Memories of Spring, Thoughts of Summer

For me, lilies of the valley are spring flowers – late spring, for sure, but spring nonetheless. They are not native to California and certainly cannot survive the heat we get, but you can grow them in cool areas. Short-lived, they add a bit of beauty and mark the transition into summer.

Today is cool and grey – May Grey for California! – but it will warm up later on. The sun will come out inland – we live one valley in from the Pacific – but may not show itself along the coastline. Our spring has been wet and gloomy with bits of sunshine in between, but as we move toward summer, heat and watermelon and cold drinks come to mind. (Meanwhile, I am enjoying my hot morning coffee!)

Seasonal transitions – things to say goodbye to, things to welcome. I myself have been in a phase of transition, too. I am learning to play the ukulele, working on oil painting sewing, gardening. All of these take time away from blogging, which is rather nice, really. Still, the fact is that ink and watercolor, individually or together, always beckon, so before I even started the day, my sketchbook came out, colors and ink. It all makes for a good way to start the day, beating dishes and laundry and other housework by a good ten miles!

Wood & Wetland

I have been spending the better part of the day watching the videos in a class in which I have enrolled before starting any of the projects. There are a lot of short videos in it pointing out this and that, but sitting still to watch the longer ones makes me restless. I need something to do with my hands rather than just sit on my butt! Knitting is out as I have a few projects at a point which need some focus, but oil pastels did the trick. I can draw / paint and watch at the same time. I may not get all of the video, but I do get a lot of it – just as I am now as I write this post.

I picked up a few brands of oil pastels and a 6-pack each of soft white and greys. These include Sennelier, Mungyo, and Caran d’Ache. The white and grey pack are labeled “Anders” I think. I also have been playing on various papers, but decided to check out the Sennelier oil pastel paper. It seems to do a pretty good job despite all the rubbing in of layers of pastels.

Oil pastels, at this point, are more like playing with crayons for me. I blur the colors using my fingers and tortillons. Harder oil pastels make up the underlayers with the softer, oilier ones going on top. This adheres to the adage of “fat over lean” in oil painting, so it makes sense that it would apply to the oil pastels as well.

Oil pastel on Sennelier paper; about 5×7 finished. Scanned on Epson V600.

The Not Taken Vacation: Frigiliana

Andalucia, a region in southern Spain, is well know for its beauty. “White villages” abound, and Frigiliana was voted by the Spanish Tourist Board as the “prettiest village in Andalucia” – so of course, in my imaginary road trip along the winding back roads, seated in my fab 1948 Alfa Romeo 6C 2500 Sport Cabriolet, we drove with reckless abandon to Frigiliana.

Winding roads, winding streets, winding walkways – all a far cry from the freeways of Southern California!

Cosmos on a Summer Day

Yesterday I left a lot of the normal stuff undone, so this morning I had a bit to do! In between this and that, I looked out the studio window. My front garden is loaded with flowers – mostly yellow – but the pink cosmos are coming into their own.

I always enjoy their pink-to-red violet color, especially when silhouetted against a bright blue sky. Out came the watercolor sketchbook, a micron pen, and quick little sketch. Catching that pink is hard, and the shadows on the petals themselves even harder. Still, summer is here, the Solstice was here, and it is time to enjoy it all.

This afternoon it is off to the beach!

Boring Waterproof Ink

I had hoped to have a nice dark ink on this paper, using a fountain pen filled with waterproof ink. The ink is waterproof, but it is so pale I fell asleep. If you are going to do a line drawing and then color it in, you need to have a dark ink. The ink was definitely waterproof, but so what if I don’t like the result?

I also used my cellulose paper sketchbook for this, and once more I am not happy. All these blobs of unabsorbed color and a few more than many times using the hair dryer.

Maybe I am not being realistic about the paper, but I am realistic about the point of this study – is the ink waterproof? And that answer is yes. Goal met.