Something leguminous

Last week our local plein aire group met at a house with a view of the beach meadows, Icy Passage, and Pleasant Island. I usually try to do some landscape sketching during these outings because that’s a subject I otherwise avoid, but that day I was just more interested in the close-up world.

Kantákw—Nootka lupine—caught my attention first. They’re abundant out in the uplift meadows: big billowing masses of leaves, topped at this time of year with a second flush of purple/blue/white blossoms, and freckled with seed pods drying and browning as they mature. Nearby, beach pea plants sprawl among the mosses and climb ryegrass stems; their pods too are heading toward ripeness. I decided to spend some time observing and comparing these two fabaceous neighbors.

Lingít plant names are from Tlingit Dictionary, edited by X’unei Lance Twitchell. Gunalchéesh for this wonderful resource.

Colorful commission

Last year I was commissioned to create a piece of art as a gift. The recipient is a passionate gardener, forager, and cook, so the request was for something inspired by vintage vegetable and fruit crates and salmon can labels.

Because the recipient has diverse skills and products, I packed the image with a variety of wild and domestic “produce.” And of course there had to be a sense of the setting! So all that abundance frames a view of Mt. Crillon across the meadows of Wunachích t’aakhéen (the Salmon River).

The base layer is Derwent Inktense colored pencils. These go on water soluble, then dry to permanent, so they create a solid foundation of color that won’t be muddied by water media on top. Above that I used water-soluble pastels (Neoclor), then some colored Micron pens to make outlines crisp and bright.

The biggest challenge was the lettering! I’ve always used the computer to add text. But because this was going to be framed art, I had to add it by hand. I used Procreate to do a rough layout of the arcs of the letters, then transferred the shapes onto tracing paper, worked out the shapes and sizes of the letters, and transferred the final outlines to the artwork.

The painted owl

I think it’s close to complete. I used five colors of alcohol-based markers, plus a little bit of paint. I’ll probably finish up with a light coat of polyurethane.

A new medium

I’ve got a new project in the works—something I haven’t done much of at all: painting in three dimensions.

My friend Steve, a carver, asked if I would be interested in painting one of his wooden birds. Most of Steve’s birds are simple, graceful, smooth wood—and I think they look lovely in that form. But the short-eared owl he was offering experienced some issues that required a putty repair, so its face isn’t pristine wood. I couldn’t resist the opportunity!

Here’s the starting point.

My first thought was that I really didn’t want to lose that lovely red-cedar grain. The color and texture works so well as a background pattern for feather markings. So after a little experimentation, I decided to use alcohol-based markers directly on the unfinished wood surface. The wood is dense enough that the markers don’t bleed much, and the markers’ transparency allows the grain to show through nicely.

I started on the face, using thinned white acrylic with a little burnt umber to blend the putty color into the characteristic pale “mask” feathers of the short-eared owl. I added the triangular eye markings and the beak with black acrylic paint, and used my palest tan markers to establish the facial disk feather pattern.

Now I’m laying in the basic body and wing feather patterning with those same very pale markers.

After I get the patterns all on, I’ll add darker brown layers over the top.

Spring buds, day 13

I cut the twigs about 2 weeks ago and put them in water in my studio. I decided to try some new art markers to block in some basic colors… It’s a learning curve!

Lingít plant names are from Tlingit Online Dictionary, accessed at https://tlingitlanguage.com/resources/dictionary-2/. Gunalchéesh for this wonderful resource. My apologies for any errors.

Spring buds, day 1

Drizzly and cold here lately but the plants know spring’s coming. I brought branches of three shrubs inside, to watch their little packages of potential unfold. Today’s day 1.

As usual, willows are among the first to start to open. But the serviceberry is also surprisingly bold. Both have early leaves and flowers that are protected by furry coats, so the risk is probably a little less for them than for, say, a spruce. Cottonwood’s buds are packed with aromatic sap, which gives the enclosed leaves some protection, but I haven’t seen any sign that they’re taking the chance yet.

Finch season

We’ve had hundreds of pine siskins (Lingít: s’áas’) at the sunflower seed feeder over the past few days. They are very assertive, guarding the seeds from chickadees (kaatoowú), juncos, and even the usually dominant nuthatch.

I haven’t done any sketches of this recent influx of siskins, but it did bring to mind this “Hocker and Codger” page from a few years ago. Apparently the siskin genus has been changed to Spinus.

Tlingit bird names are from https://tlingitlanguage.com/dictionary/ . I’m grateful for the resource!

Mural project

A group of local artists just wrapped up a 35-foot-wide mural in the entryway of the new Gustavus Community Center. The mural is designed to recognize the hundreds of donors who funded and helped build the Center, so it includes the symbols for all of the donor levels: strawberry, shooting star, fireweed, spruce, Mt. Fairweather (Tsalxaan) and sandhill crane. The concept was drafted by local artist Jess Mulligan, and the rest of us worked with her to get it on the wall. I’ve never painted anything this big… it was quite a learning experience!

Just one slice of the mural….