Sunday, August 12, 2012

The yearly camping trip to Utica Reservior

I always stress a little about the trip. I worried if our campsite would be available. Would there be enough room for all. Will the bears eat our food? It was OK. The campsite was waiting for us and there was plenty of room for our tents. Plus, the bears did not make a visitation this year. AND I don't have to do any cooking so I had plenty of time to draw.
There were chipmunks scampering all over the place. I'm sure they were just waiting for us to leave food in our tents. One watched me as I drew the granite boulders behind my tent. It was very attentive. Another one latter in the day kept a running commentary on how we were cooking dinner.
We needed a little exercise after all the eating we were doing so a few of us headed up to another lake six miles up the mountain. The walk is up mostly solid blocks of granite with a few trees growing out of the rocks. (I'm not sure how the trees do that) There is a creek that connects the two lakes that crosses the trail a couple of times. at the lower creek crossing it is shady and cool. At the higher elevation the creek runs shallow over the granite with lots of pools and slick sweeps of water. The sun beats down on it and I envision sliding down the hill in the water. I didn't do that. I drew it instead.

11 comments:

  1. I love how you've painted the rocks, the sketchbook looks fab! Sounds like an idyllic place

    ReplyDelete
  2. Wonderful pages in your journal! I, too, especially like your rocks .... so solid, yet not just shades of mud. I hope to learn from your example.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Gay, thank you for inviting us along! It looks so refreshing...the Midwest has been kind of brutal this summer.

    ReplyDelete
  4. So much fun to peek into your journal, Gay. Thank you! I noticed you mentioned the new white pen but was the rest done in watercolors? I'm always curious about other sketcher's tools. And is that a handmade journal?

    ReplyDelete
  5. Gay, this is such a lovely group of sketches! I'd also love to know about your journal. Very, very nice.

    ReplyDelete
  6. Lovely sketchbook, looks like a complete publication!

    ReplyDelete
  7. Thank you all. Utica Reservoir is a magical place. I look forward to the trip every year.
    I did use a white Sharpie pen over my watercolors and the grey side of the book. I also used the watercolors over the Sharpie. It is permanent, so it did not bleed when I painted over it.
    The book is a hand made journal, a Brenda Book. My studio mate is a book binder, so I benefit greatly by sharing a studio with her. You can see her books here.
    http://www.brendabooks.com/

    ReplyDelete
  8. This is so beautiful, real eye candy, I love the way you lay out your journal pages, take time with your lettering and your composition is perfect. What a wonderful journal!! I am going to look at the link, thanks! D

    ReplyDelete
  9. Thanks Kay! Love Brenda's books. Thanks for the link.

    ReplyDelete
  10. really fab pages, perfect lay-out, and I love the toned paper (but how is it that the next page is white? is it toned only on one side?)

    ReplyDelete

We'd love to hear from you, your questions, comments, observations! Please feel free to comment, feedback is important to us.