The other day, my husband and I sat on the couch with our dinners and watched a documentary on Queen Elizabeth II. The Prince of Wales narrated it, and most of the documentary focused on the royal family commenting on old home movies. The home movies were cool to watch because they showed a side of royalty rarely seen: kids having pillow fights and jumping in raked leaves and burying each other in beach sand, a teenaged princess making goofy faces over tea, an older queen having a picnic with her family and their multitude of corgis. But what struck me most was how Elizabeth and her sister and cousins, as well as her children and grandkids, spent so much of their time outdoors.
I’m an outdoorsy person by nature, but living in the Pacific Northwest has dampened the enthusiasm to stick my head outside for much of the year. The drizzling, cold rains and stern grey skies tend to order me back inside, and it isn’t until summer when the clouds finally skedaddle and the sun blazes across the sky that I’ll finally poke my nose out of my hidey-hole like a groundhog and make darn sure warmer weather is here to stay before I venture out in it.
This weekend is the first truly glorious weekend we’ve had: warm, blue, just a slight breeze. And I’ve decided that I must spend as much time as I can out in this spectacular weather, and both write and paint outdoors. My normal writing and, unfortunately, painting spot is on the couch in front of the TV, in horrible dim light. Writing in that sort of environment isn’t too bad, but whenever I paint on the couch and then later take my work outside to photograph it, I realize what a detriment it is to paint in such horrid conditions. So now that the weather is cooperating, I’m painting outside.
We drove down to Gig Harbor yesterday. Gig Harbor is a beautiful little port town, and I produced a couple of watercolor sketches of town and one with Mount Rainier looming above it in all its snowy glory. I have to admit, I omitted the plethora of boats from the scenes because it was just too darn tedious for me to sketch ‘em all in.
Today, I’m painting at a little park on Kitsap Lake, a deep glacial lake surrounded by houses green forest. Instead of painting the scenery here though, I’ve moved my workshop outdoors onto a picnic bench, and I’m cranking out watercolors based on old Japanese woodblock paintings. Not very original, but I’m taking these to a Japanese animation convention at the end of July, and anything Japanese sells at that type of convention.
I’m also writing this blog post as I sit and get my Vitamin D and wait for each layer of watercolor to dry. And, I plan to lie on the grass and read, and maybe work on a short story or two. And even though I know my allergies won’t thank me for these outdoor excursions (but hey, that’s what they invented Claritin for!) and I might get a sunburn or two since I always seem to forget the sunscreen, there’s something about being outside that makes you feel fantastic. Especially when it isn’t to hot or mosquito-y, and you have a peanut butter and jelly sandwich to eat for lunch.
Plus, look at this view. There’s nothing like beautiful scenery to spark creativity!
So be like the Queen and get outside. My new motto is to not sit on the couch but get outdoors as much as possible. The endorphins you get when that sun hits your face is enough to get the creative juices flowing (as long as it isn't mind-boggingly hot out there). Even if it's too hot to paint or write outside, a stroll through cool woods or a bike ride around the neighborhood will waken the artistic senses and give the brain the boost it needs to get crackin' with the creative stuff.