New prints hanging on the line to dry always remind me of Tibetan prayer flags.
Prayer flags are meant to promote peace, compassion, strength, and wisdom, and to spread these to all sentient beings in the surrounding space.
It’s a tall order, but it’s my hope that all art –including mine– also helps spread understanding, compassion, and joy to those who view it.
I felt like The Little Tailor today when I brought my camera along on my morning walk and captured four interesting things in one photo.
Here you have a breaking wave, a pelican floating, a dolphin jumping after fish, and what appears to be the Merrimac –but I think it’s actually someone fishing in a kayak with some sort of shelter set up.
Proof that it’s sometimes a good idea to bring your camera along, just because.
Having had not only my usual early-morning latte and breaktime cup of coffee, but also an on-my-way-out-the-door iced mocha, I was well-caffeinated and full of energy upon leaving my shift at Peet’s. So yesterday I embarked on that rarity, the full-length afternoon hike, through Henry Cowell Redwoods State Park.
It was a beautiful day for a hike. I started out walking through the Redwood Grove Trail, which features a self-guided tour and is wheelchair accessible. There were lots of families walking through here, taking photos and being amazed at the giant old-growth redwoods.
I soon left this loop, and the crowds, and took the River Trail to the Eagle Trail. I liked these burned tree stumps on the Eagle Trail. The first reminds me of a dragon:
The second reminds me of a horned owl:
The older trees in the park are around 1400 – 1800 years old. Here’s a beauty, though the composite photo still doesn’t do justice to its height or breadth:
Streams chuckled alongside the path, the breeze stirred the treetops, birds sang unseen; I was thoroughly enjoying myself. My goal was the observation tower at the highest point in the park, so the trail steadily rose, and the trees soon began to thin out
and pretty soon I reached chapparal.
A right turn onto the Pine Trail produced views out to surrounding mountains, and gave a hint to the ongoing danger of forest fires in the area.
The trail up here had turned very sandy. This area had once been ocean floor, and the wind and dry weather have kept much vegetation from growing, and hence any soil from developing. It made for fairly hard going; in some places, the sand was several inches deep. Imagine climbing a mountain and walking on the beach at the same time! You might be able to see from this picture that the tips of my hiking sticks are well buried, and how dusty my boots are.
Or get some idea of the sandiness of the trail:
I soon reached the observation tower — which, I’m a bit disappointed to report, was not a tower at all but simply a viewing platform. But still, the views were excellent.
There were many horses on the trail; I encountered four different groups of riders. You can just see a smudge of ocean fog in the distance. At this point, some cool air would have been appreciated! The temperature at the summit was much different from that in the redwood forest.
They had the cleverest device at the platform: a water fountain for horses! The horse nuzzles his (or her) nose against the lever, and voila! water! It keeps the water fresh, and the horses happy. Maybe this is old hat to horsefolk, but I thought this was the cat’s meow.
After leaving the viewing platform/observation tower, I soon re-entered the redwood forest. Such nice shade, and such rich greens.
I soon reached the River Trail, and closed the loop I had started two hours earlier. An apple on the banks of the San Lorenzo River was my reward for a hike well done.
Henry Cowell Redwoods State Park
The park is located in Felton, CA. Besides hiking trails, the park also features a campground and picnic area. While many people leave their cars outside the park and walk in, I would strongly encourage all park-goers to support California’s state parks and pay the day-use fee. It is a small amount to pay to keep the state’s natural beauty safe and accessible to all.
Fairy tales are fascinating. Ostensibly for children, they offer up stories of obsession, revenge, betrayal, and death. The Red Shoes is a prime example.
In Hans Christian Andersen’s story, a little girl is adopted by a rich old woman after the death of the girl’s mother. The girl grows up vain and spoiled, and tricks the nearsighted old woman into buying red shoes for her confirmation. In church she thinks of nothing but her beautiful red shoes. Shortly thereafter, the old woman falls ill, but rather than attend to her, the girl goes to a party, wearing the red shoes, of course. As she returns home, an old soldier tells her she has beautiful shoes for dancing. She begins to dance, and dance, and can neither stop dancing nor take the shoes off. She dances day and night, winter and summer, rain and sun, without stop. She begs for mercy when she meets an angel, but is told:
“Dance you shall! …Dance in your red shoes until you are pale and cold, and your flesh shrivels down to the skeleton. Dance you shall from door to door, and wherever there are children proud and vain you must knock at the door till they hear you, and are afraid of you. Dance you shall. Dance always.”
I wanted to show the girl dancing uncontrollably, her movements like those of a marionette. She is trapped in the frame of the print, just as she is trapped in the shoes.
This is the second in my series of fairy tale prints, all of which will be black and white with a red detail.
The Red Shoes
Linoleum block print, 2009
Daniel Smith water-soluble inks on Rives Heavyweight paper with hand coloring
I took my new French easel out on my first plein-air outing this morning, and I’ve already learned a whole lot about painting outdoors. The first lesson learned: remember to bring your canvas!
After a quick trip back home to pick up a canvas (doh!), I was ready to settle in with paint and brush. Whenever I’ve mentioned wanting to try my hand at painting outdoors, people have immediately asked whether I’ll be doing coastal scenes. So since I had to begin somewhere, and popular demand said “coast”, I picked a spot on the headlands just south of Davenport. My hike with Kimlin came in very handy, since I’d walked the coast before and remembered where all the access points are.
This is the spot I picked:
I’m glad I practiced setting up my easel at home before going out to paint; it’s not immediately intuitive. Luckily there are on-line lessons on how to unfold one of these gizmos. Here is the easel, set up and ready for me to begin painting. :
And here’s the painting after a half hour of work, blocking in colors.
Here are some of the lessons I learned on my first day, in no particular order:
1. A hat and a windbreaker are good things to have.
2. There’s no need for paper towels if you have a good rag.
3. Plastic bags are bad for the environment, but good to have with you for packing out any trash.
4. It’s probably not a good idea to drink a giant cup of coffee before going out for a long painting session.
5. Eventually, I should have two sets of paints, one to have at home permanently, and one to carry in the easel permanently. This will help prevent disappointment, like realizing you’ve left a key color at home.
6. While the easel folds up quite cleverly, a bungee cord would be good to help keep it from unfolding as you walk back to the car.
7. Fruit is good to bring as a snack. Bananas are not the best choice.
8. A good strong coastal wind dries out paint really, really fast. I had a bit of a struggle to find the balance between enough paint to work with and not so much paint that it dries into a crusty gob.
9. It might be a good idea to have several canvases in the car so you can select the best shape for the spot you’ve picked. Ideally, I’d have used a slightly wider canvas for this painting; as it is, I’ve squeezed the cliff a bit to make it fit.
10. The sun moves, and so do shadows.
11. Painting outdoors makes you hungry.
12. Painting outdoors is hard work.
13. Painting outdoors is fun!
After working for a couple of hours, the sun had moved quite a bit (see #10 above) and I had to quit. I thought about this a bit, and when I got home I looked at some of Van Gogh’s paintings, and confirmed to myself that he usually did not paint strong directional shadows, but instead painted a strong overall light. Or one could be like Monet, and paint the same thing over and over with slightly different light.
One of the things I like about this easel is that you can leave the painting attached while folding it back up, giving a handy way to carry the painting when the canvas is still wet.
I painted for two hours today. I can’t go out tomorrow –darn the day job!– but will go back again on Saturday to try and finish it up. All in all, paint me satisfied.
Plein Air Affaire in Santa Cruz
If you are interested in more plein air painting, you should make sure to attend this weekend’s Plein Air Affaire. Located at the Museum of Art and History in downtown Santa Cruz, the event takes place both Saturday and Sunday from 11am to 5pm. Our friend Andrew Purchin is one of the artists participating.
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