California – Page 5 – Ink, Yarn & Beer

Sand Dunes in Death Valley

Death Valley is up and off Hwy 395 along the Eastern Sierra Mountains in California. It’s a strange and eerily beautiful place with a lot of surprises and history. It is preserved as Death Valley National Park. The website is filled with great information and it is one of the best places to visit – in the right season, and in the right weather. People die in the desert because they do not understand it, so if you go, be careful!

Sand dunes always amaze me. I am still stuck in my child’s view of the world that sand dunes exist only in the Sahara, and can only be found by riding a camel. Silly, yes!

There are sand dunes everywhere – beaches and deserts mostly, but sometimes in places you least expect. Their shifting shape in the wind and blowing away foot prints or burying ancient cities all lead to a fascination as they make everything seem so temporal.

Anyway . . . . this is an oil painting using a limited palette. Some of the goals in doing this painting included smooth, smooth brushwork for the dunes. I tried to catch the gradual gradations and color changes I saw. In the distance is the flat valley before the towering mountains. For each I used directional brushwork and a deliberate vagueness to create a surreal effect. The mountains, when I look at them afresh, can also be visualized as swirling clouds. Interpretation I will leave to your eye.

Oil on canvas panel; 16 x 20 inches.

On Gravelly Paths

Old age is not for sissies, so they say. I agree. Giving in to fear does not make for an enjoyable life. Falling and shattering my arm last year and smashing my heel bone in July have made me rather timid. It is very annoying. I have always had “sloppy joints” per the rogue orthopedist, and couple this with high arches and a tendency to supinate (turn my feet upwards on the inside), makes for high chances of a good tumble. And I have taken quite a few in my life time, but get back up and out. Now I do it with more conscientious feet movements after several rounds of occupational therapy and balancing instruction.

So, off to the local botanical garden to prowl along gravelly paths where stones easily skitter underfoot. (That reminds me I once had a cat I named Underfoot Ticklewhisker.) No dog, just me and a camera and a cell phone in my shoulder bag.

Come walk with me . . .

I keep thinking this may be a California Redwood, but I may be wrong. For some reason I really want to call it an ironwood, but, hell, I forgot to look at the tag! Nonetheless, it is a tree I always look at because of the deep red and shedding bark contrasted by bright green leaves. Today it was particularly delightful.

Not many flowers remain, and these California fuschias (again, “I think”!) were some of the few remaining flowers in bloom. Against the deep greens of rosemary, the pale green leaves and bright orange flowers are very attractive.

Oak trees fill the garden! Another perennial favorite of mine year round. There are a lot of them that I cannot help admire, and if I were a kid, I would be up in them, climbing as high as I dared.

At the far end of the garden is a path that leads around the hillside and down into the creek and woodlands. This is the beginning, but in my cautious state, I won’t do it alone. It is not a well traveled path and a fall could be very nasty. This also shows you how dry it gets here in SoCal in the fall before the rainy season begins.

One lovely part of the garden is the rare fruit orchard. Depending on where you live, these fruit trees could be common or rare. Here is a green sapote, in leaf and bearing fruit. It is a native to Mexico and is rather odd to my taste, but it is good. Also, there are signs to not pick the fruit, in part because of insecticide, but also to let others have a chance to enjoy the gardens. Locally there is a warning sign about invasive flies of some kind.

About here, I sat down. This is at the top of the hill and I was pretty pleased with my progress. A few stones underfoot, but I made it without a problem. Going downhill would be more precipitous, but I planned to return the same way I came up – the inclines are not steep and there are benches along the way.

Before descending, I had to get a view to the northeast, overlooking the city and into the mountains beyond. The sky was gorgeous with that deep autumnal blue as well as clouds – not a common site over our dry region!

And I made it to the bottom of the hill with rather irritated knees but not a fall at all. (Or perhaps, not an autumn at all?)

Lands End, SF

I think every country has some form of a “land’s end” – at least if it borders on water, like an ocean. Lands End in San Francisco, CA, is a park overlooking the Pacific Ocean and part of the Golden Gate National Recreational Area. It’s a beautiful, wild, windy place – and it has a ridge of Monterey Cypress as well.

Note: Click on the image to enlarge.

I did a quick sketch in pencil, just to get the general shapes of the trees and the land. I put in the tree trunks first as I wanted to be sure I knew their placement along the land. I used a mixture of blacks and greys, pale to dark, but initially light to indicate placement. From there, the foliage and the land. Once established, detail began, with dry brush strokes for vegetation and later for the leaves on the cypress. More than anything, I wanted a loose, windswept look with a sense of direction and sky.

Planning a loose painting takes a bit of forethought. I put in the tree trunks first, then some foliage and land. The sky was done after all these with a large, soft flat watercolor brush. Final touches came after all was dry. I made this into a panorama, spanning 2 pages of my sketchbook, to give a sense of expanse. In the end, I was rather pleased with this.

Koi pan watercolors, watercolor, about 8×18.

California Coastal Cypress

Stuck at home for the most part because of my ankle, I need to find things to do. It turns out that my ankle, while a mess of historical injuries, has no tears in the soft tissues. That is good. However, my heel bone has “microfractures” from the hard landing dodging the car last month. This is a bone bruise, and it is painful! I finally got into see the orthopedist, got a walking boot, and return in a month. The boot makes a big difference though it does take some getting used to wearing and using. I have to be careful not to pitch forward or backward. And you can hear me coming a mile away – squish, squeak, squish, squeak.

Of course, painting is the first choice! I am still tired intermittently from Covid, but I don’t have brain fog (at least I don’t think so), and look for things to enjoy but not be a source of frustration. Thus, ink and watercolor.

The Monterey Cypress is a tree that is common along the northern central coast of California. It is shaped by the environment as it moves with the wind and seems to grow away from the prevailing winds. To me, this quality is what makes it so beautiful and eye-catching. The coast is also subject to foggy days, damp and dreary, even in the height of summer.

Carbon ink, watercolor, Koi pan paints, about 8×10.

Hill Canyon at High Noon

Another picture from the hike last year in Hill Canyon. It was a bright, hot day, but pleasant nonetheless.

So many people talk about post processing with digital – and film – images. Some say no, don’t do it; others don’t care; others think AI is going to ruin it all. I have to admit that I like pushing photos to make them more interesting or to create a mood, and even the use of AI is fine – but, using AI should be acknowledged.

Pushed here, but no AI, but I did use generative fill in PS to fill in some gaps. This was a panorama of about 10 images I pasted together. Maybe generative fill is AI, so I might be guilty here . . .