Weather Diary - Introduction

In March, 2006, I had the opportunity to travel to Ocracoke Island, off the coast of North Carolina, to live and work at my art. (This was actually a 50th birthday gift from my husband Doug Brown, the only one who knew of my desire to become a hermit in order to produce some new work.)
I wanted to focus on drawing, using materials which I hadn't used in a while - primarily oil pastels, watercolour pencils, chalks, and graphite.
I set off on my month-long pilgrimage with these materials, and lots of drawing paper.
It is a seventeen hour drive from Peterborough Ontario to Ocracoke NC. I was to live in a cottage, (sight unseen), in the village, just me and our three year old black lab, Chester.
It was, I can now admit, a bit hard at first. There didn't seem to be many people about, (it still being the off season), and I was more than a little anxious about the flimsy screened windows and door locks.
However, it wasn't long before I felt the rhythm of island life. I wanted solitude so as to work without distraction. Yes, I had that. And, I wanted the sea.
Whatever was happening with regard to my artwork and the weather, each day included a long ramble on the glorious Ocracoke Island beach, the wide open Atlantic-facing expanse of bliss.
This daily beach walk led to the creation of a series of works entitled 'Weather Diary', one-a-day drawings infused with the sea, sand, dunes and wild moody skies - the elements - that found their way into me.
The upcoming entries of 'Weather Diary' tell this story.