Because of the head injury that made these drawings possible, I have some significant limitations. For example, when we get a couple inches of snow here in Colorado and the sun comes out later in the day, it gets extremely bright outside. Even with sunglasses and a hat, this level of brightness is overwhelming to my nervous system. I have trouble with my balance and walking, as well as finding words and speaking. I get tired extremely quickly, which leads to stumbling and hitting my hands/arms on doorways, and so I don’t do much outside on days like this. I get up early and feed the horses before it’s really light out, and I do the afternoon feeding for them closer to evening as the sun is going down to avoid the brightest parts of the day.

In between these feedings, I now draw. Today I found a beach scene I liked, with a sandy path headed towards the ocean through some tall grass. I would love to be on a beach now instead of waking up at 1 deg F like this morning!

I then found a painting of a border collie (my working dog of choice when I’m attending to my regular job training horses) that I tried to duplicate as well. I didn’t use the grid for this one – I drew it freehand and then colored it in with the oil pastels.