Learn to enjoy your pencil.

“I sometimes think there is nothing so delightful as drawing.”

Vincent Van Gogh

“I love the quality of a pencil, it helps me get to the core of a thing.”

Andrew Wyeth

For me it is a Blackwing pencil, there is pleasure in just putting marks on paper with no thought of creating a masterpiece. It really is the easiest way to capture a moment.

Pencil is a great way to capture random ideas that could one day become paintings – this one is for an oil painting I am doing.

It is pretty easy to always have a pencil and sketchbook with you.

The Blackwing with the green point protector has a built-in sharpener, it is Faber Castell’s Perfect Pencil. I have carried these since I bought my first one many years ago at a Paris art store near the Pantheon. The other is from Blackwing – pencil, protector, and sharpener.

As I write this it has come to my attention that Google changed the name of the Gulf of Mexico to Gulf of America. I can’t believe it. I deleted Google Maps, which was by far my favorite but Apple Maps is now my go-to. For years I have pondered changing my email from Gmail since they collect so much data, now with the government so aggressively seeking our personal data I wonder if I should change my email as well, but that is such a big challenge, we shall see.