Tucson artist, Meredith Milstead spent early mornings on the Hill for the first couple of weeks of August, taking up my invitation to do some work here.

She wandered the Hill like I do and made a number of lovely pastel pieces on the spot, which I will publish here. I smiled when I first saw them because they are of places I am familiar with here in the Hill, but she has such a rich and different view of them. It inspires me to have people like her working the Hill.

No two artists will ever draw the same subject in the same way. And if Meredith came back to the same spot at another time, I’m sure the work would again be different from the first.

Meredith is a certified teaching artist at The Drawing Studio based in downtown Tucson, where she teaches drawing fundamentals. She has traveled the world drawing and studying art and has done a number of artist residencies in natural areas, among them, Petrified Forest National Park. After her Tumamoc visit, she left to spend the next few weeks as artist in residence at Chiricahua National Monument, SE Arizona.

Meredith was on her own, but she came inside to cool off and we have some interesting discussions. She said that she tried to arrive at a place with a tentative plan, but without preconceived ideas of what to paint or draw. Things will come to you. Subjects will find you. Soon there will be more than enough to work on.

I totally agree. If we are simply receptive and pay attention for as long as it takes, to whatever a particular spot has to say. It will say something through us.

I’ll post Meredith’s personal journal from her exploration of Tumamoc in a future set of posts.