wild morning glories

I had to really work to get morning glories to grow when we lived in Kansas. Here, they grow wild like weeds! In fact, this year has been an exceptionally good year for them.

The washi-tape I used to tape off a frame for this sketch tore some of the paper when I removed it. Odd — it hadn’t done that before.

sketching wildflowers

This past Friday, a friend and I got together to sketch and chat. She lives on land currently covered with windflowers — I drew some bluebonnets, a primrose, and false dandelion in a glass yogurt container that were sitting in front of me. 

This crazy jumping spider kept coming near me so I added him (her?) to the page.

The local bluebonnets have been outdone by Indian paintbrush this year. Oceans of orange have overtaken the usual blue. A. and I both took photos (her iPhone camera is newer and much better than mine!) — I plan on trying to sketch a landscape of wildflowers later this week.

This is a photo I took looking towards a neighboring farm . . .

And this is a photo A. took recently. I absolutely love Texas wildflowers!

a bit of lantana

Today we drove to south of Tomball to buy new lantana plants, which the hummingbirds and butterflies love. Afterwards, we ate at Goodson’s Cafe — their pot roast is wonderful! (and so is the pie 😋)

On some of the walls are art items for sale. I liked how this Texas star seemed to be made of old car tags — then Bill looked at the small price tag hanging from it: “Made in China”. 😳 

Texas wildflowers

Texas wildflowers were so amazing this past spring! Though I wasn’t able to get out among them in person, I enjoyed the vast views on our drives to and from College Station. And my dear friend, A., sent me plenty of incredible photographs taken on her property.

Texas bluebells

Recently our daughter told us that a local grocery store had Blue Bell ice cream on sale. We spent the rest of the day talking about making an ice cream run — but never did. It’s just Too Hot to get out! So I sketched these bluebells instead.

Originally the Brenham Creamery Company, the famous Texas ice cream brand was changed to Blue Bell in 1930, named for this elusive Texas wildflower. A friend of mine sent me photos of blue bells she found growing on her property.

San Felipe de Austin

We took time out from camping to visit the nearby San Felipe de Austin’s history museum with a “Villa de Austin” recreation of some of the town’s buildings. The actual township’s location is across the highway where archeological digs are ongoing. This town was designed and established by Steven F. Austin in 1823-1824 and served as his colonial capital when Texas was still part of Mexico. Townspeople destroyed the town themselves as General Santa Anna advanced on those fighting for Texas independence.

Drawn with a Kaweco Liliput fountain pen loaded with J. Herbin Lie de The ink which blurs a bit when watercolor is added, causing an “antique” look.

Texas wildflowers

The brilliant blue bluebonnets, orange-red Indian paintbrush, and pink primrose are gone for another year, giving way to yellow coreopsis and white prickly poppy. I took these photos at a friend’s beautiful country property in early April. The day was very windy and pollen levels running very high, but I hoped to try painting a landscape or two from these photos. But painting a whole field of wildflowers still intimidates me!

more from camp

During the weekdays, several cheeky squirrels kept approaching us as we relaxed outside. As I was sitting on the camper’s upper step, this squirrel was flirting with Bill, trying to steal one of his in-shell peanuts. Suddenly I felt a ticklish touch on my back — another squirrel was behind me on the step, ready to climb up my back!

Our kids had planned on coming up on Friday to take over the camper for the weekend as we drove home. But problems at home kept them from coming so our stay was extended over the weekend. On the way to H-E-B in Huntsville for additional supplies, we passed these whimsical cowboy houses. Hand-crafted by artist-builder Dan Phillips, they are 2 of over 20 small houses built for artists and low-income people.

After dark on Friday, more and more people arrived — we woke up on Saturday to find ourselves surrounded by a village of RVs, campers, tents, 3 or more large family reunions, kids, dogs, bicycles, skateboards . . . The birds, waterfowl, alligators, and squirrels vanished.

There is a Good Reason we normally camp only on weekdays!

Texas gulf coast, prairies, & piney woods

Recently Austin artist Lisa Spangler, in preparation for teaching a workshop near Houston, put together a palette of colors especially for the Texas Gulf Coast & Prairies which is pretty close to where we live. Her blog post can be found HERE.

Lisa is very good at choosing just the right watercolors for specific environments; I especially love her sketches from Big Bend National Park! I was inspired to go through my own paints for near-matches to her selections, adding a dark cool green and cool brown for the Piney Woods — our little farm is a blend of Piney Woods and Prairie.

Next week we will once again be camping in a forest north of us so I’m testing out this palette, hoping to try a bit of landscape sketching. Many of the pigments are those I normally use. I seldom use orange so rather than buy a tube, I mixed quinacridone rose and hansa yellow medium together right in the pan, stirring with a toothpick. The only purchase I made was a small tube of quinacridone coral. Usually I only carry one cool red, adding a yellow when I need a warmer red, but Lisa’s choice of this coral intrigues me, especially in capturing sunsets. Hopefully there will be one over Lake Raven next week!

Lake Raven

Last week Bill was extremely sick with a headcold. Our reservations for this campsite were made over a month ago and was already paid for; I was concerned that he’d feel too bad to enjoy it.

But no, Bill is feeling wonderful and is enjoying the area to the fullest! For which I am grateful.

I’m Not so grateful for his having given me his cold.

Hence, posting photos instead of sketches . . .

Oh, and those ‘gator warning signs? They weren’t kidding!

no straight roads in Texas

 

Coming from Kansas with its normal east-west / north-south road grid, both in city and country, Bill has always complained about Texas roads. None of them go east-west or north-south. None of them are straight, as if road crews thought “the curvier, the better!” Many in cities go in a complete circle. Then there are the names! One highway can have as many as 3 or 4 different names!

Somewhere in this inaccurate tangle of a map is the route we drove to Davy Crockett National Forest. We had considered camping in the Sam Houston National Forest but I didn’t like the likelihood of alligators there . . . . Only to find out there’s a current warning upon entering Davy Crockett to watch out for alligators. 😬

seen near Waco

As we drove through Texas on our way to Kansas, we were able to see just how far-reaching the recent rains have been. The over-large “ponds” in this sketch are actually not ponds at all — pastures on both sides of the highway are half covered with standing water. All those tiny black ink spots in the distance are cattle who sought higher ground to graze.

In the area we live, where the piney woods meets the post oak savanna, we’ve had over 2 weeks of rain every day and most nights. This has been the longest springtime I’ve seen here — usually spring seems to last about a week and a half before summer heat kicks in!

Just 30 minutes into our trip, a passing SUV threw a rock at the truck’s windshield. The resulting spider-crack was the size of a quarter — we hope it can be repaired rather than having to buy a new windshield.

Indian paintbrush

 

Texas bluebonnets get most of the attention every springtime, but I also love the Indian paintbrush that grows alongside. In bright warm red, peach, or sometimes yellow — their cheerful color lasts much longer than the bluebonnets.

are we Texans yet?

 

Three of our four kids and their families live in Texas, and all five of our grandchildren were born here. Yet our daughter, who came here 24 years ago, told us that they aren’t considered real Texans until three generations have been born and lived here.

Our local electric coop had a different view in a recent magazine article: if you drive a truck, wear boots, keep livestock, attend the rodeo, etc., then you can be called a real Texan.

Last week we went to buy Bill some new shoes . . . and came away with his shoes plus a pair of boots for me. Now if I could only wear them to the Texas Livestock and Rodeo. Especially since our granddaughter is showing her cow this week. Only one person is allowed to go with her; we’ll have to watch it online.

THIS is south central Texas?

 

another urban sketch that wasn’t

Over the years that we drove from Kansas to Houston visiting our kids, we often passed the Swamp Shack on HWY 290 in Waller, TX. Every time I saw the 25-foot long crawfish, ridden by a mannequin dressed as a cowboy, I wanted to pull over and sketch it on-site. But never did.

After moving to Brenham, TX we still passed it driving to Houston. The restaurant was no longer in operation and the building was turned into a temporary fireworks stand (Fireworks are BIG in Texas: New Year’s, Texas Independence, Cinco de Mayo, Fourth of July . . .). I still wanted to stop to sketch it, but my husband is not a sketcher and we were always on our way to somewhere.

Then this past December, the crawfish was gone. There seems to be some work going on to the building but probably for a totally different use. So I sketched it from a photo just to remember it by.

I found this photo online taken in May 2019 — the cowboy’s hat was mostly gone and the whole thing was badly weathered but it still made me smile.

a clever horse bench

 

We sometimes like going to the little nearby community of Field Store (or Fields Store according to some signs) to eat at Gabby’s Grill. Next door there is a small Mexican convenience story with the coolest carved bench outside! Both ends have horse heads; at one end it seems to rise right out of the tree trunk while the other end is squared off.

An artist friend in Austin, Lisa Spangler, gave me this cool Texas template that her husband made, to add the location to any sketches made while exploring our new home state. (Thanks, Lisa❣️)

With COVID-19 keeping us a bit more isolated these days, it will be used close to home for now — but someday we hope to see more of this beautiful place we call home!

only in Texas!

Our car needed a refill on gasoline so we pulled into a station in Somerville. An extended-cab pick-up truck parked near the store and the family piled out, heading for snacks and cold drinks inside.

Except the driver — he reached into the back seat; we assumed he was unbuckling a small child from a child safety seat.

Uh, no . . . . He took out a small filly and proceeded to walk her about on a leash!

UPDATE: After comments exchanged with others, I’m thinking this is probably a miniature horse, possibly being trained as a therapy companion horse.

The Silos

This sketch, which I just finished, is actually yesterday’s sketch. We took a spur-of-the-moment trip to Waco, revisiting a bed & breakfast that we had stayed at some 12 or 15 years ago. When we arrived in town it was still early so we went to The Silos and Magnolia Market, made famous by HGTV’s Fixer-Upper. It was a Thursday morning so we were not expecting such a huge crowd! We walked around some, then ate breakfast sitting outside the Silos Bakery.

I did no sketching or painting while we were there — partly because we were visiting a few museums (I like to read all the info and watch the videos!), and partly because I was just getting over some kind of stomach bug and didn’t feel all that great. But much better now (and home!) so I did this sketch from photos. Very good Elderflower Lemonade!

Only 1 more day and 2 more Direct Watercolor sketches to go . . .

log cabin at Old Baylor

For today’s direct watercolor painting, I used a photo taken at Old Baylor University’s Women’s Campus located in Independence, Texas . . . just across the road from the home of Sam Houston. This original log cabin has been moved onto the site, just east of the ruins of the women’s buildings. Every spring the meadow next to the cabin is filled with wild bluebonnets, Indian paintbrush, and coreopsis.

I did use a very few pencil lines to ensure the cabin’s proportions were correct, and dots of masking fluid for where the wildflowers go. But I don’t feel that either of these tools were overdone; it was still painted directly in watercolor. That sky is nothing like I aimed for, but it worked!