pair of cardinals

Our Arizona cypress tree, planted about 5 years ago, is home to a myriad of birds of many species — Bill snapped a quick photo of a couple of our cardinals.

home for this week

One of the views we are waking up to this week, camping in the Bastrop forest . . . This immediate campsite was untouched by the devastating fires of 2011. The vast acreage that did burn is making a strong comeback.

tree forms

While here in the woods (our RV is literally surrounded by trees on 3 sides!), I have been slowly collecting sketches of the more unusual tree forms. Lots of post oak, cedar elm, and bald cypress in unusual growth patterns. The main tree on the left seems to be standing tiptoe with a patch of grass growing underneath it! I’ve included a photo of it from the other side.

The trees in the center share a large common root between them. The front one also seems to be parting its “skirt” to reveal an underlayer. The tree on the right has what appears to be a wee doorway at the end of one of the roots.

Drawn with Pitt Artist brush pens and colored pencils; fountain pen ink and gouache for the bluebonnet bloom.

peach blossoms

A couple of weeks ago I snapped photos of trees in our front pasture while out with our corgi, Butters. But I didn’t get around to sketching from one until today. This is the baby peach tree’s blossoms; I was too late to get shots of the apple trees.

camping at Cagle

This week we have been once again camping in the Sam Houston National Forest. Not too hot, not too cold — just right for leisurely walks on nearby trails. There are several items we forgot to pack or didn’t think we’d need and wish we had, but it’s been a relaxing, enjoyable time. Today, lots of new campers are coming in for the weekend just as we are getting ready to head home. Being retired means not needing to plan around working hours!

At the campsite next to ours, we found an arrow made of pine cones, leading up to a hidden painted rock that someone left as a surprise. I took a photo and left it for the next person to find.

tiny house, c. 1840s

This sketch didn’t turn out quite like I had planned, but I’m calling it done and moving on. It’s drawn from a photo I took in 2018. The cabin had a spindly live oak growing behind it with skinnier branches than normal.

The photo was in with others on my phone taken in Old Baylor Park but after I wrote the text, I’m not so sure if that’s where we saw it. It might have been in Round Top.

(watercolor & colored pencil)

the freeze is on the way

We have been having a strange winter season so far, even needing to run the air conditioner just a week ago! On Monday, there were new blossoms on the baby peach tree. The leaves of the Mexican sycamore we planted this autumn have not yet fallen; in fact there are fresh green ones!

But a freezing winter storm is streaming towards us — and across half of the country today. The confused trees are in for a shock.

early morning view

The past few years I have reversed my long-held habits and have become an early riser, usually while it’s still quite dark. A quiet time to sip a cup of hot tea, read, or play a word game on my phone. Our corgi, Butters, and one of our cats, Bardie, love to go explore outside in the morning before it gets light. This is the view we had one morning last week, a wee sliver of a moon over the Arizona cypress tree we planted a few years ago.

The teacup and saucer are the only real cup and saucer I own; I normally use a large mug. I don’t usually use tea bags, but I bought a gift tin of Yorkshire Gold tea bags just for the tin, which features ink drawings by Yorkshire artist John Harrison. The bags have no string and tag; instead, I use a beaded chain with a small clip to hold the corner of the bag.

(watercolor, gouache, and colored pencil in a Seawhite of Brighton travel journal)

✳️ A bit of artistic license was employed in this sketch: the oak tree, which still has some brown leaves hanging on, was moved closer to the cypress to fit the square format and the crepe myrtle we planted was completely ignored. Those pine trees in the far distance are actually much taller than I drew them, and I left out the long driveway with its 12 live oaks and some additional fencing. Trying to simplify!

early morning walk

Our temperatures are still mostly in the 70s but mornings have been foggy. This is the view during a recent morning walk.

I need practice trying to write with a tiny paintbrush. Very wonky!

next to the last page

Today I finished the next to the last page of this journal (after posting the last page yesterday). It didn’t turn out quite like what I had in mind — seems a bit stiff and not enough contrast in values. But I’m calling it done and moving on.

What drew me to sketch the scene were the lavender-shadowed clouds. But they seemed to fade away in the sketch. This is the view from the front of our small converted barn house looking towards our daughter’s farmhouse. I added those shrubs in the lower right corner where our barn-red house corner would be.

new trees

We were able to have two new trees planted last week, another oak tree in the back yard and a sycamore in the front pasture. From photos I took of the leaves, I tried out my new way of working: loose watercolor in my new muted palette followed by a touch of colored pencil. No ink! (except for the words). This rough textured paper probably isn’t the best choice for the pencils.

Recently I purchased some stackable ceramic trays for mixing paint when I’m at home — mainly because they have a lid that covers all when stacked. I can walk away from mixes without the kitties nosing in the paint. I also found a collapsable water cup with a wavy edge that holds my paint brushes.

final ink sketch

One last October ink sketch, loosely following an example from the library book “Pen & Ink Techniques” by Frank Lohan — I drew the tree directly in ink, letting the pen move a bit intuitively across the page. But you can still see faint pencil lines under the text that I didn’t bother to erase.

leftover branch

A few weeks ago we had our trees trimmed. Apparently a few small branches were left up in the live oaks — today’s high winds blew them down. I picked a few up to throw on th3 burn pile, but stopped to sketch this.

remembering the Rockies

Today’s ink sketch is another exercise I did from “Pen & Ink Techniques” by Frank Lohan. It reminds me of the first time I saw the Rocky Mountains, in the summer of 1964.

a wee hidey-hole

Today’s sketch is from a photo taken four years ago while we were camping in the forest. It made me think of an illustration from a children’s storybook. I wonder who might pop out of the hole at any moment?

I switched to my Pilot Falcon fountain pen with a black ink cartridge. Since I’m not using watercolor for these ink drawings, it doesn’t need to be waterproof ink.

tree trimming time

All day yesterday, the tree dudes worked on trimming our trees, especially the twelve live oaks that line our driveway. Since moving here on our daughter’s acreage, many trees have been lost due to various storms. This work by professional arborists will hopefully prevent losing more. They did have to remove one damaged white oak that was threatening K. & M.’s roof. But next, we order some new trees to replace the ones lost.

This morning Butters and I were walking back from picking up a delivered package when she pounced on this leaf. So I brought it inside to sketch. I’ve never really been taught how to render drawings in ink line only — I just make it up as I go.

camping at Cagle

While we were camping at Cagle on the shore of Lake Conroe, I did manage to get a few sketches done after all. The large oak leaf was done directly with a brush and watercolor.

Most of the week, we had the Sweet Gum camp site all to ourselves. The heat and high humidity is probably to blame, but we enjoyed the peace and quiet of the forest.

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.

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!