Ballet of an Idle Mind.

Michael Whynot. Ballet of an Idle Mind, 2013. Red chalk.

I spent the morning staring out of my kitchen window at the snow drifting, three feet deep, in the field. It is difficult to remember summer in the depths of February - warm sunshine on the front steps, a cool breeze stirring the leaves down the long, bright evenings. I never appreciate things until they are gone.

I haven't drawn from a live model now for two weeks. Not a long time, maybe, but I worry if I haven't, perhaps, forgotten the intricate arrangement of the human form, as well. So I visualized a pose and spent an hour drawing from my imagination.

The physical act of drawing is a motor skill - not that different from driving a car or swinging a golf club. The art in drawing comes from being able to visualize a form, whether that form is ten feet in front of you or floating around inside your head. And this, like everything we strive to do well, takes practice. Drawing will never be easy, but experience tells me that it will get easier.