rain – Ink, Yarn & Beer

Late Summer

A hot, humid day with rain coming or going. Summer is leaving, time soon to bring in the harvest. Late afternoon.

I am totally into lavender fields! The bright colors just make you happy, and when in contrast to the warm yellows and golds of other plants, how can you not but rejoice in nature?

Yeah, it sounds corny, but landscapes and the countryside, no matter where, just make me happy. It can be in gentle countryside like here, in the desert, in the mountains – all just touches me and brings a bit of peace.

Oils, 10×14, cotton canvas panel.

Waiting for Rain

The coastal fog rolls in, sometimes doing nothing but bringing cold and damp and chill to summer. Other times of the year, in fall and winter and into spring, the coastal fog is not fog at all, but lowering clouds. Sometimes you just don’t know.

Rainy Night

I’ve always loved pen and watercolor drawings, long before urban sketching became connected with it. The ink here is some of my homemade iron gall ink, waterproof and dark once dried. On top of that, opaque pan watercolors I picked up at a little store in Decorah, Iowa, this summer. The paper is 100% cotton Bee paper – nothing great, not expensive, but fun to use and responsive to both ink and color. Illustrations like this are fun because they aren’t “serious” – I get to play, practice, explore. Not a bad way to spend some time before lunch.

Monsoon Season is Here

The summer months bring rain to the American Southwest. Skies become dark, light bright and fleeting; a sudden downpour, and then it vanishes. The clouds clear and once more the intense light returns. Everything becomes more vivid and alive during these brief showers and scudding clouds with lightning often adding to the drama. To me, this is the desert at its best – a harsh beauty in a harsh land.

Storm Across the Water

I painted this shortly after doing the “Quiet River” watercolor yesterday. Still in a patient mood, which was good, as this painting, though small, needed a bit of thought and a bit of patience to complete. The effect of rain meant laying in heavy washes on damp paper and letting them run. In other areas, damp color had to dry only so far before a dryer brush could apply color. As you can see, I rather messed up with a second round of wet paint because of the bloom (aka cauliflower) in the middle right. Still, it works, catching the breakthrough of the sun and the scudding quality of a storm on a windy day.

This one pleases me quite a bit!