The Quest for the Perfect Christmas Tree--2012

After the china comes down for Thanksgiving dinner . . .

 

After the turkey is baked . . .

 

And carved  and eaten . . .

 

After the kids pose for pictures . . .

 

And wrestle . . .

 

After the stories are read . . .

 

And after the tired babies are put to bed . . .

 

the holiday season changes from Thanksgiving to Christmas overnight.

So Mike and I left Washington and returned home to Blue River, knowing that the first nice day we would be out in the woods for the search for the perfect Christmas tree.  On the Sunday following Thanksgiving, we were, indeed, on our quest.

 

It's in my blood to be relentless in looking for the best tree:  symmetrical, blue-green, full, yet natural, and preferably a noble fir. I've gone out in the woods for a tree for as long as I can remember; first with my mother and father, then with my husband and an assortment of family members, and this year just Mike and me. As the clear-cuts and new plantings have dwindled over the last few decades, finding a tree that is the right size and growing in good light to form the symmetry I desire has become a greater challenge. Once a year I happily tromp through the snow, over logs, through the brush for as long as it takes to find a great tree. 

 

Not this one.

 

Never a pine tree, although this is pretty.

 

The nobles we saw this year were all too sparse.

 

Now you're talkin'--this is a beautiful Pacific Silver Fir.

 

"Are you sure?" Mike asks before he begins sawing.

 

So this fir tree is escorted from its home to ours.

Thanksgiving Preparations--the Pleasure of Grandkids

This past weekend we had a houseful of guests. Two Germans from New York, a French au pair, our younger daughter, her husband and three grandchildren. I knew that finding some fun crafts for the kids would be just the thing to put some organization into the weekend and keep the kids from driving the adults crazy.

The challenge was to find projects that would work for a two, four and eight year old. Food is a common interest so the first thing we did was whip up some pumpkin pudding. The eight year old can read the recipe and measure things out, the two year old can dump things in a bowl, and the four year old can run the mixer. Perfect!

In exploring the internet for crafts, I came across making edible turkeys with oreos, candy corn, Reeses mini peanut butter cups, Whoppers and frosting.

 

Hannah, the two year old, loved eating all the ingredients, as did her big brother, Noah, age four.

 

Can you see the chocolate between his teeth?

But then I found a couple of great production line people, Marin and Anna ( the French au pair) put together a group of wonderful turkeys.

 

Aren't these clever little edible turkeys.

 

Our other project involved, cutting, tearing, gluing, etc., so we did that at Hannah's naptime. We created a centerpiece (or Masterpiece as Marin liked to call it) to hold the rolls on the Thanksgiving table. The kids were super creative making the feathers and I really loved how it turned out. We filled it with pine-cones for the time being.

 

We packed a lot into the weekend, but it got me into the holiday spirit. As the crowd packed up, Mike and I thought it would be fun to keep Noah down for the three days before Thanksgiving. Soon enough he'll be in school and these impromptu vacations won't work. So today he and Mike spent some time with Little Bit, the horse.

 

 

Happy Thanksgiving!

Happy Accidents--An Artist's Friend

You've heard the phrase "happy accident," I'm sure. Well, painters use it quite frequently, because:

a. sometimes we lose control of the brush and/or the medium and the looseness adds a more interesting parts to a painting

b. working with water, wet paint, etc. leads to drips and smears and other accidental things happening in the process of painting.

 

Blue Moon Heron (mostly complete)

I took Blue Moon Heron to a critique group the other day, wanting the most nit-picky comments as I intended to enter it in a competition. The best way to see what can be improved is often to see it through the eyes of other artists. One of the suggestions was to add more reds to the underwing of the forward wing. The image above was taken after I played with the red on the wing. 

The other comment was about the big gold moon shape--was it too streaky? are the shadowy parts centered? should it be a flat color? As I messed around with the golds near the head and wing, a smear of the wet, red paint from the inner wing landed in the gold between the head and wing.

The smear was relaxed, unintended and a true "happy accident." It led me to see that adding calligraphic marks to the painting in that area would unify and connect the upper and lower parts of the painting. The added marks would de-emphasize the solid orb.

I edited the painting yesterday, photographed it this morning when the rain let up for awhile, and sent it off for the juror's eyes. See the final image below. 

 

Blue Moon Heron
22 x 17.5

A Fall Trip 2012

Mike and I celebrated the change of seasons with a week-long trip to California and back. Our main destinations were Yosemite Park and Forestville, CA where good friends have moved from Hawaii. From there we chose spots along the way to visit other areas of interest we'd not spent time to see.

Our first stop was Tule Lake. This is a very small, rural town in Northern California east of the Cascade Mountains. We had always wanted to see Captain Jack's Stronghold which is part of the Lava Beds National Monument. Our sunset view from our motel the first night inspired a small watercolor sketch.

 

 

There is another piece of historical interest at Tule Lake--it was the site of the largest WWII Japanese Internment Camp.

Our visit to Captain Jack's Stronghold was surprisingly emotional for me. In this really desolate environment, 50 or so Modoc Indians held their ground against up to 300 Calvary soldiers for a year. And why?  The Modocs did not want to be pushed onto a reservation with Klamath Indians, who had already claimed the resources of the land. Once Captain Jack was captured, he was hanged as a murderer. The war between the Modocs and US Army was never acknowledged as such by the US Government.

 

We shared the Stronghold with two other visitors (deer).

 

A deserted cave at the Stronghold.

 

Modoc Medicine Pole--the sign reads "Medicine Pole, be respectful, do not disturb."

After leaving the Lava Beds, we made a short stop at a cliff with petroglyphs, some as old at 3500 years.

 

Our next night was spent in Reno at a humongous Casino Hotel. Once again we determined that neither Nevada nor gambling are for us. The following morning we headed up to Tioga Pass, elevation just shy of 10,000 feet. This was our route into to Yosemite National Park. (The first snow fell right after we got through, closing the pass for the season.)

 

As we dropped into Tuolumne Meadows, the scenery with the glacial rubbed granite was nothing short of breathtaking.

 

 

 

This view inspired a value sketch.

 

I think it could be a wonderful painting, but I might perch the fellow below on a rock to create a size reference.

 

And then we saw Half Dome.

 

And Yosemite Valley.

 

I began to realize that these views are the iconic images representing the National Park System for me. I felt I was seeing all this country, not only through my eyes, but also through the eyes of John Muir, Ansel Adams and Teddy Roosevelt. 

Even where we stayed, Wawona Lodge built in 1876, evoked the spirit of times past, when people traveled from all over, with great difficulty, to view the wonders of this place.

 

We spent three nights in Yosemite Park. The first day we had rain and sleet fall on us as we walked through the sequoias. I remember a photo my parents took of me as a toddler looking like an ant by a giant redwood, so I asked Mike to take a picture of me at 63 years old looking like an ant.

 

 

We spent the following days in the Valley itself. Guess who ignored the warning sign, "Danger: climbing and scrambling on rocks and cliffs is dangerous. . ."

 

We had one lunch at the famous Ahwahnee Lodge (built in 1926-27). We were too cheap to stay overnight at the rate of $450 per night. Also rumor has it that it is booked years in advance.

 

 

Everywhere one looks it is amazing. The same location can totally change both visually and in mood as the clouds roll in, the light changes, and the sun shines on the rock.

 

El Capitan

 

Yosemite Falls

 

Tunnel View

From the drama of Nature, we drove to San Francisco for a city experience. Wanting a great place to eat close to our hotel, we searched on Mike's smart phone and found a great Italian meal at a very unassuming place just 5 blocks away. The next morning we spent at the de Young Museum in Golden Gate Park, where we were absorbed by The William S. Paley Collection: A taste for Modernism. I love our West Coast cities. 

 

Skip and Camille

A couple of hours after leaving S.F. we drove into Forestville, CA. We had not seen our friends for a long time and so enjoyed catching up and spending a relaxing night with them. The next morning, after loading up some paintings from Hawaii that they'd had in storage for me, we headed home to Blue River.