spring forward

Sketch. Ink and watercolor. 9 x 9.

The best part about Spring in the Pacific Northwest is the abundance of flowers. The signs of new life after the dreary stillness of winter is welcome to me."Winter" does not just describe the time of year, but, also describes seasons of life. I feel like I am coming back to Spring after a very long Winter.

Did you know that when the conditions are right, it's possible to see a green flash at sunset? It felt like a beautiful gift to see the green flash last week as I watched the sun set over the Pacific Ocean in Southern California.If you look closely, you can see the shimmer of green just around the setting yellow sun in the photo above.

I did not do anything to earn the green flash. I just waited with patience and hope. And I watched carefully. My patience was rewarded.

The creative journey is different for every artist. My journey has been interrupted for a while by life. Nothing I planned, but hugely distracting. Aging parents. The arrival of grandchildren. Heartaches. Illnesses. Legal challenges. Economic hardships. Good things and bad. Distractions all.

I feel agitated and frustrated by this, but I know that I cannot force creativity back in to my life. Instead, I have been out in nature because I trust in its healing power. I am doing things like watching the sun set.

Ridgefield NWR

I've taken trips to watch birds at the Ridgefield National Wildlife Refuge.

Snake River, Idaho.

I watched the slow movement of the Snake River in Idaho and mourned the loss of the huge salmon runs.

Snow outside of Burns, Oregon.

I played in the snow in southeastern Oregon and watched the white snow turn blue and violet in the fading light.

Nevada

I walked the buttes of Nevada and studied the paths of the waterways in the soft rock.

I am finding my way back to my creative path by going deep into nature. Slowly, I feel myself healing and sorting out a new way. I think I can see the way up ahead.

Monotype. Katherine van Schoonhoven

There is a pleasure in the pathless woods,

There is a rapture on the lonely shore,

There is society, where none intrudes,

By the deep sea, and music in its roar:

I love not man the less, but Nature more.

Lord Byron "Childe Harold's Pilgrimage"

Deadman "When the Music's Not Forgotten."

sketchbook -- mud flats in Cook Inlet, Alaska

The tour books warn to stay off the mud flats. My friend and Alaska native, Roxanne Colyer Clingman, warned me to stay off the mud flats. The newspapers and signs around town warn to stay off the mud flats.

The tide shift here is 30-40 feet, and when the tide is out, the bottom of the inlet is exposed. Glacial silt makes for a quicksand-like surface. Once stuck, a person faces 30 feet of water rushing in on the next tide. I was well-warned to stay off the flats.

When we explored Hope, Alaska, and I was faced with the mystery and beauty of the mud flats, I understood all of the warnings. I had to force myself to only draw and photograph them, because their attraction was strong! Here's what I wrote on the left side of this sketch:

7.1.15 Turnagain Arm from Hope Spur. 

Warnings in tour books (all) and from Roxanne: do not walk on the mud flats! 

Their quicksand siren song is lovely. Come and explore my complex curves and rivulets. 

Look into my puddles to see your future. Linger over grooves and cups, 

hillocks and terraces simple and marvel at the symmetry. 

The unspoken lyric remains that 

the song ends in doom.

Here is a short film of Alaska's landscape and a song that ends beautifully.

sketchbook -- when plein air painting is not a good idea

Something about the light on Lake Kluane didn't excite me the morning I determined to paint en plein air. I lingered over my morning coffee and looked at the water and the surrounding rocks. I started thinking about how cozy I was inside, how much I was enjoying my cup of coffee, and recalling the visitor information about this area and the large grizzly bear population...

And I decided not to paint.

Not long after, I saw a grizzly bear, favoring one foot, walk right through what would have been my painting space. I was very happy I was not occupying the same spot he ambled through, turning rocks and sniffing at the grass where I had walked the night before.

But a sketch of a bear is a lot of fun. Especially when done from the safety of the motorhome. With a nice hot cup of coffee in my hand.

sketchbook -- bears

It does not lessen my anxiety to hear a park ranger tell a group of people that the bears in the Banff National Park area of British Columbia are vegetarians. Even when I see them beside the road munching on the abundant dandelions, I am not calmed. Nope. Bears are at the top of the food chain and I, for one, will continue to treat them with respect and hope for distance in all of my encounters with them. My motto for this trip: wildlife from a distance, viewed through a window!

sketchbook - travel - leaving home

My sketchbook will get a nice workout this summer as my husband and I travel. I  will share many sketches of the journey ahead.

It almost goes without saying that to travel means you leave home. Before we drove off the driveway, I did this little sketch of home. And, though it's hard to imagine how, I know that when I get back from this trip I will see home differently. I will feel different. My eyes will light on different things. And that's my favorite part of travel: it opens up my perspective.

Already, I can feel the rhythms of life shifting to a less familiar beat. My ears tune in to the new sounds and I lean into it with pleasure.

Sarah Vaughan "Fascinating Rhythm."

sketchbook musings

These sketches are the first in a trial of a new Stillman and Birns Alpha sketchbook. I love the feel of the paper -- it is smooth and takes ink and watercolor beautifully. I see a little bleed through of the ink, and that bugs me, but overall, I like it. I think I might try a heavier weight paper (maybe the Zeta style) the next time around, though.

My mother came up from California for a nine day visit. I always think of flowers when I think of my mom. She loves flowers! Over the years, her gardens have been famous for sweet peas, roses, gladiolus, calla lilies, and all manner of fragrant flowers. She made sure I had a big bouquet of flowers to enjoy during her visit, too. Filled with carnations, alstromeria, and mums, this bouquet has already lasted five days and still looks fresh.

A miniature rose Mother's Day gift from my son and his wife became the subject of these two sketches. First, I sketched the little plant as I saw it (the "organic" sketch on the right) and then I sketched it again as an experiment in abstracting the shapes toward a more geometric concept (the sketch on the left).

Finally, a page from yesterday. You can see that I am still experimenting with the geometric abstractions, and then just looking at what I see from the windows of the boat. The quiet of my time on the boat allows for dreamy musings. And naps. Life is so good!

sketch ... water aerobics

It is so much easier for me to sketch regularly when I am on a trip. Every day brings new sketching subjects and I find myself creating an illustrated journal of the adventure.

But, at home, the every day doesn't excite me so much for sketching. My sketchbook sits on my shelf, sometimes in my car, but I don't sketch. Which is a shame, because I really do love sketching!

Several months back, I signed up for Sketchbook Skool, an online series of workshops all about sketching. I have gathered many new ideas about sketching techniques and materials, and more ideas about sketching subjects to explore. 

Here is a sketch about water aerobics. Part of my every day life at home, but something I have never attempted to sketch. Do you sketch your every day life? Do tell!

crab pot, again

This one was near Saddlebag Island (near Anacortes). I spent a lot of time studying the reflections in the water before I attempted to sketch and paint this one.

home through Kansas

On our way home, we took the non-interstate highways and byways through Kansas. I saw things I never knew about, things I marveled at, things that made me smile. The Flint Hills area was beautiful! I'm so glad that the settlers could not till its rocky soil and left us with a perfect example of how the prairies looked before human interference.

Sadly, the air conditioning in our motorhome gave up and we endured many days of +90 degrees with 90% humidity. Our trip west was marked by days of driving that started before sunrise, long afternoon breaks with the coach parked in the shade of a tree or two, and long drives after sunset.

Even with that discomfort, I am love seeing our country. Oh beautiful, indeed!

Ray Charles sings "America, the Beautiful."

sketchbook: siren

She sings her siren

song

and the current

riffles though her tail

like a gentle breeze

through a leafy tree.

K. van Schoonhoven

I have long been enamored of mermaids. I remember swimming as a little girl with my legs together as if I had a single tail with a fin on it. I read Hans Christian Andersen's "The Little Mermaid" before I was 10.

In college, I read Homer's The Odyssey and was thrilled by the description of the sirens. Their song, so captivating, they lured many entranced sailors to their deaths on the rocky shore. Odysseus, determined to hear their song and survive, instructed his sailors to lash him to the mast and to stop their own ears with wax. They sailed past the sirens and Odysseus heard the song, but because he was immobilized, and his crew deaf to his cries, he could not order them to follow the song to their destruction.

Also in college, I "discovered" the Pre-Raphaelites and saw the beautiful painting, "The Siren,"  by John William Waterhouse.

"The Siren" by J.W. Waterhouse, 1900

Now, with a regular habit of swimming and many hours spent on the water in a boat, I continue to entertain an attraction for these mythical creatures. 

Heraclitus: "Knowing many things

does not teach insight."

Mermaids and Sirens in Art and Illustration video.

buoy contour

Some days on the water are so warm, we open the door between the salon and the deck, where we store the round buoy. The door is narrow, as is the deck, but the buoy fits its spherical self easily between the walls.

Today is cloudy and only 70 degrees and the door between the salon and the deck is closed. The buoy is still there. Waiting to be useful. Summer moments like these seem fleeting and somehow fragile.

Sting and Stevie Wonder "Fragile."

water color

testing watercolor to match the water color

life is beautiful on the water!

sketchbook: flowers

Manet's floral masterpieces. Exquisite!

sketchbook: land shapes

July 21, 2012 sketchbook page

In some ways, this looks like a comic book style of sketchbook. The black lines add to that effect. As do the series of panels. I enjoy breaking up the larger land shapes into smaller pieces. It helps me consider the possibility of multiple paintings to convey the idea of the vast landscape. Of course, it's all experimental and I have no commitment or obligation to do anything further with these sketches if they don't excite me. 

It's pure play and playfulness is the rich compost of artistic growth. Don't you agree?

sketchbook: Roche Harbor

Park your boat

wherever you like

mariner chaos

then the float planes

land in a game of

Dodge Boat!

A little unnerving to see 

a Kenmore Air Otter

landing right at us -- 

light from the plane

shone in our pilot house

window. He stopped short

and turned, but only after

my husband coached, "TURN! TURN! TURN!"

Every evening in Roche Harbor, this:

sketchbook: time to think

in the quiet

I hear my fears

and wishes

hopes and

imaginings

and wonder

why not do 

more?

known by heart

Winter travel allows me to see forests with their bones showing. Several feet of dried leaves carpet the ground around them, revealing the secrets of their luxuriant growth in Spring and hinting of their their glory in the fall.

But in Winter, I see their nearness and their spaces. I see their strength and admire their solidity. No matter if the trees are in Louisiana, North Carolina, Virginia, Indiana, Kansas, or back home in Washington. I know them.

Eva Cassidy ... "I Know You By Heart." Exactly.

journalism

Sometimes I use the sketchbook to "journal" about the activities of the day. I enjoy this, too.

observation leads to assignment

I was standing up on the parapet, trying to catch an ocean breeze (and avoid some of the biting green flies) when I did this quick sketch of the park ranger down below. We were at the Castillo de San Marcos National Park in St. Augustine, FL. 

Looking down on this figure presented me with all kinds of challenges, like the way the top of the foot shows in the buckled shoe, and where the shoulders met the neck (which I mostly couldn't see). My biggest challenge was figuring out how to shape the face. My brain kept getting in the way to insist that a face is an oval, but my eyes whispered that from this angle it was different. Look. Pay attention. Draw what you see. IGNORE THE BIG BOSSY BRAIN!

Overall, I was pleased with this drawing. It got many things right. 

But, as I observed it (and other sketches in my sketchbook) more, I realized that I was doing a lot of scribbling and my lines were often tentative and over-corrected. 

OBSERVATION: tentative, scribbling lines, a lazy look to many of my drawings.

From that observation, it was easy to come up with a little assignment for myself. I determined to draw several heads with very simple, certain lines. That meant looking more and drawing with a confident hand. And for me, that meant separating the BIG BOSSY BRAIN from the ever-curious and observant eyes and let my eyes direct my hand.

This is what I came up with.

I never really know what will happen in my sketchbook, ... but sometimes I absolutely love it!

inspired by Hofmann!

sketchbook, designs inspired by Hofmann

Hofmann, Blanton Museum of Art, Austin, TX

Hofmann, Crocker Art Museum, Sacramento, CA

I've been enjoying reading more about the life of Hans Hofmann in Cynthia Goodman's biography. Plus, in my travels, I have seen some of Hofmann's paintings in person. Brilliant color. Color fields. A sense of push/pull.

One afternoon, as I sketched the views outside the window, I thought of what I have read and seen of Hofmann's work. It changed how I drew, the colors I chose, and how I arranged the shapes.

Do you like Hans Hofmann?