woods – Ink, Yarn & Beer

On the Forest Floor

One of the things about following a track in the woods regularly, you see things that you don’t see another time. Where we were staying near Spokane, our daily walks took us out along the same track, under the pines, alongside the river. While the season didn’t change much in the few days we were there, what I saw became more specific, like this flower against the fallen tree. Different times of day, too, presented the light in different ways as it shone through the trees. This familiarity is one of the delights to be had with the familiar.

Winter’s Trees

For the past several weeks I have been immersed in painting classes – 2 or 3 a week, and too many hours to count. I finally decided I was doing more than was good for the rest of my life, and decided to cap it to a few hours a day. That balanced things out as I was getting rather nutso.

This is based off a Pixabay photo of trees and snow, at sunset or dawn. I am not sure if this one is “finished” yet, but think it is done enough to scan and put online. It is acrylic paint on a piece of 11×15 watercolor paper. I decided to use it as the paper is 100% cotton but the sizing is not good. As I bought the paper a long time ago, I cannot return it.

One thing about painting in acrylic, you can paint on a lot of different surfaces. I like the feel of paper beneath my brush more than a canvas panel that I have gessoed. Maybe it is because I am used to its surface texture, but there is more of a connection there with its surface – smoother than a cotton canvas panel, but with some tooth. I do plan to learn more about oils later this summer but need to play with it a lot more and figure out where to paint as oil solvents, while now often odorless, are still volatile and not exactly something to be breathing in a closed space.

As I work on learning how to paint I also explore different artists. Right now I have been looking at a lot of the Russian artists of the Impressionist variety along with ones from the 1930s, such as Nikolai Timkov and his fellow painters. Impressionists and more modern painters appeal to me because their sense of color and brushwork, as well as subject matter, are more to my liking than any other era. I like abstraction, too, so a bit of all of these appeal to me. Strong graphics, elegant composition, good colors get my eye. Art is really a personal thing anyway. What I want to hang on my walls may be nothing you would even consider . . .

All this painting is also making me think about brushwork. It expresses so much. Smoothly blended or broken? I think the next exploration will be broken brush strokes and trying to choose a color and put it down – paint it and leave it, as Ian Roberts is telling us!

Beginnings for the New Year

I always love a walk in the local botanical garden, but I haven’t been for awhile with one of our dogs. I fell down a hillside because one of them pulled me off balance – squirrel! – and am rather uneasy, but today I went. Luckily, nothing happened except beautiful weather, spring scents, new leaves, narcissus, and bulbs. I didn’t plan on taking pictures, but my trusty phone came in hand. Smudge brought her nose and one helluva good time.

The people who care for the garden do a wonderful job, and spring cleaning, or new year cleaning, came as the underbrush and detritus of last year has largely been cleared away. Only fallen leaves and new plantings – even my favorite old oak tree that usually has a pile of leaves in its center where branches grow was clean. Maybe the wind, maybe the fairies in the wood.

Because of my fall down the hill with Smudge, I decided to take the easiest paths I could find in the climb to the top of the hill. Switchbacks with low degrees of ascent and descent worked, and we had a wonderful walk.

We spent a few hours wandering around, sitting on benches, observing people and plants, listening to squirrels and crows, seeing lizards climb trees and play hide and seek in the ground cover. Smudge sniffed and climbed up on the benches to keep me company.

This is a beautiful pine, and though I have no idea what it is (and no label to be found), it is at a corner of the garden, like an old and dear friend welcoming you back.

These bulbs are always so cheerful. They bloom for months and are a bright splash along the trail.

These caught my eye – last year’s foliage, or this years tinged by frost? (We have had some below 32F nights!)

This is my beloved oak tree. It must be 500 or more years old – young when the Spanish first came to the area? Who knows . . . .

I love looking for the narcissus planted throughout the gardens, and the daffodils, and the iris. They all bloom at different times.

The pine tree from a distance. The rocks lining the pathway are new this year!

This is a native plant, and it’s rather a fun one. When the bladder pod to spread its seeds, the bladders explode and send the seeds flying in all directions.

Initially, I didn’t plan on ending up at the botanical garden; rather, the goal was the dog park. However, it turns out that on the third Thursday of the month, the dog park is closed for cleaning and maintenance. So, how lucky were we to be able to enjoy this wonderful day?

Tanglewood Underpinnings (II)

A paintings is rather like rocket ship – different stages as it takes off.

I did this in yesterday afternoon’s class, trying to focus on both light and dark, warm and cool. Acrylics seem like a rather unforgiving medium insofar as they dry quickly and can have very hard edges. That makes it a bit of a challenge for someone like me who prefers blending and mushing painting. It took me a bit to figure out how to do it.

The fun thing about an art class is the class members and seeing how they paint. Perceptions and styles are all so individualistic. Naturally you prefer this to that, but admiration for an individual’s work doesn’t mean you have to copy them. Add to this, people are so full of information and stories, and this adds to the value of their art – you get to know them.

So, this may be put off for a few days as I have some other things I need to do – and it never hurts to take a break. I hope I don’t start more than one painting at a time, though, as then I will fall into my habit of UFOs lying around, sobbing for attention.

The Scragglers in a Winter Wood

For some reason the winter and snow scenes of Maurice Utrillo were wandering through my mind when I was painting this. Yes, he painted urban winter scenes, but I don’t think that really matters. What I saw here was the brushwork, a scumbling to blend colors, which I think of when I see his paintings.

Initially my idea was to attempt a pointillistic painting, but the subject matter really doesn’t lend itself to dots. What I did was to lay down dots, as in pointillism, and then work them into each other for color gradation, textures, and mood.

If I am to be honest, I am really pleased with this painting! I hope you enjoy it, too.