The Quest

I love my Acrylic paints and pastels, don’t get me wrong, but I find I am a lot like my cat, constantly changing.  I don’t change my sleeping places but I do like to mix up whatever medium I am working with.

At the moment I am working in colored pencil.  I have quite a variety of pencils since I am on a quest looking for the one that lives up to my expectations.  I mix brands of all kinds, thick lead, thin leads and leads in between. 

What is my quest, you ask?  When I was just a little kid my mom would pretty much force me to visit my aunt for the weekend.  I wasn’t too crazy about visiting but there was something that made it a bit more palatable.  I knew on Saturday she would take me down to a store on Main Street and buy me a color by number set of Venus Paradise colored pencils.  I’d toss the color by number section as soon as I got home and use my notebook paper, paper bags, anything available to lay down that thick soft buttery color.

For weeks I’d use my Venus paradise pencils until I had sharpened them down to a nub.  I am what passes for an adult now and Venus paradise is out of business!  So, as a result, my quest has not uncovered any buried treasure.

Were these pencils really that good? I know that things seem different when you are little.  I remember returning to one of my old primary schools and discovering that it had shrunk!  How does an entire school shrink?  Maybe I am making these pencils somewhat of a holy grail and when I do manage to dig up a couple I will be disappointed to discover that they are just as ordinary as my school. 

Anyway for Paint Party Friday at paintpartyfriday.blogspot.com  I offer a pencil sketch titled “Reaching out.” Does anyone else remember these pencils?  Am I on a wild goose chase?  Only time will tell.