – walking and suddenly it was like the landscape would come into focus and I could really see and know the differences in the plants and the sounds and the light and air around me. And being three-fourths through a hike and feeling a connection to the earth I was walking on as all distractions fell away. And landing on my sweet spot of sketching materials a week and a half into the trip.

I ended up sketching the hill a lot. These three are out of a total of nine, and are just from the first week. I can still see the hill when I close my eyes.