Sunday Sketches

Still trying to hang on to the colors of fall before the dull days of winter. Another one of my favorite trees is the gingko tree.

The fan shape of the leaves of the gingko tree are very distinguishable from any other tree. I love the leaf's shape and in the fall the leaves turn a BRILLIANT yellow which is unmatched on the color wheel.

A friend of mine, Janet, gave me a photo she took of her friend's huge gingko tree which he planted many years ago as a little sapling. Her picture was a view of the magnificent tree through the french doors of his house. The photo inspired my sketch.

More Sunday Sketchers......

Trees Take Two

The other day I completed, or thought I had, a sketch of the maple trees along the Chehalis Western Trail. I was not totally satisfied, but posted it on Sunday Sketches which is a group of artists who post art each Sunday as a weekly discipline.

It looks like this.......

And I complained that the computer over did the blues.

Well that was truly not the issue!

VALUES!!!

No values! A classic mistake which can make the difference between a good painting and a mediocre one.

I believe I fixed the sketch and the computer was cooperative.

What do you think?

BTW, for those of you who are not artists, value is an element of art that refers to the lightness or darkness of a color.

Sunday Sketches

The leaves are turning! What a beautiful time of year.

I did a quick watercolor sketch........and I mean quick!.......to express the turning of the colors. This one is preparation for an oil painting which is on the "to do" list.

The colors did not photograph well as they are way too blue :(

More Sunday Sketchers

Sunday Sketches

Still focusing on the subject of trees...

Again here is the Lucuma tree in the background with the Nuqchu flower at its base. This is fuchsia-like flower which blooms year round in the Sacred Valley of Peru.

The Nuqchu is the main plant of the Earth Garden at Willa T'kia. Carol relates that the cascades of flowers portray abundance, not just material abundance but also love. Their powerful spirit is believed to bring love to the base chakra. You can find out more about native flowers of Peru and Carol's chakra gardens in her book, Chakra Gardens.

First painting is a watercolor and ink sketch.


This painting is an oil on 12" X 12" canvas.

Day Four

Still on retreat.......at home.

Spent most of the day painting with oils. Unfortunately, I am having challenges photographing these paintings as the paint causes glare. I tried to fix in photoshop, but still not quite right.

This first tree painting of a cedar outside my window is done on a canvas that I textured with with a palette knife and gesso. Needless to say, the textures make the painting. I will work at the photo issue.



The next painting you might recognize from earlier this week.
I added the fruit, leaves, and branches to the lucuma tree.




The three retreaters met last night to process our insights.
All goes well and work continues........

At Home Retreat

Going to retreats are inspiring and provide valuable new insights.

And can be costly!

Two friends and I came up with an "at home retreat" which began Monday and will last one full week. The basic rules: spending at least 3-4 hours a day creating and meet together two or possibly three times during the week to process.

I bought several canvases and gessoed over a few to prepare myself. Water-based oils has been a favorite medium as of late.

Trees will be the subject of this week's creations. The Lucuma tree which I first saw at Willa T'ika in the Sacred Valley of Peru has become the inspiration of the first paintings. This lovely tree is the dominating figure in Carol's landscape and gardens.


Oil painting to me is a "building up" process as oppose to watercolor which is immediate and spontaneous. So with that in mind, here are two renditions in oil of the Lucuma tree's bark and stage one of these paintings.




In addition to these paintings, I also did two ink and watercolor paintings which I will post at another time. I am on a roll!!!

Sunday Sketches

Every morning when I look out the window of the sliding glass door near my bed, I see an out of focus version of a forest of trees (without my glasses). The sky holes between the branches look like sparkling gems, the needles of the cedar trees are various size blobs of green, and the tall tree trunks look ominous.

I attempted to put this vision on paper starting first with quick brush strokes of watercolor. Everything ran together and there was no definition of shapes, so I decided the tree and branches would have inked outlines. Lastly, I got the sponge out to give the green blogs texture.

It does NOT look like my vision, but I had fun doing it.

Sunday Sketches

Still learning about this Sketchbook Project 2012 process.

Today's lesson; Joanne verses "the paper."

I wanted to give a blast of color with watercolors to emphasize the leaves' fall color. The paper got saturated and started to shred. Immediately I took out the hair dryer before disaster occurred and I would have to remove another page from the sketchbook.

I remembered that my ink pen leaked through this paper, therefore, I opted for colored pencil to bring out the leaves and trees.

Hey, it worked! Score one for Joanne!



I have to figure out what to do with the next page because it is now wavy from the use of water on this page.

Ah, the challenge continues........

Sunday Sketches

Leaving LA after finishing college, I moved to Colorado to be a ski bum; ski everyday and work at night. I graduated to skiing all day when I became a ski instructor.

Living in Colorado, I began a love affair with aspens. In spring, you can watch the bright yellow-green little leaves appear and magically turn large before your eyes. Through the summer, the aspen leaves flutter in the breeze. Many times I sketched their white bark with the circular lines and "eyes". But the fall is awesome when you walk in the woods amongst the glow of the yellow and orange leaves. The leaves then make wonderful patterns on the ground when they fall. What a magnificent tree!

When I was planning what trees to include in my landscape, aspens were a definite. I bought little "twigs" from the conservation district and planted them. Unfortunately, the deer also like my aspens. The first year the little forest of aspens were pruned at the top. This year I put a few in cages, but the ones not caged were pruned by the deer this time the middle leaves as the trees were much taller than last year. I will cage them all! These aspens will definitely have some interesting shapes when they mature due to the selective deer pruning. The most exciting thing this year is that the bark on these aspens have turned white and no longer look like twigs.

I love the shape of the aspen leaves, and recently I noticed something unusual. Two of the leaves on opposite sides of the trunk had wonderful colorful designs; worthy of a painting. Hopefully it is not some sign of a bug. If so, what wonderful creative work the bug does!

Rhodys In Abundance

Sunday I traveled with my friend, Janet, to Sequim to catch the last day of the Sequim Art Show and to pick up my watercolor painting. Janet suggested we stop at the rhododendron garden on our way.

I had never been to Whitney Gardens & Nursery in Brinnon, Washington, and what a RARE TREAT. Whitney Gardens is at the foot of the Olympic Mountains and has the most beautiful array of rhododendron hybrids and species in the Northwest nestled among rare trees and ponds. Also in abundance are azaleas, magnolias, maples, conifers, kalmias, camellias, perennials, trees, shrubs and ground cover. It is definitely a breathtaking experience especially when the rhodys are in full bloom as we experienced.

My favorite was this Rhody tree whose name I have misplaced.


The small greenhouses of rhododendrons were organized by colors and one greenhouse had fragrant varieties.


I especially like the colors and rows of maples.

Pea Invasion

I love to grow plants and play in the soil.

When I moved, a year ago, my garden consisted of three potted tomato plants and one strawberry pot. The lot surrounding the house was a weed field.

This year along with planting some fruit trees and ornamental trees I wanted to have a veggie garden. I made one 5 foot by 8 foot box and filled it with wonderful, dark, rich soil. This was going to get me by for a veggie garden this summer.

Snow peas are a must and were the first seeds in the ground. I usually plant enough to share with friends and family.........everyone loves snow peas!

This spring was unusually cold and wet here in Washington. In fact, most say we have gone from winter to summer. The lettuce seeds drowned, spinach never matured, and the beets and carrots are scraggly. The slugs ate my pepper and cucumber plant.

But the peas thrived and invaded the garden box.



Other than peas, I have my old faithful tomato plants and strawberries for this summer's garden endeavors. We shall see what next year brings.......

Katsura Tree

Yesterday I posted a blog relating to the tree selection for my yard.

I mentioned that I consulted with an artist friend, Karen Lohman; Matsushima Landscaping, who helped with the design. I love trees and it was a challenge to limit my selection. Karen insisted that I have a Katsura Tree. I never heard of one, have you? The Katsura Tree definitely appeals to the artist in me.

Katsura Tree is also known as the carmel tree. No, you do not get caramels from it, but some think the wonderful Katsura Tree smells like caramel or cotton candy when it loses it's leaves in the fall. Besides being wonderful to smell in the fall, the Katsura sports a lovely blend of orange, raspberry, and apricot-colored leaves. The Katsura is no slouch in other seasons, either. In the spring Katsura has reddish-purple new growth, in summer it sports heart-shaped blue-green leaves and in winter the gray, slightly exfoliating bark lends interest.

I have watched the heart-shaped leaves of my Katsura Tree turn from purple to red and now some green is emerging.......



The Katsura is native to Japan and eastern Asia and is widely used as a landscape tree in those areas. Katsura blooms in early spring. I read that the flowers are not showy. Maybe that is why I totally missed them? Or are they still coming?

I so look forward to its fall colors! I will definitely let you know if it gives off a carmel smell. But, I certainly do not want to rush summer!



Once again, I am overjoyed with Karen's selection of trees.

Choosing a Dogwood Tree

As I began planning the landscape for my home, I consulted with a friend, Karen Lohman; Matsushima Landscaping, who is very creative and knowledgeable. She helped me to decide what I wanted and drew the blueprint.

I had to narrow down my tree selection, but a dogwood tree was a MUST. Which one? Karen influenced my decision by suggesting an Oriental Dogwood tree, but Judy Manley another artist and landscape specialist, talked highly of a Korean Dogwood. Challenging decision! It took a third woman at Bark and Garden Nursery in Olympia, Washington, to help me pin down the perfect dogwood for me. When she explained the color development of the blossoms, I had to have this one.

First the blossoms are white and green with tinges of pink as you can still see in the background of this photograph.



Some of the blooms have grown larger and are turning pink.



The blossoms have such a lovely grace.



Needless to say, I am very happy with my decision and look forward to many years of watching this Korean Dogwood tree grow and bloom.

Moss Trees

The Pacific Northwest and moss seem to go together.

On my morning walk, along the Chehalis Western Trail in Olympia, Washington, I was enamoured by the green outlines of the trees. It happened to be one of those dark, cloudy mornings with a surprise sun break. I believe this condition intensifies the color of the moss. Would you agree?





I also like the little ferns which grow on the moss.