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.
July 30 2009 | Printmaking | 2 Comments »
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.
July 28 2009 | Walks and hikes | No Comments »
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.
July 18 2009 | Walks and hikes | 4 Comments »
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
July 13 2009 | Printmaking | No Comments »
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.
July 09 2009 | Painting | 4 Comments »
I’ve been mostly blogging about my prints, with good reason: that’s what I’ve been working on lately. But it’s time to get the easel out and finish the paintings I’ve started. Plus Sarah-Hope gave me a plein-aire easel as a combined birthday and anniversary present, and I’m planning on going out to paint in the open. That’s a whole new venture for me, and I’m very excited about it. It will be the best of both worlds: hiking and painting, all at the same time!
So in no particular order, here’s what I’ve got queued up. Be warned that their sizes in this blog are not proportional to each other; pay attention the the dimensions listed to get an idea of the actual size of each painting.
Black Oak
28″ x 22″
This is almost finished; I just need to clean up the top 2/3 a little bit, and finish the hills and foreground grass.
Fire Road
28″ x 24″
A fair amount of work still to go: I want it all to be more fantastic, like the shrubs in the center. Think Van Gogh in the insane asylum. Fire roads, in California, are the dirt roads cut through the forests to allow crews to clear brush and fight fires, and they can be very hot to hike on. This time, think mad dogs and Englishmen.
Hill Road (working title; I’m not sure what it will be named)
18″ x 24″
This is actually a very old canvas that I found tucked away behind others when I moved to Santa Cruz. I’d have to guess I started it in 2003 or 2004. I’ll keep it pretty much the way it is, just finish details and surface texture.
View From the Train
36″ x 24″
There’s a fair amount of work to be done on this. The tire tracks need some color changes, and I might consolidate them so there are fewer of them. The hills and house in the distance need work, or the house may disappear altogether.
Eucalyptus Forest
12″ x 16″
I’m still finding inspiration from my pilgrimage in Spain. This image is based on the forests in Galicia. It’s almost finished, just a few touch-ups to the sky color, and making the foreground shrubbery a bit more dense in color. Phtalo blues and greens tend to be transparent if you use them straight-up.
The Road (working title)
24″ x 24″
Again, an image from Spain. Specifically, looking down from the ridge you climb after leaving Castrojeriz. This is just roughed in, so there’s lots of work left to do, but the color balance is about right. I’ll add more reds-yellows-ochres to the fields.
Looks like I have my work cut out for me! So I’m off then, to paint.
July 06 2009 | Painting | 1 Comment »
It may be entirely coincidental, but I blame Damian and the Incident of the Whippy Tail for the death of my beloved 4-port hub, and by extension, the lack of recent blog entries.
It was not a sudden, merciful death. Rather, the hub lingered, sometimes connecting my peripherals, sometimes not. At times the green light of connectedness would glow strongly, promising access to printers and card readers, only to blink out in exhaustion as soon as data flowed. At other times, only a pale glow would appear, ghostly blue and weak, a shadow of its normal self.
I tried what I could. I disconnected the hub, hoping that a vacation would revive its strength. I tried switching cables from port to port, thinking that all it needed was some variety to perk it up. Damian even tried hitting it again with his tail, in a sort of “hair of the dog” homeopathic treatment. All in vain.
This week I finally made the call: the hub was dead. A quick trip to BestBuy secured its replacement, a new, larger, 7-port hub. Sic transit gloria mundi.
July 03 2009 | Uncategorized | 2 Comments »
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