more Autumn leaves

Most of our circle's trees are still holding on to their leaves and green. In fact, recent rains seem to have given them fresh life. But I was able to find these interesting leaves yesterday during a morning walk.

We have been living in quite a whirlwind of late. But sketching and painting some Autumn leaves really helped me relax a bit.

I will miss Autumn's color when we move to Texas.

Botanical studies

During the past holiday weeks I decided to start working on some botanical sketches of leaves, just to start looking into the never-ending shades of greens and how to achieve them. I'm finding it very daunting yet fascinating. During the last year or so I started studying colours very thoroughly and in doing so I took out all the colours of my palette that didn't have the features I needed to achieve my goals. I ended up using a rather limited choice of favourite pigments which has been able to provide me with any colour I needed so far. I like keeping it simple to get the best and most varied mixes out of them. It worked, until I started mixing to match those greens... Any thought from the botanical artists reading this will be much appreciated.
http://matteogrilli.blogspot.com.au/

autumn joy

autumn joy, a photo by vickylw on Flickr.

With this on-going drought, I wasn't sure there would be much variety in color for our Autumn Joy maple tree. But for the last few days, color has finally blossomed . . . . and will soon be blown away in this week's winds.

a visit to Arkansas

how I spent the 37th International Sketchcrawl . . ., a photo by vickylw on Flickr.

. . . and the previous day. We took a quick trip to visit old friends now living in Arkansas. It rained the whole time, but Ceilidh was still able to have fun running circles in the huge backyard, chasing squirrels, birds, chipmunks, and deer. I also saw a pair of pileated woodpeckers, though not long enough to draw them.



Our friends live in a forest on the edge of Norfolk Lake -- lots of tall oak trees which were just beginning to turn color. Last time we came, there had been a flood -- requiring a boat to take people out to their boat dock! This time the nation's drought showed in many places. A finger of the lake we passed on the way was dried up in several places.

Leaf Practice & Explorations

Just practicing painting leaves, as I have always found them intimidating.  I am hurrying to get my SBA assignment 3 finished which is a page of 8 painted leaves.

Red Paintbrush from todays explorations, Castilleja miniata

I hope to paint these and the related species very soon

(Pine Pass Rocky Mountain Trench Northern BC Canada)

Find me on Facebook at www.facebook.com/lauraashtonartist

From Grand vistas to a single leaf

Happy New Year to everyone!
I haven't posted for a long time here... no excuse except trying to do too many things at the one time. I have been on my summer holidays here and last week (or was it the week before) I escaped the city and had a few days up in the mountains - the blue mountains(plateaus is more accurate)...it is only 1.5 hours drive from the center of Sydney. Wonderful vistas looking down into valleys.


A consistent sandstone escarpment separates the tourist from the valleys - so any hikes involve a steep climb down and then back up again. As I was on my own I stayed on the top. Still plenty to see and sketch.

The mountains are supposedly bluer than normal due to the haze of the eucalyptus oil from all the gum trees - sometimes the blueness is very strong.

The most famous rock formation is the three sisters

...but my favourite place is pulpit rock which few people know about - you can walk down to an exposed rocky outcrop and sit on a bench and feel like you own the valley.

There is the scary 'pulpit' itself... I wasn't quite up to sketching way down there this time.

From sketching the grand vista I picked the most ordinary leaf and tried to describing it using the coolest 6 page laminated card that I got at a nearby shop. I can see that I am going to use this card to appear very knowledgeable! I never realised that there were so many different types of leaf bases and that they all have names. I am rather discovered by this discovery...

More details here

Japanese Zelkova

Japanese Zelkova, a photo by vickylw on Flickr.

One more in my studying Autumn leaves in this very dry year ---

We planted this tree several years ago after loosing two Chinese Elms. Because it is near a busy street, we chose this for it's growth characteristics --- The first few years, all growth is upward only. Then, when it's well above the traffic height, it spreads out to form a great shade tree.

Normally the leaves are brighter green, then turning color about now. But these are curling up and drying on the tree with a weird whitish cast.

The Art of Reverence - Maree

“Spring passes and one remembers one's innocence. Summer passes and one remembers one's exuberance. Autumn passes and one remembers one's reverence. Winter passes and one remembers one's perseverance.”
- Yoko Ono

Ink, wash and collage in a hand-made sketch-book with satin-finish Linen paper.

During this past winter, I collected quite a few Oak and Maple leaves from a friend's garden and they really are lovely to sketch. I like storing some of them in between the pages of some of my Encyclopaedias. Those that were not too dry and that would lie flat nicely I would trace the outline and the rest actually liked to pose, lying on the table in front of me in quite an orderly fashion. Smile!

This is the fifth in the series Country Diary, which consists of paintings, sketches and collages depicting nature, rural and farm life.

Autumn leaves

maple leaves, a photo by vickylw on Flickr.

One of my favorite things about this time of year is painting the leaves. But the drought conditions make me search longer for leaves to sketch.



Not much color this year. Many are dried and crinkled before falling from the trees.Others fall while still green.



Some seem to fall as small branches instead of individually.

Autumn Treasures

Autumn Treasures, a photo by Teri DC on Flickr.

The beautiful leaves in autumn are so beautifully colored I just need to paint them.
There was one last yellow wildflower still blooming so I added it to my Autumn Treasures.

finding new ways-concetta flore

I wanted to sketch some leaves and I found on my sketchbook a rough ground I had prepared for an architectural sketch of the earthquake consequences in L'Aquila (see unacarrioladidisegni.blogspot.com). Why not, then? I proceeded to work on this unusual ground and I like the result. I will probably use this technique in my next assignment of illustrations of animal traces.

Autumn Signs

Autumn Signs, a photo by Teri DC on Flickr.

It was COLD when I went for my 6am walk the other day! Knowing the leaves were going to be turning soon I looked for some and found these. Had to paint them right after breakfast or they would curl up.

Happy warm Autumn Day to you.

Wierd Tropical Plants - Liz Steel

I am sorry that I have been so slack in posting to this blog in recent times. Although it is a while ago, we had a wonderful 6 weeks of Garden Sketchabouts in the Botanic Gardens Sydney... as per these previous posts.

The last week was a terribly wet day so we ended up in the tropical centre. In all my years of visiting the garden I had never been inside...and was I amazed by what I discovered in there. So many weird and wonderful plants!!! Even the leaf shapes and colours were unusual.

It was a bit of a challenge to sketch inside in the tropical centre glasshouses because the air was so moist that my paints were very gooey and occasional random drips landed on my page from time to time - everything got wet and I managed to get paint everywhere!

This one, a tongue Orchid, native to Papua New Guinea caught my eye! Thankfully it didn't seem to be ommitting a putrid stench of rotting meats while I was sketching it!

Here are two links to more information... looks amazing when it is actually in flower
http://www.orchidsonline.com.au/node/651
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bulbophyllum_fletcherianum

If you are interested in seeing all my sketches from the 6 weeks of Sketchabouts check the full sketchbook here. The architect in me was drawn to many of the buildings in the gardens, or the vistas and I didn't actually sketch that many individual plants! It was the most wonderful event and culminated in a 3 day exhibition of the best 30 sketches, and we are very thankful for the Gardens to have the vision to organise this event.

empty larder

empty larder
Originally uploaded by vickylw

. . . on the trees, that is. The squirrels' larders must be busting to running over by now.

Bill tells me that it's a sign of a very cold winter ahead. He noticed that all the walnuts from the tree behind his wood shop have already been cleaned up by squirrels.

Thursday's walk . . .

Thursday's walk
Originally uploaded by vickylw

. . . and the acorns I found. Still very green and not ready to leave the branch.

Leaf Spread - Carolyn Pappas

I have a certain moleskine that has been ongoing since 2005 and it is really irking me that I haven't finished it off yet. I never really enjoyed working in it, and I just want to get it finished so that I can move onto other sketchbooks that I like better. So this weekend I decided I am going to fill up the last ten or so pages quickly to get it over with. I went out into the garden yesterday and made these line drawings of some of the different leaves that can be found there. My family spends a lot of time working on our garden, and we even keep our garage heated all winter to keep our mini fig and orange trees alive. I guess being Greek and all, we like our patio to look like the Mediterranean even in Massachusetts.

Leaves in Ink and Color - Teri Casper

It was so nice outside I just had to be out there

and

I felt like doing an ink sketch and wondered how far I could get in 20 minutes for the 20 minute challenge.

I started at the bottom of the grapefruit tree and started working my way up and had to quit before I got too far.

Then I wondered what it would look like if I colored the leaves so you could see the little white blossoms.

So I did.

Spring is so great!

an Autumn sketchbook -- Vicky Williamson

Like most of us, I love the colors and textures of Autumn. Recently I made a sketchbook from a folded sheet of watercolor paper, just for sketching botanicals this season. I thought it would be a good example if I get to teach a botanical sketchbook workshop next spring in Wichita.








I've decided to use just ink, watercolor pencil, and watercolor crayons in this sketchbook.

Long gone Autumn leaves - Maree Clarkson

"Realize that, as an artist, you have the power to select or reject. Use the scene before you only as a starting point."

- Ron Ranson

"Autumn Leaves" in Moleskine large watercolour sketch-book

I thought I'd join all my Northern hemisphere and post something Autumny. Even when Winter was in full swing, there were still some stray Autumn leaves around.