Flowers around the cabin

On the last day at The Clearing I finished my journal entry featuring our cabin.  The inside of the log cabin was nicely finished, with built-in wooden desks, shelves and cupboards.  The beds had matching quilts, handmade by others who came to the Clearing before us.  The walls had photographs and paintings of the Clearing made by previous students and teachers.

It had been a record heat wave, but a breeze blew through the open window and screen door.  During the day I could hear the laughter of fellow students, and at night the sound of thunder and rain.  The cabin was a warm and inviting place to rest.

Relatives of the flower I sketched on first day filed the foreground of this sketch.  I used my Niji flat watercolor brush loaded with mixtures of pigment for this sketch.  I left a space for some text on the left side of the page but haven't yet decided what to add.  I also have thought about extending the log wall as a light wash behind the flowers.

Lessons from this weeks class:

• Simplify;  Use your mental back hoe to remove things
• Re-arrange;  Use your mental sky hook to move the clouds
• Use a limited Palate
• Use lots of pigment;  The paint dries 20% lighter
• Look for the light and shadow
• Sit in the shade when outside
• Sketch quickly;  You can fix it when you apply the ink
• Take reference photos;  Meaning more than just one
• Its just a sketch;  More then anything else enjoy doing it!

Sketching figures

On the last day of class we focused on sketching figures.  I don't sketch figures often, but I can do them.   As long as they are from behind, have a hat on and are only an inch high.  The first exercise was to sketch a figure from a photo.  I had taken a photo the day before at Newport State Park of people on the beach, so I used that photo.

The next exercise was much harder.  Marilynn had us all sit in a circle.  Then sketch someone across from us.  We had 45 minutes.  Oh my.  Not only was it a figure, with a face, but they were sitting.  Actually the sketches all turned out well, even mine.

A place to sit

One day I did a quick sketch of the edge of Mertha's cabin.  The cabin looks down on the ring of adirondack chairs we often gathered at before and after dinner.  I only included a bit of the cabin, focusing on what I believed was the edge of the forest.  The journal entry was to be about the flow between the hardscape of man made and softness of nature.  Shapes that define and complement each other.

I came back to find the forest had moved!  Actually the forest had never been right up against the cabin.  There was a very overgrown terrace between the cabin and the forest.  I decided to finish the sketch using one of the sepia topic pens I had recently purchased.  I liked the look so much I decided not to add any watercolors.

One of the other classes that week was Landscape Design: Through the eyes of Jens Jensen, taught by Bob Grese.  As one of their class projects they had revealed the terrace.  From the now usable space you can look out across the central campus.  The students voted to call it 'Mertha's terrace', after Mertha Fulkerson, Jens Jensen's long time associate who kept The Clearing going after his death.