The Eliot Bridge over the Charles River.
The river has swollen with rainwater this December. The water is close to the top of the stone arches but is starting to go down --until the next storm.
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| 12-29-23-bridge charcoal |
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| 12-22-23-bridge |
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| 12-19-23-bridge |
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| 12-02-23-bridge |
Looks like a stained glass window! I have different piles of paper in my studio. I try to not discriminate too much. These are on colored copier paper which will fade to pale earthy tones if they spend too much time in the sun. I had fun. I hope you enjoy them.
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| 11-07-23-coreopsis01 ink, charcoal |
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| 11-09-23-sparrow ink |
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| 11-10-23-swans02 pastel |
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| 11-27-23-island02 watercolor |
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| 11-28-23-island03 watercolor |
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| 11-20-23-goose charcoal, ink |
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| 01-03-23-swans01 ink |
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| 05-09-23-swans pencil, ink |
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| 10-15-23-swans01 crayon, ink, charcoal |
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| 10-13-23-swans02 charcoal, pastel, ink |
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| 05-18-23-swans03 pastel, ink |
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| 10-13-23-swans01 pastel, ink, charcoal |
Rains have come, the river is high and fast and the ducks and herons are staying far away. The cattails are beginning to bend and bunch together. It must be tiring standing up all summer long!
The mallows are drying up. I'll draw the seed pods in January. Right now, I'll content myself with drawing the cheerful, bright yellow Coreopsis flowers along the river bank. I think they are the last hurrah before a final trumpet blast of fall foliage. Then the drenching cold rain and wind can come and strip it all away.
In the winter I will pore over my drawings from warmer and sunnier days and think of next year.
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| 09-22-23-flower |
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| 09-07-23-flowers |
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| 08-01-23-mallow |
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| 09-21-23-flowers |
Here are a few sketchbook pages from a trip to the Maine woods last week. Students Island is a short paddle on Mooselookmeguntic Lake from the headquarters of the Stephen Phillips Memorial Preserve in Oquossoc, Maine.
We spent three nights roughing it and cooking over a campfire. Wildlife highlights included seeing at close range a family of mergansers chasing down and feeding on silvery minnows flashing in the afternoon sun. There were loons, cormorants, sandpipers and bald eagles. No moose but the red squirrels serenaded us in camp and as we hiked around the island. —We have our campsite reserved for next year :)
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| 08-27-23-studentsisland05 |
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| 08-27-23-studentsisland03 |
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| 08-27-23-studentsisland06 |
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| 08-29-23-studentsisland01 |
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| 08-28-23-studentsisland01 |
It's approaching deep summer. Where I live, there is lots of vegetation. So that is what I draw (and try not to grumble about it!). High water this summer has frightened off the waterfowl. So I draw the plants (and light and shadow) instead.
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| 08-02-23-thistle |
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| 08-02-23-bridge |
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| 08-05-23-thicket |
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| 07-23-23-bridge |
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| 09-08-20-balustrade |
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| 08-19-18-heron01 |
The mallows have started to bloom. The showy white, hibiscus-like flowers are four or five inches in diameter with a deep magenta center that attracts pollinators to its yellow stamens and creamy white pistil. Technically, this is Hibiscus palustris, the Swamp Rose Mallow
It's a reliable bloomer usually starting the first week of August —based on the dates on my drawings. In winter, I like to draw the large opened seed pods (see the last sketch).
Nature is pretty predictable despite our well-founded concerns about the changing climate. I hope you have some mallows growing near you.
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| 08-01-23-mallow colored pencil, ink |
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| 09-25-21-mallow ink, charcoal, pastel |
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| 08-11-21-mallows pastel |
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| 08-10-22-mallow charcoal |
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| 11-23-19-mallow charcoal, conté, ink |
These are recent quick studies of animals in motion. I enjoy, intuitively, creating a loose composition out of multiple views of the same thing. I like the interaction of line, masses of tone and color and the spaces in between that overlapping elements can suggest.
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| 07-04-23-heron01 ink |
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| 07-03-23-rabbit02 charcoal |
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| 06-28-23-turtle charcoal |
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| 06-28-23-heron02 pastel, charcoal |
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| 06-28-23-heron01 charcoal |
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| 06-27-23-heron02 pencil |
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| 06-22-23-heron pencil |
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| 06-18-23-hawk01 ink, charcoal, pastel |
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| 06-08-23-chipmunks charcoal |
