Elfin Forest in Morro Bay

While visiting Grandma in San Luis Obispo, I biked out to the "Elfin Forest" to go sketching one bright sunny morning. These oaks, while also very old, are much more compact and slow-slung than the trees at the Los Osos Oak preserve I had sketched the day before.

I wanted to hop off the boardwalk and crawl into the snug, shady spaces underneath these lovely craggy trees and spend the day there, listening to the bumblebees and staring at the patterns of the branches...alas that my time in town was so short! But I did get to admire the lovely fractal patterns of the estuary before I biked back into town.

Painting with Graphite

Over Thanksgiving weekend, we found ourselves taking the ferry boat from Seattle to Bainbridge Island. An amazing dose of sunshine prompted me to bust out the "watercolor graphite" and paint passengers, gulls, and landscapes. It was tricky to layer up enough of the graphite to get good darks...but it was rewarding to see the graphite twinkle in the sun!