Friday, the day I was supposed to go fishing, I got up early, prepared breakfast, and my coffee and was half-way done before I got the text that we wouldn’t be going, on account of bad weather.  I don’t know about you, but I just can’t go back to bed with a stomach full of breakfast and a head filled with coffee.

So I got comfortable and read a bit more of Paul Klee’s Notebook Volume 2 – The Nature of Nature. In a concentrated effort, I tried to absorb everything he was saying about lines. He had a lot to say between pages 43 and 68. I’m afraid that I didn’t pick up all I could have.

I was, however, inspired by his pencil sketch entitled ‘Wooded Continuity’ (1935).

By this time it was light enough to see what was happening outside. It looked like it was just about to rain.  My line was itching to go for a walk. Isn’t that just like a line?

Today’s experiments

My first effort

I used the side of my jumbo pencil and began on the lower left. I’m not sure what was in my mind. I did remember that Klee defined, as his symbol of structure, a wavy line and said to “avoid lifelessness in advance” by avoiding straight, evenly divided lines.

I returned my line to its original ‘irritated’ point. According to Klee, the irritated point is one chock full of latent energy. Since it was my starting point, it is where I started releasing its energy. Since I returned to the point of origin, I turned my line drawing into a closed form, or plane.

Second try

Walking the line for the second time, I  let it be a little more representational. Looking out to the back yard, I saw the horizontal slats of the porch, followed by the vertical staves of the fence, the fig tree, short palmy-looking tree, the back fence and, of course the rain clouds.

I’m actually happy with this, even though I’m not sure it would meet with Klee’s approval.

Third try

I combined two line walks for my third effort.   One contour was a fat line, the other, a thin line, echoed some of the same contours, and actually became fat in a couple of places.

This example may be a case where it is the effort that counts, not the end product, as I am not sure exactly what to make of it.