quietly creating

Barbara Wanhill

recent posts

  • Reasons for a system of practice

    Last night I was looking for something and came across one of the sketchbooks I promised myself I would get back to this summer. It was 9:30pm but I proceeded: 15-20 minutes of drawing. By the end, I was half-asleep. Again, not my best effort… not particularly excited about it either. This morning, I defiantly added some Micron and felt better about it.

    There would have been a time for me that this was not good enough to share. Some say: why keep doing something if you don’t like to do it? (I have asked myself this!) But I think it is important to follow through. The process of making art takes work and practice – even if one is not up to it and even when it doesn’t look the best.

    I think I have outgrown this sketchbook to be honest, but I’ll continue to chip away at it as a convenient way to document the botanicals in my life. I notice my interests in mark making have changed. It also holds a record of the last four years and is a good way to see where I’ve been keen to draw and when life/distractions/duties have intervened.

    Included, a few pages illustrating drawings I’ve done over the years. This idea for a perpetual journal came from the phenomenal botanical artist, Lara Gastinger. I am grateful for her sharing and have made peace with the fact I will never have the patience (or eye sight!) to draw the way she does.

    All drawings, B. Wanhill. 2018-2022.

  • Astrantia, digital play

    In the mid ’90s I temporarily lost a contact lens while trying to focus my unblinking eye on a now forgotten object in a back alley in Kelowna. No tripod, a basic SLR Ricoh and determination to get as crisp a shot as possible. Another image for a class assignment… I did enjoy taking photos, not so much the darkroom.

    Today: smudges on my glasses, one lens of my progressives better for seeing close-up than the other and an “old” Canon EOS Rebel T3i. No class assignment, a Saturday morning in the back garden, 30ºC and the elegant Astrantia. Thanks to the immediacy of digital, I’m practicing seeing through photography again. Light and shadow are marvellous aren’t they?

    Astrantia major. All photos, B. Wanhill July 2022. Canon T3i

  • Understanding

    When my dad died I didn’t get a chance to say good-bye. I didn’t get a chance to apologize for things I didn’t say or know how to say. I have regrets.

    The last three years have been mentally hard. My work situation has been challenging. I have been working hard to work things out. I haven’t been easy to be around. I also know that I can be strong, creative, caring, and will figure it out.

    To understand me is to understand that I have connections with my dad through the natural world. This little patch of nature I have created in our back alley reminds me of the large spaces we had as kids to freely roam. I am grateful to my parents for giving us that and so much more.

    I miss those spaces and I miss my dad.

    Solidago, Fragaria virginiana and Achillea have been joined by chives and Liatris. B. Wanhill. June 2022. Canon T3i
    Sisyrinchium montanum flowers open in the sunshine and this plant is slowly making itself at home in the back alley.
    Townsendia parryi has established itself at the back gate and spreads fairly easily by seed. It blooms in its second year.
    Tragopogon dubius is not native to Alberta but has shown up to join a few dandelions and other common weeds.