Laurelines

80° North, anyone? Art supplies for the Land of the Midnight Sun!

 

That's where we'll be the first part our trip!  Far, far, far northern Norway, off the mainland. I am going to try to get some sort of memento with that latitude engraved on it! I'm a north-going spirit, that's for sure. 

This being such a once-in-a-lifetime trip, I vow to document it fully in writing and sketches, in addition to the separate group of drawings I'll do for my Caledonian Orogeny project.

But what supplies to take with me?? I travel only with a carryon and that has to contain clothes for winter weather (still there in May and early June in Svalbard) as well as for cool spring days, which I hope we will find in the other parts of Norway we are going to. Yikes!

Wakeful at 2am today (and you can understand why!), I looked at past sketches of similar atmospheric situations. Here are my tentative choices. If you have any suggestions, by the way, please do make them!

I know you've seen most of these before, but bear with me. I have to think.;D

1. Caran d'Ache watercolor crayons: I use these often. Here are some examples from  the past:

Iceland, Budir Bay

More Iceland. Here there's a wash of Daniel Smith Lunar Black with the crayons. I'll take that and Lunar Blue and those will be my only watercolors. Right? I can add more washes later. if I want to.

 

Mt Hood, Oregon. Unlike my previous trips to Norway, which all took place in the Arctic Twilight, this trip will be, as I mentioned, under the Midnight Sun!

    2. Pentel pocket brush pen. These are practically extensions of my hands. I use them everywhere.

In Bergen, Norway, with white gel pen and watercolor wash

 

In E.Lansing, Michigan, with watercolor crayons! Two for the price of one!

    3. Inktense pencils? When you must have bursts of juicy color!

Don't you love how a mere spritz of water makes inktense sketches ebullient!

Inktense pencils at Carn Llidi, Wales. Speaking of atmospheric, as we were:

     4. Cretacolor Oil pencils in Nero. I have to have these for regular drawing, right?  With these, you can be both gestural and precise:

And I'll need these for my Caledonian Orogeny drawing, of course;

    5. Sketchbooks: I'll have a couple of custom handmade concertina sketchbooks for the rock drawings and then two Stillman & Birn softcover 8 x10s, one in gray, one in white.

    6. Blue and red colored pencils, not watercolor ones. Oh, let's add orange and green, too. I just like to draw with these and they come in handy if you want quick, dry color.

 

 Oh, I've given myself a headache now.

I'm serious... if you have any suggestions, any new products you like for travel sketches, or old favorites of yours (not watercolors, though, or fountain pens for this trip, unfortunately,) I'd love to have them!

Takk!

The track of my heart; the journal as location device

 It's the last day of March and the last page of my journal for the first part of 2015. As I've written  before, I keep a regular sketchbook journal, filling one 8 1/2 x 11" Stillman & Birn Alpha sketchbook every three months.

There are many reasons why these books are vital to my well-being, but I'm feeling this especially at the end of a short period where my work is in progress and where the same work has been interrupted a fair amount.  Nothing dramatic here, just some family obligations that I need and want to fulfill. All is well still.

This morning I came across the phrase 'the track of the heart' in reference to an artist's characteristic style over a large body of work. And I thought that's also what my journal is, the track of my heart, and of my mind, my eye, my hand.

And then, one thing leading to another as they will, THAT phrase reminded me of a quotation by Frederick Buechner that I've scrawled recently on my studio blackboard:

Thus when you wake up in the morning [...] , if you want to know who you are, watch your feet. Because where your feet take you, that is who you are.

 

 An accidental photo I took of myself walking in Cesenatico, Italy last fall. There are several of these unplanned self-portraits pasted in my journals.

Knowing who you are is obviously a good idea for all of us. As an artist completely devoted to making art that comes from who I am (making no claims whatsoever about the value of this work to others), I feel a deep and continual need to keep in touch with that inner self.

I see her in the little ink and wash experiments and sketches and to do lists I put in my journals:

 I'm crazy about the way watercolor granulates and illuminates.

 

And I love using dip pens and ink with watercolor washes.

 

I see her in the studies for my current painting series:

I had fun using black lava texture gel here. Would never use it in a finished piece, but it lent the proper spirit to these rough-hewn explorations.

I see myself in the little sketchy faces that appear on my pages, sometimes from the imagination, sometimes as studies for illustration assignments:

Big Stabilo crayons and ink and wash produced the top image; Pentel Pocketbrush pen and watercolor created the bottom one.

I see myself in the spontaneous sketches I make in my journal in the early mornings, before I'm fully awake, of obects in my surroundings:

I keep my old journals nearby, the last two years' worth on a bookshelf in my studio, older ones on a bookshelf in the next room. I consult them several times a week. I find recurring imagery, ideas that surface again and again and demand to be dealt with in time. I get inspired by old brushstrokes and compositions. I discover there are times in each year when my energy and moods are not at their best and this helps me get through those seasonal cycles with a feeling of compassion for myself. I said these books are vital to my well-being and they truly are.

So there.  That's the story.

Even with interruptions and occasional strayings from the path, I have my journals to show me who I am, where I've been, and where in the world I might be going next. 

 

 My snowshoe-clad feet on Mt. Hood earlier this month.

Oregon sketches, last batch

It's always fun to sketch with another person. Sketching with my daughter Cecelia is more than fun... it's thrilling and so gratifying. Because we were together, I sketched more in the short time period than I often do. Well, and it was so beautiful where we were. That kind of incentive works well, too!

I drew the mountain several times, as you have seen, each time from a slightly different perspective and in different light conditions. I could have gone on forever, I think. I'm hoping to go to the Bavarian Alps next December and that may be my next mountain trip. I'll be more than ready when the time comes.

Here is my daughter drawing in her large sketchbook on our first morning. It was warm enough that day for us to sit and sketch without (fingerless) gloves and hats.

I am always drawn to figurative sculpture, from the fountains of Paris to the folk art of New Mexico. At Timberline Lodge, the interior of the building is animated by lovely carved wooden animals. These and much of the original furniture were made by artisans expressly for the building, in accordance with the Works Progress Administration's goals of providing work for laborers and craftsmen during the tough economic times of the 1930s.

Another quick sketch of the mountain, made with Caran d'Ache crayon, Cretacolor nero pencil, and watercolor wash.

Finally, a sketch of the restaurant/bar area at the Residence Inn in the Pearl District of Portland. Cecelia and I sketched there together last August and we did do again last week.

I'm home now and glad to be here, but I miss Cecelia and our time together in Oregon. Good thing I have these sketches as mementoes!