I learnt the term ‘mark making’ from my daughters’ playgroup, referring to the scribbles and patterns that preschoolers make as they learn to draw and write and express themselves. Since then, I have also heard artists use the term mark making instead of drawing, which can be too limiting. I have revisited my own mark making after a hiatus of more than 20 years.
Until fairly recently I believed that creativity and artistic talent were God given gifts bestowed only on a few and that the rest of us were destined to be admirers from afar. But then a friend recommended reading Betty Edwards’ ‘Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain’. In it Edwards insists that we are all capable of expressing ourselves artistically, it is simply a skill to be learnt just as we learn to read and write and ride a bike.
And so I gave it a go. I am fascinated by the concept of really ‘seeing’ something. To draw someone’s portrait is such an intimate experience and to sit and really study the branch of a tree is mesmerising. It’s a privilege that few of us allow ourselves.
