Lamy Safari fountain pen | Elizabeth Fram

But first — happy news this past week! I had the wonderful opportunity to meet and chat with painter Tessa Greene O’Brien, who generously took an afternoon off from her residency at the Vermont Studio Center for a studio visit here with me. Tessa is organizing an exhibition at Able Baker Contemporary in Portland, ME this June/July, which will be based on the work of a number of artists who take a formal and painterly approach to their work while incorporating textiles in some form. I am very honored and excited to have been invited to participate! Stay tuned for further details as they unfold.

Meanwhile, it’s that time of the year again. The seasons are changing and my “number came up”, meaning it was my turn to contend with a head cold. Enough time has passed since my last one that I have no right to complain, but it’s hard to be stoic when it feels like your head is filled with socks and that you’re dragging the equivalent of Jacob Marley’s chains from room to room. I know you know the feeling.

I’m fortunate it didn’t last long, and I am grateful that the combo of a sketchbook and a pen make for a great diversion. You can’t spend too much time concentrating on how miserable you feel when your brain is busy comparing the space between shapes and getting a curve “just so”.

I continue to be challenged by the relatively wide line of my Lamy Safari fountain pen. Crosshatching and creating a sense of form with a much finer .01 Micron nib is comparatively effortless, producing lines that seem to be naturally more energetic. The thicker stroke of the Safari feels decidedly more awkward and necessitates thinking more in terms of variety of mark and pattern in order to achieve values and textural interest.

Drawing with this pen is a whole different ball game and one that doesn’t come particularly easily to me. But I’m determined to stick with it for two reasons: 1) it’s the only pen I have that glides smoothly (without wearing down), over the relatively rough paper of my Classic Cachet sketchbook… & I still have 1-1/2 sketchbooks of this paper yet to fill! And 2) I’m committed to making it work and hope that by putting in the hours I’ll achieve some level of proficiency. After three months of pretty much daily practice, I’m beginning to see some faint glimmers of progress, but I still have a long way to go.

I am reminded of my past post The Reward of Getting it Wrong, in which I wrote about Kathleen Speranza acknowledging that you have to make many, many pieces in order to glean a handful of successes. She estimates she achieves about a 50% success rate; I am way behind that.

But being cozied up on the sofa with the dog, a cup of tea, and a box of kleenex nearby is not only as good a time as any to log in some practice, but also my best suggestion for getting ahead of a pesky cold.

If I had to list the most endearing aspect of my treadmill, it’s that it eliminates any guilt surrounding watching art videos first thing on a weekday morning. I’ve seen enlightening and inspiring documentaries and learned from numerous skilled teachers while jogging away — definitely the spoonful of sugar that helps the medicine go down. A few of my favorites are listed below.

©2017 Elizabeth Fram Even though this pen has a “fine” nib, it is much thicker than I prefer. I struggle with its boldness, missing the nuance of a finer line while trying to keep each shape from appearing too “cartoon-y”

It’s interesting that I seem to have a hard time maintaining attention with prolonged video instruction if I’m just sitting, but if I’m moving I’m totally captivated. (There has to be some sort of scientific study on that subject). Anyway, even better, anything art-related tends to take the pain and boredom out of my running-to-nowhere workout, making it unexpectedly anticipation-worthy .

One of my holiday requests this year was Charles Reid’s English Watercolour Sketchbook DVD (thank you Stu!). If you’re not familiar with Reid, check him out. His work is loose, yet masterful; I am in awe of both his drawing skills and his use of color. I’ve learned a lot from his books, but nothing quite compares to watching over someone’s shoulder as they work. He articulates what he’s doing, as he’s doing it, with just enough repetition that core ideas sink in and stay.

Reid repeatedly drills home the idea of creating lost and found edges within a work, stressing the importance of continually moving back and forth between the subject and the background in order to find and make connections and escape routes throughout the piece as you progress. It has been one of the most valuable tips ever, and one that I try to keep in the back of my mind at all times.

Necessity has provided me with a fertile learning ground to practice and find fresh solutions to this principle. I have a new sketchbook with paper that, while smooth to the touch, has a tooth that wreaks havoc on the tips of the .01 Micron pens that have been my go-to tool for several years. To get around the problem, I’m using my Lamy Safari fountain pen which isn’t bothered by the rough surface. However, it makes a much wider line that, while great for playing with marks and pattern, has put me back to square-one in figuring out how I can manipulate it to achieve values and find ways to create the breaks and overlaps that Reid advocates, while simultaneously maintaining a sense of form.

For now, it’s a bit of a steep learning curve. I know I need to keep at it in order to make progress, when it would be so much easier to revert to my comfortable old pens on familiar paper. But, just like the darned treadmill, if I commit to it and find a way to keep it interesting, I know the rewards will be worth it in the end.

*A few suggestions:

Painter – Caio Fonseca
American Masters series from PBS
Assorted Craftsy art courses, especially those by Marc Taro Holmes, Shari Blaukopf, and Stephanie Bowers
Sabra – Vermont printmaker Sabra Field

Elizabeth Fram

Eye of the Needle

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