Happy New Year!

I have been thinking of Picasso's white doves lately. I am not sure if it is because I am trying to chose a word of the year, world events or because white doves are also often seen on Happy New Years cards this time of year.

The simple lines of Picasso's doves carry a pretty powerful message. We associate white doves with peace because of Picasso. It started with his piece Guernica (1937) that he painted after the Nazi's bombed the Basque city of Guernica during the Spanish Civil War. This piece was a pretty powerful anti-war image.

At the end of WWII, he was asked to paint a piece to represent Peace. For this, he painted "Dove of Peace," a simple line drawing of an earlier more naturalistic rendering of a dove given to him by Matisse. This painting was chosen to represent the First International Peace Conference in Paris in 1949. He revisited doves a number of times since.

For today's practice, I downloaded a few images of his doves. I selected some Daler Rowney FW ink in Payne's Grey and Sepia. I wanted to use a thicker paper than my normal sketchbook paper, so used Canson Cold Press Watercolor paper from my supply stash and this bamboo dip pen I received in an art studio haul this summer. I made loads of fat and thin lines that I didn't expect to make while I learned how to use the pen.

I included this bird in my newsletter because it is a sketchbook drawing and it is not perfect. It represents where I am today, 31 December 2024. I am exploring media and using supplies that used to intimidate me and know that it is ok to make mistakes. I am learning after all.

I enjoyed the process and after a few tries I became more confident using these supplies. I look forward to sharing more pieces that I create over the next year.

Thank you for reading!