I had forgotten how truly rambunctious a tiny kitten can be. When not eating or sleeping, Luna plays. With her kitty toys, dog toys, coasters, window blinds, a shoe, a rock tracked in by the shoe, postcards hung above my art table, used paper towel, fountain pens, pencils, erasers, paint brushes, a small water container left out for sketching, the elastic band on my sketchbook . . .
Kitty-proofing is a thing.
This final sketch for the month of June began in pencil, loosely drawn as Bill drove me to a dentist appointment. Later, I drew ink lines using the Elegant Writer 1.3 mm pen in my new Sendak Nutshell kit. For the border, I used a 2.5 mm pen. I erased the pencil lines then used a damp brush, allowing the ink to bleed a bit, and added just a touch of watercolor.
I saw this cattle egret following one of our donkeys from the north pasture around to the one on the east — wherever she wandered, the egret hopped quickly behind, gobbling up bugs that rose from the disturbed grasses.
Here, I was testing gouache and Pitt Artist brush pens on the paper that came with my card-size Traveler’s Notebook. Gouache seems to do better than watercolor; the marks made with the pens seemed uneven as if resisting the paper.
I drew the ingredients for sourdough granola as it was baking in the oven. This is the primary thing I make with the discard after baking bread. Recipe follows, if anyone is interested.
(I’m a bit loose with measurements . . . as in, I don’t!)
SOURDOUGH DISCARD GRANOLA
Years ago I bought one of the company’s regular notebooks but was never happy with its dimensions. Eventually it was passed on to a granddaughter and I replaced it with their passport size, which I love. But this even tinier one seems like just the right size for tiny sketches. It can also double as a wallet, having pockets for ID and credit cards and a zip pouch for cash. It came with four extra inserts but I plan to make my own out of watercolor paper. The page size allows for a single page sketch as big as 2 x 3.5” (plus margins) or two sketches per page approximately 1.5 x 2”.
Bluebonnets get the most attention of the vast variety of Texas wildflowers, but my personal favorite is the Prickly Poppy. It begins blooming in mid spring and lasts through late summer’s heat, a bright pop of white in the green pastures and along roadsides. I drew these from a photo taken at our campsite in Bastrop State Park. I especially liked how the flowers looked next to the Bastrop ironstone.
State Farm acted quickly after our car wreck two weeks ago. We received our claim payoff and yesterday we were able to buy another Trax, this time in a new color called “cypress gray” — in some light it looks dark earthy green and some light it looks gray. Once we add a tow package, we can get back to camping adventures.
I planned to do lots of sketching during our week at Bastrop State Park. But there was plenty of time so first I finished these first pages of my new sketchbook, an A5 100% cotton watercolor book from Hahnemuhle. The mushrooms were from our back yard; the two front ones are a different variety of inkcap than the one previously sketched — these are smooth rather than shaggy. I also did a lot of reading under the beautiful trees and a bit of knitting.
Then our week was changed drastically. We tow a small car behind the RV on longer trips. Tuesday we drove into Bastrop for lunch at Maxine’s (I had a great fried green tomato BLT!). Then headed to H-E-B for a few items. But we had an accident instead. Both of us are fine, though pretty beaten up by airbags and extremely sore. As I told the ER nurse, I guess that hike we were planning to take is cancelled. The car was totaled. After making arrangements and dealing with accident reports, we decided to head home early.
We had managed to get several walks in, enjoying the campsite’s peaceful beauty. There was a CCC shelter with three separate areas, each with its own fireplace; like all the CCC structures in the park, it was designed to fit its specific location using river rock and planking harvested from the park itself as the park was built.
