Back from latest trip! More drawings done

We came back from our trip over a week ago. I am catching up with business. The pump we ordered for use in the watergarden over the winter never came so Don cancelled the credit card charge for it. It was ordered early in October and never came and the seller never responded to inquiries. So another one, from another seller, is on order. The big pump we use during the summer (3800 gph) is much than is needed for winter use.
We went east on this trip, all the way to Hilton Head Island, SC and Savannah, GA, by way of the Great Smoky Mountains National Park and Asheville, NC. We toured several Civil War coastal forts (Fort Sumter, Fort Moultrie in Charleston, NC and Fort Pulaski, near Savannah, GA), The Battleship North Carolina in Charleston, the Hunley exhibit in North Charleston, Tybee Island Lighthouse, Trinity Cathedral and the South Carolina Statehouse in Columbia, SC. The aircraft carrier Yorktown is at Charleston, but since we have already toured a similar carrier, Intrepid in NYC, skipped it.
Yes, I did managed to also tour the Asheville Art Museum and spent money in their gift shop and made the rounds of art galleries in Bluffton (near HHI) and Asheville. However, my legs are not very good and negotiating the sidewalks in downtown Asheville wasn't easy for me. While in Tennessee, we also did the arts and crafts drive just outside of Gatlingburg, TN and ate in a tea room! The food was good and met Don's approval. (He even liked the Wild Plum tea).
Another highlight was touring Biltmore house in Asheville. Though I had to walk, (the wheelchairs weren't big enough, and couldn't go everywhere) it is a fascinating place and the staffing courteous and helpful.
On the return trip we stopped at Dayton, OH for more time at the Air Force Museum. Last year we spent two and a half days there but Don still haven't seen everything. I didn't mind since the scooters there are very nice and it was an opportunity to fill up the sketchbook I was keeping on this trip. The light levels were low and made some of the displays hard to read, wish I had thought to bring a headlamp like Don did. We did this on November 11, when G. W. Bush was there. We arrived just before 2 PM and the place was filled with uniforms of all kinds, civilians in formal dress and the city police bomb squad and dogs were there just in case. Until 5 PM some areas were off limits but then the museum stayed open until 8 PM. We left at 7:30. The following day was a ten hour drive back to La Crosse.
Home, I looked over the drawing I did just before leaving on this trip and made some slight changes.

I immediately did another one similar to it but done with Derwent Drawing pencils on fawn gray Stonehenge paper.

The fall scenery in the Smoky Mountains was wonderful so I did an oil pastel based on a photo I took. Done on dark blue Colorfix paper, 18" x 18".

Finished a drawing, another in progress

"Grapevines on Rocks" is finished and on the wall for evaluation. So far I am very pleased with it. The past few weeks have been very dry and warm here in La Crosee and I have been doing outside work getting the yard and watergarden ready for winter. The waterlily leaves have been removed, the bridge that spans the narrow part of the watergarden has been primed and repainted, some of the water hyacinths have been removed. The vegetable garden has been mostly cleared out except for the cabbages that haven't grown much and the onions that I started from seed this spring, I separated and replanted. Next year they should yield bulbs.
My latest drawing is based on photographs I took in the marsh last month. The shadows cast by this lacy leaf on the bridge deck are very interesting. And somewhat complicated to do.
"Shadow Lace", 11.5" x 18", colored pencil on primed paper. In this drawing I brushed the blue shadows with odorless paint thinned and covered with more blue to get the shadows dark enough. On the leaf I scraped out the highlights, the primed surface made this easy to do.

Summer has ended! Fall drawings in progress, the La Crosse River Marsh in flood

"Wooded Road" the last of my summer pictures is now on the wall for evaluation. All that green and yellow! Now is time for subjects with much less green in them. My next drawing is based on a photo I took during one of our driving tours in the region. There was a small dam (I can't remember where) with rocks and grapevines down stream of it. I altered the photo to make it more purple and yellow and more constrasty. For a change I did this drawing on maroon Color Fix paper, (13" x 18"). The sanded surface eats colored pencils fast but the painterly, pastel-like appearance is worth it. After all I have lots of pencils just waiting to be made into pictures. The dark shadows I brushed into the grain to make them darker. I tried using colorless blender in the highlights but it doesn't seem to work well with this surface.

I haven't been bike riding in the marsh since the heavy rains earlier in September. Yesterday I took a short ride to the north end of the marsh trails and was met by road blocks to restrict access. A bicylist came off the trail and said it was water covered in the middle of the marsh and unpassable. So I just rode my bike to the bridge over the La Crosse River. I really didn't do much riding, I was taking lots of photographs. The flooded marsh was fascinating and beautiful! And there were no mosquitos! The few photos shown here are only a fraction of what I took that day. Of interest was the three canoeists coming downstream. The lower part of the La Crosse River is popular with boaters since they can start at a convenient location up river and end up near downtown in Riverside Park.

Last of the summer drawings

Blufftop View is now pinned to the wall for evaluation. I have exaggerated the effects of the sunshine spotting the tree trunks and the shaded ground. Something to help you the viewer stand there and look out over the Mississippi River.

My latest project is also on the theme of sun-dappled woods except this scene is a Monroe County backroad. The deer far off in the distance is an add on to use as a point of interest. After this drawing, I will be working on fall-themed drawings with more reds and yellows in them. Wooded Road is 18" x 24" oil pastel on white color fix paper. As an experiment I toned the paper bright yellow. However, I found that the charcoal underdrawing is impossible to erase completely without removing the underpaint. I had to carefully lift excess charcoal with a kneaded eraser.

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.