some really big books

Whenever I read books (a constant habit since early childhood), I find myself looking up maps, time charts, and historical data to satisfy my insatiable curiosity. I also love re-reading classics like Sherlock Holmes and books from the “Golden Age” of mysteries including Dorothy L. Sayers, Margery Allingham, and Agatha Christie.

Months ago, I stumbled on this used set of The New Annotated Sherlock Holmes — I placed a bid and won! They are much larger in size and weight than expected, definitely NOT for reading myself to sleep, lest one falls on my face as I drift off!

Today I just finished reading Laurie R. King’s new mystery, “Knave of Diamonds”, which involves the real-life theft of the so-called Irish Crown Jewels. Comments in a Facebook group, The Beekeeper’s Apprentices, led me to re-read one of the original Holmes mysteries that was written near the time of the theft. And as long as the books are out, I might as well sketch them, right?

yesterday’s musical interlude

Yesterday afternoon we drove to Needville for our youngest grandson’s piano recital — the boy is Way Talented, his fingers flying over the keys! A bit of classical, a couple of jazzy pieces, Amazing Grace, then a couple of just-fun pieces.

On the way there, I drew these two tiny sketches of Bill’s Dr. Pepper and my new purse. Just drawing what’s in front of me. My car’s passenger seat rides really smoothly, even on country roads, so drawing is easier than expected. This morning I added a bit of watercolor. (After painting the blue of my denim skirt, I left the purse lighter in color for contrast.)

A few weeks ago we were walking through downtown Fredericksburg when Bill caught a whiff of leather. He told me “let’s just go in here just to enjoy the smell!”While in high school, he liked to work with leather; later he gave me his tools when he joined the Navy. I crafted belts and purses during high school to earn some spending money.

But he ended up buying himself a cell phone holster and an ID wallet — then grabbing this soft leather bag for me. Nice souvenirs of our trip!

Palettes of Place?

Does anyone following Art Toolkit remember their “Palettes of Place” blog entry in March 2020? That one was about the Pacific Northwest Demi palette, a collaboration with artist Molly Hashimoto, author of “Colors of the West” (one of my favorite books!).

I just put together this copy of the palette, with a few changes: quin. red or carmine for perm. alizarin crimson, Fr. ultramarine for phthalo blue RS, my own mixed violet for carbazole violet, monte amiata natural sienna for yellow ochre, and transparent red oxide for quin. burnt orange.

What I wish to know is: Were there ever any other “Palettes of Place” color collections? Or was this one more thing interrupted by Covid?

 F

a Fredericksburg longhorn

One final sketch from our recent travels: we ended up by stayed at an RV park near Fredericksburg where three ginormous longhorns lived. This one was the prettiest of the three — but her left horn was heavier than the right, causing her to keep her head tilted. I wonder if it causes her a headache (or neck-ache) to carry such massive horns. It sure got in the way of scratching that itch!

Skye (aka “Baby”)

Our dear friend Miss B.J. lost her beloved husband (our pastor, Gary) just over 2 years ago. This wee chihuahua, Skye, was Gary’s constant companion through his illness — then B.J.’s since then. She was one of the few chihuahuas I’ve known that was sweet and loving to all who met her. B.J. used to take her to visit a nursing home, dressed up in one of her many outfits. She even had her own biker jacket to match Pastor Gary’s and Miss B.J.’s!

Sadly, we heard yesterday that Skye had died. I have no photos of her; I found a sympathy card online but it was too large. It said exactly what I wanted to say, so I sketched a rough copy for this card. Not my own original design, but I hope it comforts our friend.
 

tiny sketches from Inks Lake

These tiny sketches are from Inks Lake State Park. We are home now, but with no cell phone service at the lake, I’m posting these from home. And following, one more photo from the lake, some white-tail deer on an outcropping of gneiss. Maybe I’ll sketch it someday.

a bit of gneiss

On the long drive into Inks Lake State Park we saw these beautiful “island” outcroppings of gneiss (pronounced “nice”) containing a variety of cacti, ferns, moss, and lichen. More bits of gneiss were throughout the park itself.

exploring Longhorn Cavern

While camping at Inks Lake, we drove to Longhorn Cavern State Park where we walked a bit over a mile over uneven paths, ducking in low spots as needed — a bit challenging for us in our 70s! But I do love caves and it was worth a few aches.

This cave was formed by an underwater river cutting through the limestone thousands of years ago. Ancient people used one of the then-open sky holes as a trap cave, hunting animals by driving them over the openings. Confederate soldiers put the large deposits of bat guano to use making gunpowder. Comanches hid a captive girl here until she was rescued by the Texas Rangers. In the 1920s, the cave was used as a nightclub with wooden dance floor.

Eventually the cave was filled with run-off rains, mud, and debris. From 1934 to 1942, the C.C.C. dug out the muck by hand, one wheelbarrow at a time, and fashioned stairs and walkways for visitors, the park road, buildings, and an observation tower in the National Park rustic style.

Our tour group was very small so early in the morning, allowing us more personal time and extra stories from the tour guide. The following photos were taken with an iPhone with no flash, so as not to disturb the tiny tri-colored bats we found.

During the tour, all of us adults took one look at the rock “dog” in my above sketch and decided the C.C.C. workers had carved it as a prank. Only the child in the group got it right, thinking it was a real rock. The workers found it in a different part of the cave, saw the dog shape, and decided to set it up where visitors could enjoy it.

Inks Lake State Park

Upon arriving at our campsite beside Inks Lake, a thunderstorm moved in — and our corgi, Butters, ducked under the dinette table. It didn’t last long but she didn’t trust going outside the next day or two; we had to do some heavy coaxing!

I just had to try sketching this gnarly honey mesquite! While big fat lizards, mockingbirds, a scrawny squirrel and Canada geese checked us out, some getting quite close. I wish now that I had not added watercolor to the tree bark. The ink lines were really textured using a fountain pen on rough paper! When I added watercolor, I painted it with the rainy gray skies that first greeted us.

That tiny sketch clipped to the opposite page was quickly drawn when the teeniest of campers pulled in to the campsite next to ours. It looked like an alien teardrop!

For those interested in geeking out on watercolor choices: for this trip I grabbed my granulating palette because the sketchbook pages are rough WC paper. But I can’t seem to mix paint in the right ratio to really let the textures play.

From the lower left, the paints are Potter’s Pink, Volcano Violet, Volcano Red, Monte Amiata Natural Sienna, Green Apatite, Jadeite genuine, Cobalt Turquoise, Shire Blue, Blue Apatite genuine, Lunar Violet, Buff Titanium, Lunar Earth, Volcano Brown, and Lunar Black. Most are from Daniel Smith; the Vocanos and Shire Blue are from Schminke.

a pause from traveling

Between Bastrop State Park and Inks Lake State Park, we booked a couple of nights at a small RV park — they have a laundry room in the office/cabin that we made full use of! And a dog run where Butters could run off-leash and play her favorite game, fetch. It’s extremely quiet here.

I did a quick sketch of this wee wagon that was outside the cabin. It didn’t move as much as the free-range chickens wandering around.

the CCC cabins

Today we left Bastrop State Park, heading toward Hill Country, but I’ve been finishing up one last sketch. I had planned on painting the stones and planks, but maybe I should leave it as an ink-only sketch?

Meanwhile, here are photos of some of the other CCC structures, including a blueprint I found online.

on a lighter note . . .

On a lighter note, you just gotta love the fat patchy bark of a loblolly pine!

a survivor

Normally, loblolly pines grow straight and very tall before the branches stretch outward. So when I saw this loblolly in our camping area, I thought there was something very strange about the growth pattern. Then I walked around the trunk and saw the burn scars. This tree has been through a war and survived.

Lost Pines forest

Although it was in the low 60s when we got up, there’s a heat advisory today with temperatures expected to get up to 109°. So this afternoon, we are goofing off inside the RV. I just finished this sketch from yesterday, a view of the northern section of forest looking across the ridge from our campsite.

In 2011, wildfire destroyed much of this unique loblolly pine forest, which is genetically related to the Piney Woods that we normally camp in more than 100 miles away. Thought to have been separated by a prehistoric glacier, these trees adopted to the dryer climate of the Austin area. Since the fire, which burned 34,068 acres, a campaign has been ongoing to restore the forest within 30 years, replacing 4 million burned trees.

As if the wildfire wasn’t enough, massive rainfalls in 2015 caused the Bastrop State Park’s dam to fail. The lake’s water surged down towards the Colorado River, pushing fallen trees into piles along the way. Today the lake is still empty, though the dam has been rebuilt.

A “pioneer village” of wonderful stone & log cabins built by the CCC was saved as well as a few other CCC structures throughout the park, though some roofs had to be rebuilt. We accidentally took a wrong turn yesterday and found ourselves among the old cabins, built into the hilly wooded area of locally sourced stone and logs to look as if they sprang from the ground.

first camp sketch

This week finds us at Bastrop State Park — I did this quick ink tiny sketch from under the RV’s awning. The park is still working to recover from 2011’s devastating wildfire. The lake is still empty following the dam failure in 2015, though the dam itself has been rebuilt. Nature is still so beautiful here!

recent sketches

Early one morning a couple of weeks ago, I took my corgi outside and found these gorgeous white blooms. Last year, the turban-shaped cactus only put out a few babies. I took a photo of the blooms . . . and the next day they were gone.

The tiny sketch of apple blossoms was also done from a photo; apples have since developed. This week I was trimming back the purple basil to dry some for next winter; two leaves fell off so I sketched them “live”. I didn’t get around to painting them right away . . . and our sneaky cat, Scottie Dubh, must have eaten them! So the color is from memory.

on the shore of Lake Raven

A quick sketch from a photo taken last November — this was our late afternoon view while camping at Huntsville State Park. These days we have been piecing together plans for a longer camping trip to Bastrop, which is slowly recovering from forest fires a few years back, then on to Hill Country and Fredericksburg.

Complicated by degenerative and bulging discs in Bill’s back. There may be back surgery in his future; we’re taking this adventure before whatever that brings.

Oh, and that tiny mini pan of paint added to my folio palette, sitting in the mixing pan? It’s a smidgen of Schmincke Volcano Violet. I was trying to match the colors of 3 Fiestaware dishes in the dish drainer: turquoise, a soft yellow, and heather. I had cobalt turquoise light and Naples yellow in the palette already, but the volcano violet was the closest I could come to the muted reddish-purple heather. An interesting triad that I may play around with sometime.

Dave’s birthday card

It’s time to get the annual hand-sketched birthday card for my brother, Dave, in the mail (I always think of him as David but, as we have a step-brother named David, my real brother prefers to go by Dave).

Dave loves to go fishing. I’m not so good at fish; I saw a hand-carved wooden sculpture of these two fish and thought they looked cool together. (I regret not noting the artist’s name.) That brown fish made me laugh with its eyes shifting over to the same side. Apparently this really happens.

growing prickly babies

This year’s crop of tiny prickly pear cactus “pom poms” seem to all be developing into full pads. The first year the tiny sprouts just fell away. These photos represent maybe a quarter of the beds in front of our barndo — all from 6 small potted plants planted 4 years ago. They obviously like it here! We broke several pads off to start new beds on either side of our driveway entrance.