Juncos Return
When the Dark-eyes Juncos return each year it’s a sure sign that fall is waning into winter. A small flock arrives like clockwork when the oak and beech leaves are the only ones still hanging on. Their white tail feathers give them away as they flash across the road and dart into the brush. I welcome them with mixed feelings—I hate to see October go, but I’m glad to watch them all winter, small black bodies puffed up against new snow or hopping out from under the porch on cold mornings. They’ll be our companions until spring winds send them northward and the season shifts again.
Tips and Techniques– I painted these juncos yesterday during my workshop “Knowing When to Stop” at Winslow Art Center’s free Autumn Art in Action Festival. At each stage of a painting, I evaluate color, values, details, shadows, and composition, slowing building up layers of paint until I’m satisfied with each of those things. These criteria help me make decisions about what to do next and can help prevent paintings that are under-or-overworked. If you struggle with knowing when to stop, try looking through that lens and see if it helps.
Am I finished?
I could have used twice as long and four times the size of my sketchbook to really convey how gigantic this Honey Locust at Thomas Cole Historic Site in Catskill, New York is. Instead, my time for art has been very short this weekend, so I decided to stop here. I may add watercolor, but I’m not sure– I like it as an ink sketch, but I can envision some fall color on the page, too. Pausing seems like the best choice for the moment.
I’ll be exploring the topic of Knowing When to Stop and call a painting done next Saturday 11/4 during Winslow Art Center’s free Autumn Art in Action Festival. The session will explore ways to assess your paintings during the middle and late stages so that you will avoid underworking or overworking. I’ll begin with a partially finished painting in ink and watercolor and demonstrate finishing techniques. Feel free to bring a mid-to-late stage painting to evaluate and work along.
Also coming up: EXPLORING HOME: Sketching Through the Seasons
Opening Reception Sunday, Nov. 5 at 2:30pm
November 1-30, Kinderhook Memorial Library, 18 Hudson St., Kinderhook, NY
This show features sketches and watercolors done within a 10-mile radius of my house. Kinderhook is a small town but there are several excellent lunch options, including Saisonnier, Morningbird Café, and Broadstreet Bagels; farm stores– Golden Harvest & Harvest Spirits and Samascott Farm Market, and places to hike nearby. Make an afternoon or day of it if you’re nearby—I’d love to see you.
Fall Collection II
There is still a lot of nice fall color here in New York, but this weekend’s rain brought a lot of leaves down and, by next weekend, I expect I’ll be seeing a lot farther into the woods. I’ve been picking up pieces of fall—nuts, fruits, berries, leaves, flowers—for weeks and stowing them in small collections on my desk, on the back porch, and on windowsills. I did another page like this a few weeks ago, but the collection has continued to grow. It’s nearly time to let it go back outside, but first, a sketch to save the season before it goes.
Tips and Techniques– The nice thing about a page like this is that you can work on it and let it build a little at a time. Don’t feel the need to rush. You can sketch directly outside or bring things home to work on when you have time. If there’s a gap in your composition, go for a walk. Soon, you’ll be noticing more and more, your page will fill, and your windowsills will start to look like mine.
You’re Invited…ART EXHIBIT: EXPLORING HOME: Sketching Through the Seasons
Opening Reception Sunday, Nov. 5 at 2:30pm
November 1-30, Kinderhook Memorial Library, 18 Hudson St., Kinderhook, NY
This show features sketches and watercolors done within a 10-mile radius of my house. Kinderhook is a small town but there are several excellent lunch options, farm stores, and places to hike nearby. I’m happy to share options for making this a day trip or a weekend getaway.
Perfetto
In Italian, perfect. I am grateful to share sketches and photos of an extraordinary week teaching Sketching the Fall Nature of Umbria with Winslow Arts Center. The weather, the setting, the accommodations and, most importantly, the workshop participants were, in a word, perfetto.
I thought I’d write a longer post to share the experience with you. Feel free to skip the details and enjoy the images if you prefer.
1. Friday- My husband Dan and I fly nine hours to Rome the day before the workshop begins, arriving at 1:30am Eastern time/6:30am in Italy. With the day stretching before us, we drop our bags at the hotel and enjoy our first cappuccino. Because we had seen the more prominent historic sites last spring, we choose to get well off the beaten path and visit the Museo Civico di Zoologia, primarily to see its 19th century ornithology collection. Alas, I am the only visitor to Rome who is sketching dead birds, but I am not disappointed—the collection is interesting and extensive. Later, we walk back through the city, catch sunset outside of the Vatican, eat dinner at a sidewalk cafe, and head to our hotel to crash.
2. Saturday- Workshop participants convene at 12:30pm at a cafe for lunch. At 2pm, we pile into a van for the 2.5-hour drive to Umbria. The first glimpse of the castle courtyard is a treat— you can’t quite believe that this is where you will spend the next week.
3. Sunday-Friday- The workshop begins in earnest and for the next week, we explore, paint, eat, learn, drink wine, and eat and paint some more. It’s delightful to be in the company of people who unapologetically geek out on art supplies and talk as passionately about brushes and paper as they do about travel, literature, or cooking. Throughout the workshop, I introduce a variety of Italian influences from art, culture, and the castle itself to infuse into our sketches.
4. We aim to capture a sense of place as well as our experiences here. The group joins me in my enthusiasm for mushrooms and pomegranates and tries their hand at sketching hawks and owls during a falconry demonstration, Chianina cattle from the castle’s farm, breakfast, maps, and more.
5. We take a midweek day trip to the medieval city of Gubbio. Narrow stone roadways, stairways, and buildings that cling to a steep hillside are the hallmarks of this city, and the views from the piazza and basilica overlooking it all are stunning. After several hours of walking and visiting historic sites, I find a gate in a stone wall that leads to a large park. Its winding shaded pathways offer respite from heat, stone, and uphill climbs, and a perfect place to sketch trees.
6. The workshop ends on Friday evening with a final show of artwork, some finished and some in progress. The diligence, talent, progress made, and aspirations of each artist are visible in the lines and paint of each journal page. What a joy to be here with such a thoughtful and talented group, to nurture their artistic journeys, and to share this special place. Thanks for coming along virtually.
Finished – Unfinished
I found this Jack-in-the- Pulpit at the edge of our woods a week ago but it didn’t make last week’s Fall Collection. With its bright red berries and arcing leaf, it deserved its own page. Still, its three faded leaflets paled in comparison with the fruit, so I decided to let the berries get the attention. Finished? Unfinished? I think finished, especially after the moth showed up on our porch ceiling and made its way onto the page.
Tips and Techniques– Decision, decisions! Right from the start of every piece, you are making decisions that affect its outcome. Embrace them. Bring your creativity to bear on the subject, composition, and materials to express what you see and what interests you.
p.s. I’ll be taking the next two weeks off of posting as I’m heading to Castello di Petroia in the heart of Italy later this week to teach Sketching the Nature of Italy in Watercolor. I hope to have some good things to share upon my return.
Registration is open for COLLECTING NATURE IN YOUR SKETCHBOOK (online), Thursdays, October 19, November 2, 9, 30 through Winslow Art Center. This is a series and you can sample one or two sessions or sign up for all four at a discounted rate.
Fall Collection 2023
My desk is littered with signs of the changing season. It started with a walnut and an acorn and quickly turned into a full-on collection. I love recording these small treasures, though I’m happy to clean up and have my desk back, too.
Tips and Techniques– What treasures are you seeing as the season changes? Take a walk or a hike and see how many tree nuts, seeds, and fruits you can find. What’s nice about sketching things like this is that they are easy to bring home and work with as time allows. You can add things as you collect them until the page is full and a beautiful seasonal display appears in your sketchbook.
Coming soon! COLLECTING NATURE IN YOUR SKETCHBOOK
Thursdays, October 19, November 2, 9, 30. Sign up for one or all of the sessions in this series. Taking inspiration from the Paper Museum of 17th century Roman collector Cassiano dal Pozzo, this series explores ways to record a variety of subjects with intention, beauty, and cohesion in your sketchbook. See details on the Workshops page.
Left Behind
What a treasure to find the shell of a northern moon snail, a perfect whorl nearly four inches end to end, decorated with a few barnacles. I love the heft of it in my hand. I love turning it over and over to study it from different angles. The huge snail that built it is long gone, but how nice that this was left behind.
Tips and Techniques– I did this page directly with a Micron 005 sepia pen and a light wash of sepia watercolor, plus a bit of yellow ochre and burnt sienna on the left hand shell. This approach was inspired by an excellent Botanical Sketching workshop I took last weekend with the highly accomplished trio Wendy Hollender, Lara Call Gastinger, and Giacomina Ferrillo. I love the look of sepia, but rarely use it, so it was great to try it during the workshop and then work with it again on my own.
Vinalhaven Sketchbook 2023
Moss-carpeted forests, spruce spires reaching the sky.
Mushrooms after rain: scarlet, orange, purple, yellow.
Granite boulders that sprout gardens of ferns and grey-green lichens.
Rocky pools brimming with life caught between the tides.
Migrating shorebirds and seabirds.
Quarry swimming. Quiet. No stop lights. No chain stores. No cell coverage.
Ferries. Fog.
These are the things that draw me to the island of Vinalhaven, Maine. I hope your summer has taken you to some of your favorite places, too.
Clamming
If you’ve ever enjoyed a clam roll or chowder or steamers, then you know the flavor of Mya arenaria, the soft shell clam. Before these mollusks reach your table, they eek out a life burrowed in soft mud or sand, filtering tiny plankton from sea water. Most clams today won’t reach their potential life span of 10-12 years, nor will they reach anyone’s plate, because they will be eaten first by highly invasive green crabs or other predators. Here’s a look at the ins and outs of clams and a few of the other creatures that share their watery home; sketched while sinking into the dark muck myself during a program on soft shell clams, hosted by the Vinalhaven Land Trust in Maine.
Tips and Techniques– Rocky coastlines, mud flats, spruce forests, and tidal basins were my muse last week while vacationing on the island of Vinalhaven in Maine. I brought my sketchbook on all our outings, including hikes, canoeing, and intertidal explorations. What I find works best for sketching on the go in varied environments is to pair down to just a sketchbook and a pen or pencil, a small set of paints, and a water brush. These fit in a waterproof Ziplock bag and are light enough to carry easily. If time is tight or conditions are too challenging, I just make an ink sketch, which I paint later. Don’t lug too many art supplies with you. Stick to the basics and you’ll likely come home with fresh sketches from your travels or time in the field.
Painting Exuberance
If last week I praised precision, this week I extol the value of putting some exuberance on the page. Especially when it comes to sketching your favorite subjects, or new-found discoveries in nature or, even better, both—some loose pen and paint and a splash of spatter can help to bring energy to your page.
I painted this as a demo for a recent class on mushrooms, a subject deserving of enthusiasm. I’ve since headed to Maine, where I stepped out of the car and found black trumpets and violet cortinarius mushrooms pushing up through rain-soaked woods. I haven’t had time to paint them, but I have a whole week ahead to explore with sketchbook in hand. Expect more exuberance in the paintings to come.
Drawn In 