Fossil Bed Flowers

I spent the weekend exploring the John Day Fossil Beds area of eastern Oregon with some friends. Our first day, I was obsessed with photographing the numerous wildflowers as we hiked around. But on the second day, I slowed down and let the surroundings soak in by sketching them in watercolor. * Pasé el fin de semana explorando el área del este de Oregon que se llama los John Day Fossil Beds. En nuestro primer día, use la cámara para documentar el gran numero de flores silvestres que vimos al andar por los senderos. Pero en el segundo día, reducí mi velocidad y me dejé observar el paisaje en más detalle por pintarlo con acuarelas. 

My notes in the margins are largely about the birds and other animals that we saw and heard. One thing that I love about camping is the freedom to spend a lot of time flopped in the dirt, listening to the meadowlarks and watching tiny bugs go about their business. * Los apuntes en los bordes de las páginas documentan las aves y otros animales que vimos y oimos en el viaje. Me encanta la libertad que hay, cuando vamos de camping, de pasar el día acostada en el suelo, escuchando los pájaros cantando y mirando los insectitos haciendo sus trabajos rutinas.

Mobile Cannery, Tall Lungwort

Spent last weekend in lovely Eugene, Oregon. We stopped by the Center for Appropriate Transport on Saturday to check out their 20th Anniversary Party; had a great time watching folks test-ride ingenious bikes.

Sunday was the Wildflower Festival out at Mount Pisgah Arboretum. As usual, there were so many old friends to catch up with that I didn't end up having a lot of time to sketch the amazing display of flowers; but I did jot down a few doodles of some especially pretty and interesting specimens. 

Had a great chat with a friend who is studying environmental education about how sketching is such a good way to slow down and be present in the moment, and to really spend time observing--even if the final drawing is not especially great, the act of having been there LOOKING is rewarding. She called this "finding a sit-spot," and I like that concept quite a bit! 

Wildflower Festival Update

When I last updated, it was with watercolor in progress on the first layers of watercolor being laid down for the Wildflower Festival poster. Here's how that turned out:

I then returned to the digital version that we're using for the t-shirt and modified those colors to match the watercolor palette more closely.

An exciting addition to the regular festivities this year is that the Karin Clarke Gallery in Eugene, Oregon is hosting an art show devoted to native wildflower paintings, as a way to get even more Wildflower Month activities happening this May. Yesterday I got to work on framing my early sketches and the final painting for this exhibit.

Baby blue-eyes and dance flies as far as the eye can see! If you're in the Eugene area, do stop by the art show--grand opening will be Fri, May 3, 5:30pm – 7:30pm.

Paint to Pixels to Paint

A quick recap: The art for this year's Wildflower Festival poster started off as ideas that I sketched in watercolor, then was adapted to digital art that will work well on the t-shirt for the event. * Una breve recapitulación: El arte para el cartel del Wildflower Festival empezó como ideas explorada en acuarelas, y entonces fue adaptado a arte digital para el camiseta del evento.

Now, I'm doing the final art for the poster in watercolors. * Ahora, estoy pintando el arte final para el cartel, otra vez usando acuarelas.

Oh my goodness. After staring at pixels on the screen for half the weekend, I am really delighted by using real paint this afternoon. It flows! The pigment drifts around in its tiny puddle of water in the most delightful way! Even just "plain green" has a whole universe of color hidden inside of every wash. * Hijole. Me he enfocado en píxeles por la mitad del fin de semana, y ahora usar pintura verdadera es como una revelación. ¡Fluye! Los pigmentos flotan por ahí y por allá en sus charcos dimunitos de agua, y me encanta verlo. Hay un universo de color escondido en cada lavado de un verde simple. 

More updates as the paint dries! * Mas noticias cuando la pintura se seca!

Wildflower Month Logo

This weekend I'm cranking out the final poster art for the Wildflower Festival at Mount Pisgah Arboretum. In the meantime, I took one of my early sketches for that poster and converted it into a logo for the Wildflower Month events that will be happening all over the Eugene area. * Este fin de semana, pintaré el arte final para el cartel del Festival de Flores Silvestres en Mount Pisgah Arboretum. Mientras tanto, he estado adapando uno de mis bosquejos para el cartel para ser el logo para los eventos de la Mes de Flores Silvestres en la ciudad de Eugene.

It has been surprisingly tricky to get a good balance of polka-dots on the white petals of the Nemophila! When things are all simplified and graphic in this logo-style approach, finding the right balance of white space to playful dots makes a big difference. (Perhaps more than if one is painting it realistically in a "bug-chomps and all" sort of approach, you know?) * ¡Me sorprendió la dificultad de encontrar la balanza perfecta de pepitas en los pétalos blancos del la flor Nemophila! La combinción de pepitas juegtónes con el forma tan simplificado y estilizado de la flor ha exijido mucha attención. (Pintándolo en una manera más realistica, mostrando cada mordida de los insectos por ejemplo, daría mas flexibilidad para pepitas imperfectas, ¿no?)

Wildflower Studies

The Wildflower Festival at Mount Pisgah Arboretum in Eugene, Oregon is coming up this spring. I've been invited to do the poster again!

The featured plant is a tiny white flower called  Nemophila menziesii var. atomaria. I've been playing with different possible approaches to the composition-first with digital scribbles, then working out those ideas more in watercolor.

Not sure which view wins yet...I think it will partly depend on how it all interacts with the pollinator! More sketches to come.

Los Osos Oaks

While visiting my grandmother earlier this month, I took a bike ride to the Los Osos Oaks State Natural Reserve. I'm already a fan of oak trees, but this particular spot simply knocked my socks off--gorgeous grizzled coast live oaks that are estimated to be around 800 years old, and have a ton of character and expression in their branches.

There were so many amazing shapes to explore that I quickly realized it would be good to fill my sketchbook with little thumbnail sketches, to catch as many snippets as possible while I wandered around. In the margins around each mini-sketch, I've got notes on wildlife--lizard behavior, transcriptions of unfamiliar birdsong, etc. (Click on the image to get a zoomed-in version.)