Strange weather afoot – rain, wind, tornado.
If you have never lived on the prairies or traveled through the vast middle section of the U.S., you have missed some majestic land and sky. The weather can change in an instant, you might see it coming, you might not. Flat, lonely, filled with a terrible beauty.
Gouache, of course!
I love aspens – the way their leaves quiver, the fact that a grove could be one ginormous plant, the colors they add to the mountains as the seasons change.
‘Nuff said.
This is quick study of a tree I pass by on many of my hikes into the local open space. It stands against the sky, silhouetted, as the sun goes down.
I’ve decided to be just rather messy with gouache – slapping it onto the paper. I think I feel more at one with it (paint and painting). As well, I am using a big brush that is angled at the tip, rather a wedge shape. As a result, it is somewhat predictable, somewhat controllable. And not at all. Part of it depends on how dry or wet the paint and brush are. We’ll see how this goes over the next several days. Being away from home for several days, I haven’t painted at all. Slapping paint around is a good way to be come reacquainted with it!
I would say that for the most of the last 6 weeks the weather has been crap. In the 90s-100s F is way too hot. We have low humidity here, so the heat doesn’t drain you as it does when it is high, but day after day, week after week, of heat, is not fun. Throw some smoke and foul air in there, and welcome to what I think is becoming the new normal. California is burning. Colorado is burning. I guess we are not raking the forests enough . . .
Yesterday, though, was the first cool day in a long time. It was overcast and rather dreary because the sky is just a single shade of grey instead of the single shade of blue. When the overcast burns off, there are clouds to be seen, and they are such a delight! I headed out to a local open space area, Wildwood, taking my Instax Wide with me. I used it to shoot a select few images. I used my phone, too, to send some pictures off to friends. Everything is faded and dried up, but many plants adapted to the area sport bright colors though they are also fading for the winter.
There are a lot of fire roads running through Wildwood with trails leading off into more rugged terrain. I seldom venture into those areas unless with someone else. Safety first!
The prickly pear cacti (cactuses?) are laden with ripe fruit – the pears – and they are quite delicious to eat! Using leather gloves, twist the red pear off the paddle or use a knife. Pack it into a bag of some sort to take home. When you get home, turn on your flame thrower to burn off all the spikes. Take your knife and slice – tasty! Some local markets carry the pears, as well as the paddles. The paddles are also tasty and edible, and once their spikes are removed, slice them up and then cook them. Cooked prickly pear paddles are called napales.
Photographing these critters can be a challenge as there are other cactus around, and none are pleasant to fall into.
The road curves around a hill and this is the view you get. Mount Clef is part of a ridge that forms the northern part of my city, separating the Conejo Valley from the Santa Rosa Valley.
This is an name-unknown shrub which borders trails and roads through Wildwood.
I hiked about another mile and then turned around. I always like to see where I have been and look at the same things from a different viewpoint.
Here, the Mount Clef ridge moving east.
Back on my road, looking south toward the Santa Monica mountains. The day is later, the sun lower, backlighting mountains and trees
The Instax Wide doesn’t perform well at times, but this little tree’s silhouette is so expressive – the twists of the branches against the sky always catch me when I walk past. Below you can see what the Instax missed and the the phone camera caught.
And home I went.
As summer fades away, the fires are burning along the west coast, and the clarity of the air has gone murky. This is when I dream of being somewhere along a river, with sun, blue skies, flowers and birds. I’m a country girl at heart, stuck in suburbia! (But there are advantages of the ‘burbs, too.)
I used Arches Rough 12×16 140# paper. The texture is not as smooth as what CP or HP provide. There is a lot more “tooth” which is great for dry brush and texture, such as in the foreground grasses and middle ground trees. I used one of my hake brushes for the general grass shapes, and a larger, harder brush for the sky. Before I painted any large area, I used the hake brush with clear water, letting it soak in a bit to help the paint to spread more easily on this rough paper.
In general, I am pleased with this painting. DOF works fairly well. I put in a building, too! For me, the most flawed area is the squared-off top of a tree to the left of the building – maybe I will go in later to correct it, but for now, I’ll let it be, cuz it’s time for a nap!
Ink, Yarn & Beer 