Carolyn A Pappas

©2010 Carolyn A. Pappas, Drinking Glass (1 hour sketching). Graphite in 9 x 12 inch sketchbook.

Today is Blog Action Day 2010, which is an online event where bloggers all write on the same topic on one particular day. This year’s theme is Water. I’m not usually the type to discuss “issues” on my blog. It’s not that I don’t have opinions, but I usually just keep things related to my artwork here. However, I thought this was a good opportunity to tell you one of my most memorable travel memories.

I never really worried about the quality of my drinking water until I went to India in 2008. I was warned beforehand not to drink the water unless it was bottled, or boiled as in coffee or soup. I couldn’t even open my mouth in the shower, for fear of some water seeping in and giving me amoebic dysentery or something pretty scary. After a few days I grew to hate carrying around bottles of water everywhere I went, thinking of it as a huge hassle. That is, until I saw people drinking muddy water pumped out of stagnant, slime-covered ponds. The idea of drinking that stuff makes my stomach turn and it’s hard to think that a lot of people have no other options available. For most people in the US, the most pressing concern is usually that they don’t enjoy the taste of their water or if it is fluoridated or not. We really have a lot to be thankful for.

Day to day, I usually think about water as it relates to my artwork. The above sketch was just a practice exercise but it was a lot of fun. I have done other drawings of drinking glasses before (click here for an example). There is lot of information out there about drawing and painting water. I love the blog Watermarks which is a group blog that features water as a subject and as an art material. Gurney Journey also has done some interesting posts relating to water (Water by Three Masters, Color in Mountain Streams, and Reflections of Masts in Rippled Water). Enjoy.