respite

I follow a lot of art-related twitter accounts.

Museums and galleries, around the world.

People who post specific artists' work or periods of art.

And many, many artists.

I've "met" some wonderful artists - 

painters, sculptors, printmakers and woodworkers - 

on twitter.

And it's all good fun.

Recently the Royal Academy of Arts began posting cues for a "daily doodle" as a tiny respite to the ongoing pandemic grimness. The first one I saw was:

That made me laugh, so I looked around for a pen.

It took me longer to find the pen than to draw this ferret:

I don't see the RA cues every day, but today was:

This time, I welcomed a reason to focus for a little while.

That is one of the best things about Daily Markmaking in general:

while I'm doing it, I'm not doing anything else.

My attempt at the New England Cottontail (Sylvilagus transitionalis). This is the native rabbit once common throughout much of New England, now rarely seen due to habitat loss. I'm not sure I've ever seen one. I'd have to be very close to tell the New England Cottontail from the Eastern Cottontail. That little black mark on this one's head, and the black edge on the ears? Two possible identifiers.

~~~

I hope you are finding ways to feel happy and productive amidst the very real danger the whole world is affected by at the moment. Do you have particular ideas to share in the comments?

Which reminds me...

numerous people have pointed out that the term "social distancing" was an unfortunate choice and I agree. It is inaccurate: we are required to be "physically distanced" but are very much able to be "socially engaged." Comptonia has long been a substantial part of my own social engagement. I'm very glad that you choose to make it a small part of yours.

~~~~~