John Berger's book Bento's Sketchbook: How does the impulse to draw something begin? has been on my night table for a long time now. It was given to my husband Kal Honey and me by our friend Phyllis Gordon, to celebrate our 2013 exhibition with Nancy Cuttle, Offence/Defence.

John Berger's classic work is Ways of Seeing, a 1972 book that was turned into a four-part series on BBC television and in both forms opened many eyes to ways of seeing in art that had nothing to do with an accurately rendered surface appearance, or even a purely modernist abstraction view.

Later, I won us tickets to see the Art of Time Ensemble's performance of I Send You This Cadmium Red, a gorgeous and affecting multimedia (live music/live spoken performance/projected visuals) theatrical production of the correspondence between John Berger and filmmaker John Christie. 

There is an excellent synopsis of the book here, which I will quote to explain the birth of the colour theme: 

“I Send You This Cadmium Red began in concept in February 1997, when Christie mused to Berger: 'What could our next project be?' Berger replied: 'Just send a color' Soon after, a painted square of cadmium red crossed the English Channel, from Christie in London to Berger in France, and an amazing conversation began.” 

The music, writing and acting were wonderful, but it was a production that brought colours (not just red) to life, through words and by presenting them abstractly as dynamic, living things on layered projection screens. 

I remarked to Kal afterward that it was the first thing I'd seen that presented me with an experience of colour that was true to the depth and vitality of my personal experience of it.

So serendipity, in the form of Phyllis, delivered me another dose of Berger, which I have neglected for too long. This is the new book for my morning routine, which I've quoted about the experience of drawing something, when you have a reference in front of you (e.g. a person, a scene, a still life). Once again he has got at the truth of it in words, which amazes me.

Speaking of words, writing is another component in my rebuilt routine, and I'll write about that next week.

Meanwhile, if you'd like to share anything about your own routine or what you wish it included, I'd love to hear about it (or anything related to this post) in the comments below!

Everyone has different gifts and consequently different challenges. It’s good to know what those are. If you just work out your strong muscles over and over again, while ignoring the weak ones, the imbalance will eventually increase to the point that it causes you some sort of injury. 

That can apply to the creative work we do, but it’s also true of our capacities in general which affect (create!) our creative lives.

It helps to figure out what your gifts are first, and sometimes they will point to your weaknesses. For example if you’re great at being spontaneous you may be less than great at planning.

I know that one of my gifts is idea generation. My sketchbooks are full of ideas that genuinely interest me, most of which are still at the idea/sketch stage. The problem is I can get overwhelmed at the execution stage... even deciding which to start with! 

For this reason one of my objectives this year is to find some people (probably young artists or art students) who would be interested in the experience of assisting a professional artist. (If you know anyone suitable, please let me know!) 

Something else I am working on is my creative routine. Routines and schedules have always felt very confining – suffocating even – although they seem necessary if we want to create a bit of healthy balance in our lives.

I decided recently that I needed to find or build systems and routines that support what I want to accomplish, that can help me overcome my weaker areas in ways that work for me. 

So, in my somewhat inconsistent, but persistent, way, I have been working on my routine, one aspect of which is that I have a book I read from every morning.

The book I started with, and just finished, is Manage Your Day-to-Day: Build Your Routine, Find Your Focus & Sharpen Your Creative Mind from the folks at 99U (who have a terrific website!). An excellent, well-designed book with contributions from numerous creative luminaries and experts. I know I will leaf through it periodically again, when I need reminders.

I’m going to read books on practice (or habits), creativity and other topics that will help me grow. Do you have any recommendations? If so, please share in the comments below so I or anyone reading this can benefit. 

I will let you know in my next post what book I’m starting next.

These shots of me drawing were taken before I bought the enormous new charcoal sticks and chunk, so I should be able to get bolder now!