Something Old and New
I bought a leather-bound journal with lovely cream-colored laid paper with deckled edges while in Italy. It’s not suited to watercolors, but it’s good for ink sketches, which I’ve been eager to do more of using sepia ink. Brown inks, including sepia (originally derived from cuttlefish), bistre (made from the residue found in chimney stacks), and iron gall (made from the tannins in oak galls and iron), were frequently used for drawing and light washes during the Renaissance (think Leonardo Da Vinci or Rembrandt drawings). I love the way that brown inks… Read More
From the Collection
I’m taking advantage of bitterly cold days to paint a few bird nests that I’ve wanted to spend time with from the collection of the New York State Museum in Albany. Maybe that seems like an odd thing—spending time with a bird nest—but I find that when I am doing a detailed drawing and painting like this, I can’t help but think about the bird that made it, the young that fledged from it, the materials it is made of, the weather it survived, and the person who collected it. In this… Read More
Travels in Italy—Part 1
Buon Giorno…It’s been a while. I didn’t mean to be away so long. But sometimes travel leads to the unexpected. After a lovely week of teaching in Umbria and several days hiking up and down the steep hillsides overlooking the sea in Porto Venere, my trip to Italy took a wrong turn when I tested positive for Covid in Florence and couldn’t come home. You may be thinking that spending an unexpected week in Florence is a dream…but not so much when you have to find a place to stay during the… Read More
Surrounded by Magenta
After a winter of painting with brown and earth-toned pigments, it feels extravagant to use so much magenta. But this particular variety of magnolia had magnificently deep-colored blossoms and I found myself dipping into paint pans that I rarely use. With the tree in full bloom and fallen petals on the ground it was a delight to be surrounding by so much color. Tips and Techniques– When you are using a strong color like quinacridone magenta, it helps to tone it down. I used yellow ochre and aureolin yellow, which produce some… Read More
The Last of the Garden
The November garden is as stark as the rest of the world. The vibrancy of the August palette has given way to browns and grays. A touch of green and ocher and russet remain. It isn’t much, but I’ll take it. A tangle of once-scarlet runner beans is all there is for a final garden painting.
Believer in Ferns
Come back believer in shade believer in silence and elegance believer in ferns believer in patience believer in the rain — W.S. Merwin (Empty Water) How good to be out in the greening woods, despite the occasional rain and still cold spring day. Good to see ferns unfurling and mayapples reaching up out of last year’s leaves and a single ruby red trillium. Tips and Techniques– My simple tip this week is to let observation and delight drive your sketching. Go out with no agenda and see what strikes you. I was… Read More
Small Signs of Spring
When art takes a backseat to the rest of my life, I find it helpful to use a grid. Setting up a framework of small squares in my journal allows me the flexibility to fill them as time allows over a period of days or weeks. I started this grid in March, knowing that a hectic schedule lay ahead. This grid started with a set of six squares per page but, as you can see, the squares can be combined vertically or horizontally to fit the subject at hand. I especially like… Read More
Lost in Greenery
Note to self: avoid painting at the Lyman Conservatory during the spring bulb show. Truth be told, I only glanced into the rooms that displayed a grand spectacle of colorful tulips and daffodils. They were so crowded with winter-weary visitors that sketching there was impossible. I did, however, eke out a small corner of a greenhouse where a tangle of vine wound its way from floor to ceiling. And, as crowded as it was, I wouldn’t have traded a day lost in that greenery for anything.
Reds
My previous post on tulips left me eager for more reds, though this week, I’m back to birds and words. What better choice for reds than the Northern Cardinal, the most colorful bird at my feeder in winter? But isn’t red just red, you ask? Well, absolutely not. You can see that I’ve experimented with different reds (and yellow) here— mixing combinations of transparent reds in a range of warm and cool tones. Other than alizarin crimson, these aren’t colors I use frequently, so this was a worthwhile experiment. Tips and Techniques–… Read More
The Next Best Thing
February in upstate New York is typically cold and cloudy. With two months of winter already past and another two on the horizon before spring arrives, it’s time to head to the tropics or the desert for a midwinter getaway. Except when you can’t. Then, we have to settle for the next best thing: a trip to a greenhouse. I spent yesterday afternoon at the Lyman Conservatory at Smith College in Massachusetts and it felt like paradise. Warmth. Light. Rooms full of greenery. Art supplies in hand. What could be better? Tips… Read More
Jean Mackay
The Nature Explorer’s Sketchbook
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Drawn In 