A nest in the west – Illo Friday Spring
For more current spring paintings from my journals … click here .
Last springtime, a finch family came looking for nesting quarters and decided that the eaves were not nearly as hospitable as one of my hanging Boston ferns. I saw the frantic search for twigs and grasses, the constant flying to and fro of the parents and before long I had a good idea that there were little ones on the way. One day when both parents were out looking for food I hurriedly took the basket down for a look (camera at the ready.) I took a picture that was the inspiration for this painting and quickly put the hanging nursery back where I found it. (There would be no drawing or painting from life for this one.) Eventually two sisters and a brother hatched, fledged, and grew to lead successful independent lives of their own. When I see finches returning in the spring I always wonder if they’re members of the same family.
Arty bits: Painted in gouache in a Moleskine sketchbook
Magnolia blossom 1
The magnolia shrubs are in full bloom at Descanso, and I had the opportunity to paint some of them in my botanicals sketchbook a week or so ago. I will probably do another page with the blossom fully open, but at the time I loved their sculptural look in well-formed bud. It’s no wonder that these are often nicknamed “tulip trees.” I would like to have one of these in my yard, and perhaps I’ll plant one some time. We lost a very large magnolia tree to oak root fungus many years ago, so I’ve been hesitant to plant anything in the magnolia family since then.
Return to the teahouse
I am visiting Descanso Gardens several times a week now, weather permitting, just to capture the changing beauty of the season. Day by day the garden seems to change. The rain that nourishes some buds to open washes away others in full flower. It reminds me that beauty is very fleeting and that the time to appreciate it is NOW, not someday. A trip to the garden in May will let me paint sunflowers but not cherry blossoms.
This garden area incorporates the Japanese landscaping principle of “hide and reveal.” You enter the garden through several gates, and as you follow several meandering paths, new vistas appear before you. If you stroll by the garden from the outside, you may glimpse a different view through the camellia shrub hedge, such as this one.
If you were to move yourself 90 degrees to the left, you would see this view – that flowering tree is the same. (Oh, and Go Bruins … onward to the Final Four!)
Spring lilacs – challenge 59
It was cool and partly cloudy, but spring was in the air today at Descanso Gardens, where the lilacs are beginning to bloom. I painted this botanical study in my paperblanks journal which I am using for that purpose, exclusively (see callistemon, earlier this month.)
I used a combination of tube watercolor paints and caran d’ache watersoluble crayons for this one – with just the barest pencil drawing underneath. A Niji waterbrush provided the water. It was a special treat to have several conversations with other garden visitors who like plants and art.
Now, this is in complete contrast to “Union Station Sketchcrawl” (March 12) in which I changed almost every aspect of the courtyard to suit my composition. Here, I tried to faithfully represent the subject as best I could. I think that both are good styles for drawing, you just need to be clear about your objective before beginning.
Meet the Beetles – Illo Friday
These beetles are all from the Milwaukee Public Museum collection, which I had the pleasure of seeing last year. I like all kinds of nature topics, even somewhat creepy ones. The designs of nature have inspired artists from the beginning of man’s history; no wonder they still continue to fascinate. Can’t you just see a tapestry fashioned after the back of that blue beetle, or a gossamer gown mimicing those transparent amber wings? I’m not so sure about the horizontal stripes on that little one down in the corner. Vertical would have been much more slenderizing.
And now the burning question … who really is the “fifth” beetle?
Teahouse of the February Morning – TEA for Illo Friday
A watercolor sketch of the teahouse at Descanso Gardens. Kind of. Sort of. I took a lot of liberties with it, as I understand a painter has a right, maybe even an obligation to do.
I might make a painting of this someday. For now, it’s just a study for practice. Did you know that a pivotal scene from Memoirs of a Geisha was filmed here? I didn’t – until a few days ago. Can you spot the koi in the water?
I am also going to call this my first “local landmark” for the Everyday Matters “draw a local landmark” challenge. I have a few others I think I will do also.
Arty notes: 9 x 9 Super Deluxe Aquabee sketchbook, watercolor and some colored pencil for enhancement.
Another sketchcrawl page
My workbook is evolving, and so am I. Sometimes the mood strikes me to do compositional and value sketches; other times I might be captivated by the texture of a rock, carefully observing the nature of reflections. On Saturday, while hiding out from the sprinkling of rain under the teahouse roof, I settled in to do a long, slow drawing of a California Live Oak. The biggest challenge was trying to describe the volume of the limbs when the light kept changing (like the camellia painting I posted two days ago.) Still, it was a satisfying sketching session and I felt like I got to know this tree a little better.
Too big to fit under my scanner, this 9 x 12 Watson Guptill sketchbook is a good size for trees and big objects.
Camellias Sketchcrawl style
Saturday, four hardy artists braved the cold temperatures and sallied forth to Descanso Gardens for a sketchcrawl. Because it was sprinkling, our first stop was the Japanese teahouse with its sheltering roof, which protected us from the morning drizzle. We sketched there for an hour or more and then, seeing that the sun was peeking occasionally through the clouds, we ventured out into another part of the garden.
I stopped at a camellia bush where I painted this cluster for a little while. I used a page in my Canson watercolor journal that I had previously started at the Chinatown parade, then rapidly gave up on. (Digression warning) The only scribble on said page was a stiltwalker in drag wearing a slinky Chinese dress. Think “Al” from ToolTime (the flannel-shirted, bearded one) wearing a dress from The World of Suzie Wong, only imagine him 10 feet tall. Got the picture? There simply wasn’t time to capture him/her in all his/her glory, so I gave up somewhere between the mandarin collar and the flash of beefy thigh. However, being of a frugal nature, I painted over the page with a few coats of Liquitex acryllic gesso (white) figuring I’d do something else in that space.
The else moment arrived on Saturday. I painted these using my portable w/c palette (which I have since misplaced, unfortunately.) The first challenge was trying to figure out the values of the colors when the light conditions went from full sun to dark stormy clouds, minute by minute. The next challenge was painting directly without doing any drawing or sketching underneath. Usually shadows provide positive and negative spaces to get ones bearings with. But everytime the sun went away the image “flattened out” and the shadows disappeared.
The final challenge involved the medium itself. The watercolor flowed smoothly over the gessoed surface and was surprisingly malleable until it dried. I’m guessing that the gesso prevented it from sinking into the paper, so the pigment was simply a dry layer on the surface. When raindrops started falling, it created dissolved water drop marks. Before I panicked, I realized that it looked somewhat like raindrops clinging to the petals. Hmmm. An accident becomes a technique. “Why yes, um, er, I did plan it exactly that way, timing my painting so the waterdrops would fall just so at the appropriate moment.” Sorry, Karen, not very convincing. At any rate, I stopped painting before the droplets turned the whole thing into a runny splotchy mess.
I had a nice moment when some camellia watchers came by and asked if they could see what I was doing, which I happily shared with them.
So that’s my sketchcrawl story. I am now in pursuit of the missing palette which I surmise may be proof positive of poltergeist activity in my house. When I find it, I suspect a lost shaker of salt will be nearby. Wasted away again in Watercolorville.
Sketches are made by fools like me
It’s startling to me at times how I can get so caught up in what I’m doing and ignore the obvious.
Today I spent some time at Descanso Gardens with my husband, enjoying the beauty of a spring (Valentine’s) day, and I took my time doing a very detailed line drawing of a magnolia twig. As I peered at it intently, something “clicked” and I realized one of the purposes of botanical drawing. When you observe something very closely – and I mean down to the 1/16 of an inch closely, you start to understand what the plant does. You begin to sense which way the twig will bend even before it does. You know where the leaf will come out of an axil, and what side it will be on. You begin to think, perhaps a little bit, like a plant. OK, that’s too new age, scratch that. You know what I mean. You begin to understand the plant intimately, becoming lost in its anatomy, its function and its beauty.
So, as I was fixated on this small twig, working slowly and methodically, I lost sight of the larger plant patterns that shared the same white space: the bare winter bones of the magnolia overhead, the tumescent buds, the rhythm of line and shape, the lost and found edges, the positive and negative spaces. While I was trying to capture nature with my pencil, Nature was impishy doing her own dance with effortless grace, as though to taunt me. But perhaps to lead me on, to keep practicing and to keep looking. I bow to you, Madame Magnolia. You win. Sketches are made by fools like me, but only God can use light to paint a tree.
Botanical Guild Meeting
I just got back from a meeting of the So. Calif. Guild of Botanical Artists, which is held every three months in and around the southland area. What an incredibly nice (and talented) group of people! I am still evaluating whether or not I have room in my life for another membership or commitment, but if I do this would be high on my list. During this period of exploring and experimenting as I return to art after my long hiatus, I am looking at many different forms and expressions. Botanical illustration is among the most rigorous as every detail must be technically accurate as well as beautiful. Some artists draw their subjects many times, defining and refining it on tracing paper until they get the details perfect. At that point, they will transfer it to paper (watercolor paper or bristol board or another type, depending upon the medium used.) Then begins the detailed application of paint or pencil. I’m not sure that I will have the patience for that kind of exacting work, but as some of the members mentioned, some people do accurate paintings in a much looser style. On the other hand, I love flowers and gardening so much … AND … I love watercolor and other media so it makes a lot of sense that I’d be attracted to botanicals – it would unite two of my passions. So, we shall see. I don’t have any tightly rendered botanicals to share today, although I think I may try to render something small in the next few days, just to see what it “feels” like. In the meantime, here’s a field study of some tree roots, painted last year in the Angeles Forest.
