“One of the gifts of being a writer is that it gives you an excuse to do things, to go places and explore. Another is that writing motivates you to look closely at life, at life as it lurches by and tramps around.”
— Anne Lamott, from introduction to “Bird by Bird”
Substitute “painter” for “writer”.
Remember that “places” need not be far away, nor unfamiliar (think Monet and his pond).
A few days in the year, the view from my studio has snow in the foreground, not only on the hilltops of Harris, changing the dominant colours. And then it’s gone, thanks to the Gulf Stream, though it sometimes lingers in the sheltered field between the trees.
