More progress on Blufftop View

After a few more days of hot, humid weather, it is back to cool, dry and pleasant. This summer has seen almost twice as much rain as usual. I am more able to do more work inside and out as well do more bike riding. Maybe I can lose a few more pounds before winter! This drawing of the blufftop view is coming along nicely and hope to finish it by this weekend. I have more summer drawings to do in oil pastel planned.

New work in progress

The heat and humidity has let up and I am now feeling more active. I have been working in the backyard trimming back rose bushes, thinning strawberries, mowing the lawn and other duties. I even started another drawing.

This is a view of the Mississippi River from a Minnesota bluff top. Not a very large drawing for me, just 15" x 12". It is done with Prismacolor pencils on white bristol.

The Art Fair on the Green was a financial disappointment, I didn't sell anything! but the following week I learned that I had sold more matted marbled paper and a drawing reproduction at VIVA gallery.

I'm Back! With new drawings to show!

For over a month I have been having internet connection problems and therefore not updating this blog. I won't trouble you with all the trouble we had getting this computer connected back to the internet.

The month of July is busy for me. Next week I will be at The Artfair on the Green on the UW-La Crosse campus. Five of us are sharing a double site for the Odin Arts Cooperative. Hopefully, some of my cards and prints will sell, at least enough for my share of the entry fee.

Here are some of the drawings I have been working on for the past six weeks.

This oil pastel was inspired by the Bluff Country Studio tour we took in April. Too keep the colors cool and green, I made it a point not to use any earth colors at all. The resulting blues and greens with the pink and orange gravel road kept the effect of the cool, rainy spring day that it was.

The inspiration for this scene of a great blue heron on a fallen tree was several years old. I spotted this while bike riding through the marsh one evening. The digital camera I was using at the time was small and gave a soft image, but it was enough. This drawing was also an oil pastel.

This charcoal drawing is a radical change for me. I was adjusting a recent photo of the La Crosse River and made a gray scale copy to get a good idea of the light/dark pattern. The resulting image was so much more compelling than that in color! So this 10" x 12" drawing was done in charcoal pencils.

My latest is also based on photographs taken recently in the La Crosse River marsh. Early morning is the best time for picture taking. Because of the size (18" x 24"), the background was done with watercolor washes. No way could I get the smoothness required in colored pencil without lots of time and care.

Everything is coming up roses!

There has been great weather here lately, it's a marvel that I get anything done indoors. I finished the Oakleaves drawing and pinned it to the wall. I think some minor changes are needed.

The wonderful weather has encouraged me to bike ride through the La Crosse River Marsh several mornings for exercise and to take photographs.

I am not the only photographer out there! Among the joggers, dog walkers and bicyclists are men walking around with enormous telephoto lenses and tripods to get shots of the birds (great blue herons, white egrets, Canada geese, mallards, etc.). Here are my humble efforts taken with my Kodak Easy Share Z712 IS with its 12x optical zoom. The pictures have been cropped for better composition.

The backyard is coming along nicely. We have moved the tropical waterplants from the basement to the watergarden, brought out the garden statuary and set up the pipes for the box water features. Don still has to get the big pump set up with its large in-ground filter and attach it to other water features. Maybe this weekend. The pink, white and red rugosa roses are blooming, with the yellow ones just budding. Many other flowers, irises, dianthus, and chives are blooming. The peppermint is trying to take over the bed it shares with other plants so I have been thinning it out and making peppermint iced tea.

Last week we noticed a new visitor. A hummingbird moth! We didn't recognized it as a moth at first, it was so strange.

Finished drawing, new leaf drawing in progress

This drawing of the railroad bridge over the La Crosse River is now pinned to the wall for further evaluation. This bridge is near were the La Crosse River joins the Mississippi River and isn't used for the railroad anymore, it is now for pedestrians. In this drawing I used a brush and odorless paint thinner to smooth out and flatten some of the areas of reflections in the water. Other areas I used the colorless blender.
I have just started another leaf drawing of a cluster of young oak leaves. It is only 8" x 10" but small doesn't mean simple. There is enough going on to keep me fascinated in putting in shapes and colors.
Today was the first day this week it hasn't rained or been cloudy, windy and cool. So I have been outside catching up on gardening and picking the first radishes. Earlier this week I was matting and framing drawings.

New work in progress

We got more rain the past two weekends. Which was very much needed. The last weekend in April was the Bluff Country Studio Art Tour. We spent two days driving around Southeast Minnesota and Northeast Iowa to various artists' studios, homes and group shows. Fortunately, the rain held off most of the daylight hours since we drove around alot on gravel backroads. The scenery was great and I took lots of photos. Now we just have to drive those roads again when there is some sunshine!
This scene of the old railroad bridge over the La Crosse River is based on two photographs put together. I did further modification on the computer to make the colors brighter and more springlike. As I work the colors can be further modified. Here shown are two stages in the progress of this drawing. It is 20" x 16" on white bristol paper done with Prismacolor pencils.

Outdoor work and more drawings

The fine weather has kept me outside alot. The seeds planted at the beginning of this month have sprouted and just today I planted tomato plants and more onion sets. The tomato plants have covers made from plastic bottles to protect them, despite the fine weather, April is a bit early.

This has been a dry April so far and extra watering is needed. Today I spent several hours outside. We advertised giving away extra water lilies and other pond plants and had people over to take them away. Still have lots left over. Some even promise to call back in a month and take fish also.

This drawing is done in Derwent Drawing Pencils on gray Stonehenge paper. It is a very nice combination! The source photo is from a series I did several years ago in May. This will make the fifth drawing based on this site! I go back to look over the series of photographs and get more ideas. Which is why it is a good idea to take as many different photos as possible if you can. The pictural possibilities aren't always obvious.

The squirrel drawing is based on photographs taken at a friend's cottage last spring. This curious squirrel was checking out the activity inside. This drawing is also done on gray Stonehenge paper but with Prismacolor pencils. The Prismacolors have much brighter greens and as a rule I don't much mix the varieties of colored pencils.