Ancient Apple in Spring
“Moss thickened every bough and the wood of the limbs looked rotten, but the trees were wild with blossom and a green fire of small new leaves flickered even on the deadest branches.” From The Apple Trees at Olema, Robert Hass, 1941 Ancient, gnarled, and abandoned, two old apples still stand in a neighboring field. I go there in springtime to see them come to life. Solid. Defiant. They send out blossoms and leaves against all odds. Capturing this moment is such a pleasure. I drew directly in pen and then added… Read More
Star Magnolia
April showers bring…May showers, or so it seems. We’ve had many days with only a glimpse of sun. But magnolia blossoms are so fleeting that I was determined to try to capture a few blooms before they lay scattered across the lawn. Yet each time I grabbed my sketchbook, sun quickly gave way to clouds. I finally managed a very quick sketch against blue skies, before it turned gray again. I added watercolor and text later inside, using an old fashioned dip pen with waterproof black ink.
Paper Subtlety
I recently made a 5×7” accordion fold journal with high quality watercolor paper (Arches, 140lb, CP) and started it off with continuing studies of nests and eggs. Wow—what a difference paper makes! I loved the subtle effects that can be achieved with this paper, especially for nest materials and delicate egg markings (the white puffin egg was too delicate to scan well; click on it for a larger view). The downside, unfortunately, is that it’s hard for me to imagine doing a quick journal sketch or scrawling notes on a page – the… Read More
Oology
With so many shapes, sizes, colors, and patterns, bird eggs make for fascinating painting—and study. Here, I experimented with different techniques for eggs, shadows, and patterns, starting at the bottom left and working my way up the page. The hard outer shell of an egg takes almost 20 hours to complete—layers of calcium and color slowly building. Thankfully, it doesn’t take that long to paint an egg, but it is also a slow process of building up layers of watercolor.
Drawn In 