I decided to take seriously the advice my wife gave me the other day, and allow myself to become less fixated on the higher-level aims of art. At least for the time being I have elected to focus my attention on developing the skills that might, art some future point, contribute to a more elevated creative project. As a consequence, yesterday and today I have simply compelled myself to draw, without any expectation that the result might be of interest to anybody else. Yesterday I did a small portrait of my wife, in graphite, and today I put together a still-life composition, using a mixture of pencil and pastel. (The result I have decided to call my homage to Morandi.)
The experience has been an interesting one. In both cases the point of the exercise has been, quite simply, to develop the disciplines of observation and handling of the medium. The results have been encouraging, although (knowing her face so well) I am aware in retrospect that there is a small error of proportion in the portrait. The challenge in the still-life was the clear differentiation of glass from pottery as quite different substances and surfaces.
Whatever else I might want to say about the experience, I do feel better for it.