Yosemite Creek: Frazzle Ice

Yet another reason to visit Yosemite National Park any other time besides summer.

Rocks in Rockport

Continuing with the rocks theme - this is my drawing of a view which apparently is very popular with the people who draw and paint when they visit Rockport Massachusetts. So much so that I decided to call this drawing Motif #2 - given that Motif #1 was already taken! ;)

Rockport Motif #2
9" x 12", coloured pencil on Saunders Waterford HP
copyright Katherine Tyrrell

I've managed to find exactly where I sat on Google's Street view and you can see what I saw below. Except they took the film on a cloudy day while I had a lovely blue sky and balmy weather in the mid September 2006.


View Larger Map

That path you can see below is where I sat - as you can see on the right as recounted in my this sketchbook blog post about my trip to Rockport - Sunday 17th September: Rocky Neck and Rockport, Massachusetts.

I found the trick with the rocks was to look for colour and striations in order to provide interest and form. That and work fast when it's late afternoon because the shadows change fast!

Niagara Falls Suite

Niagara Falls Suite # 2
22" x 30"
Ink, acrylic and watercolor on paper


Niagara Falls Suite # 3
22" x 30"
Ink, acrylic and watercolor on paper


Niagara Falls Suite # 1
22" x 30"
Ink, acrylic and watercolor on paper






Niagara Falls #4
22" x 30"
Ink, acrylic and watercolor on paper

I could have spend hours at Niagara Falls however, our visit was sandwiched in between two 18 hour car rides with Derek's commencement ceremony being the real filling. Although there was a bit of grumbling from the family about adding more driving hours on to the trip, when we all got there, we all felt overwhelmed by the grandeur, power and visual impact of the falls. As you can hear from the short video, it's also very loud.


The Canadian Side



View Larger Map

I madly scribbled in my sketchbook as we strolled along both the American and Canadian side. We'd been warned about the honky tonk atmosphere on both sides of the falls, but we tried to close our eyes going through these areas. The American side has a nice park that goes along the edges of both Horseshoe Falls and the American Falls. But the Canadians have, hands down, the most beautiful, if soggy view. You can see from the video above that the lens was getting a dusting of droplets during the filming.


I have about 12 sketches for a series of paintings, I was so profoundly moved. The scale, volume of water just sucked me in, so to speak. These large drawings feel more like sketches to me. The drawing at the top could only end up on a full sheet of watercolor. Anything smaller and I would loose the feel of the place. What I feel working this big is a huge amount of freedom and I find by working on 3 at once, I'm less likely to tighten up by being afraid of messing up.

I'm working toward applying the paint with reckless abandon...working to express the headlong rush of the water over the falls. However, it is possible that I'm going over the edge in a barrel: blind and out of control creatively. Also, the white on white does not read very well on screen.

If you'd like to see more still photos, you can see them here.


Here is anothervideo from the American side if you'd like to take a look and also, my initial sketchbook drawings are here.

You can find a brief history of the falls and other interesting facts (like what happens to the falls in the dead of winter here.

Ronell was kind enough to send methis link for a group of plein air artist's working at the falls.

Waterways Project: More Strata

Strata
22" x 30"
mixed media on paper

This is my first attempt at the strata concept I discussed earlier. You can see a planning sketch on my blog here. I'm not thrilled with the results but it its good to try new stuff. Typically, I start a few pieces at the same time but I did not have time to work this way. Perhaps it deserves a mini series. Taking risks is all part of the process, especially when working with a new idea.


Who knew that Katherineloved Geology?
" Did you know I used to have to draw these for real for my geology exam at school. Yup - I have a real-life qualification in geology and I still remember far more geology than I do other stuff!"

Here is the link she left for me on my post. There are some really amazing maps of the Geology of Illinois available for sale here too. (Just in case you wanted information on where the coal deposits exist, you can get a mineral map for that there.)



Here you can see a slice of my process for these drawings. I've tapped off all the areas I want to remain white and I'm running the media right across all the strata to unify all the windows. I like the freedom of working on such a large sheet and using gestural movements with my whole arm.

Napping Muse on Company Time

Here's a scary thought for a Watermarks member: I'm feeling adrift with my Waterways Project! Shouting for my Muse to wake does absolutely no good. So, I'm using this nagging twinge of anxiety to branch out and explore some new visual ideas. I'm very thankful for Tina's generosity in sharing images from her latest visual project:Wave Mechanics. Her photos are my jumping off point for playing around with various ideas. Thanks Tina!

If you want to see more visual trawling (for watery ideas), you can visit my blog for a slide show.






NOAA, the National Ocean and Atmospheric Administration (in the US) runs a site for Watershed Prediction for many rivers in the US.Here is the page for the Des Planes River Does anyone else have this sort of service in their country? If you do, why not share a link in the comments section.

Same Pond,Different Days

I've shifted back into watercolors only this time I've added ink to the mix. The India ink travels at warp speed though wet watercolors and gives an interesting sort of push pull with the media. This is one of the things I like best about watercolor: its collaborative nature (some might say uncooperative). More and more, I'm finding the key to discovering my painting style is to let go and expect to do many versions of a piece.

I experimented with different kinds of ink but found that Bombay India Ink traveled the most. My pre-mixed sumi did not budge one bit. This ink is also waterproof so I can rework layers as needed.

Others have shared their projects of multiple views of a beloved place so I thought I'd add my project too.

One of my favorite sections of the New York Times, the Science Times, published an article this week about the importance of coastal sand in learning about the health of oceans. You might find it interesting. Embedded in this post is a great slid show of beaches all over the world.

Des Plaines River Trail: Lake Street Bridge November 08

25" x 17"
64cm x 42cm
oil on paper

I'm moving into my third year of working on my Waterways Project and each year something new comes up for me. During the first year, I fumbled around with media and finally settled on oil pastels. In January of 08, I discovered the linear qualities of winter and fell in love with painting snow. This year, I'm wanting to add a more evocative tone; express the perils the waterways face due to the carelessness of human encroachment.I also want to move into oil paint as this gives me the most amount of freedom with colors.

On my blog today, I've listed a few links to the artist's I'm looking at lately. They are not necessarily working in landscape but I admire their work greatly.

Introducing Katherine Tyrrell

I've never talked about my interest in water before joining this group and starting this project. What happened while writing this post was I discovered what I do when drawing water. The back of the brain had known it all along - but now it's got the front of the brain engaged and able to explain it!

When I draw water I want to produce a sketch or a drawing that has a clear sense of "place".

A very long time ago I did a degree in geography (and also studied geology!) which used to involve me in doing a lot of thinking about very different places and then analysing them from a lot of different perspectives. It's not easy to leave all that behind! What this all means is that when I make a drawing of a place as it is today, besides the conventional artistic considerations, I also like to try and understand the place, what it represents and why it looks the way it does.

In a way I'm trying to see the story of the landscape behind the surface of what I can see.

What that means for me is that I also tend to think about water as my subject in terms of:

• where it is in the world
  
• what the water has done to the land and/or how it has influenced structures on the land
  
• how the water has influenced the importance of this place in the past
  

For example, I live in London and never forget that this city is what it is today because of the River Thames! The slideshow at the top is some images of water in London - the lakes at Kew Gardens and in St James Park and various views along the Thames starting at Westminster and finishing at the Old Royal Naval College at Greenwich - which actually stands on the ground where Henry VIII had his Palace of Placentia (see Greenwich - very nearly sitting on zero).

This is me standing on the hill at the top of Greenwich Park. It contains places with huge significance to maritime history . I'm looking at the Meridian at the Royal Observatory, the place where Greenwich Mean Time starts, the Old Royal Naval College is just behind my head down on the banks of the river and the big loop in the River Thames is just above my fringe!

I'm really passionate about drawing and sketching. I sometimes draw in pen and ink but usually draw in colour using dry media - coloured pencils and soft pastels. I often sketch scenes up and down the River Thames. On my website I have a gallery of sketches of the River Thames and London Canals - from Kew in the west to Greenwich in the east plus the lakes in the Parks and Gardens - hence the slideshow!

Here's an extract from the text which accompanied this sketch in The shoreline at Bankside on my blog Travels with a Sketchbook in......

Bankside shoreline
8" x 10", pencil and coloured pencils in Moleskine
copyright Katherine Tyrrell

Out of the picture and on the other river bank, next to the railway station was the site of the Norman fortress Baynard's Castle which stood in the southwest corner of the City of London, where the walls met the River Thames. It burned down in the Great Fire and the site is currently occupied by an awful lot of concrete. I used to have an office (on the same site) in a completely undistinguished concrete slab office block at Puddle Dock where I was based while working all over the UK in the nineties. Those bridges were the view out of my office window - so they're a very familiar sight for me.
The shoreline at Bankside

I also find that I often think about which artists have painted this place and this water before me! In the past, I've also tried to study and work out how certain painters I admire - Turner, Monet, Singer Sargent, Whistler and Winslow Homer - actually created their paintings involving water. A project I've had in mind for some time is to try and draw the Thames from the same places where people like Monet and Whistler stood to create their own artwork involving the Thames in London.

I also have a waterscapes gallery on my website devoted to various coloured pencil and pastel drawings of the watery aspects I've found on my travels in places as diverse as Big Sur in California, Cape Cod and Maine in New England, Greece, France, Venice, Bali, Singapore, Suffolk and Sussex!

Path to Nauset Beach
coloured pencils
copyright Katherine Tyrrell

I really like learning about how water varies in different places and different contexts - such as why the water becomes a deep blue off Cape Cod when the waters affected by a major hurricane in Florida are moving north - as was happening the day I visited Nauset Beach on Cape Cod. I even read Thoreau's Cape Cod to find out about how he found the beaches and the sea in his day and ended up discovering all about the phenomenal erosion rates on Cape Cod and the fact they had to move the lighthouse! (See Cape Cod National Seashore). I also visited Prouts Neck in Maine to inspect the water that Winslow Homer used to paint next to his home there! (See Travels with a Sketchbook in New England)

Vivien was the person who had the bright idea for this new project - and I've had a lot of fun with both Vivien and Lindsay in working through the logistics to get it off the ground - besides the blog we've now also got a ning community - also called Watermarks!

We're now getting underway as a group of nine artists and I hope you'll come back to see what the rest of the group are about and what we're likely to get up to in future. If you'd like to keep up with us the links to how you can subscribe are near the top of the sidebar column.

Speaking personally, I'm finding that I'm walking around at the moment having little lightbulb moments as I realise more and more things that come within the watery remit of this project.........ice skating anybody?

Links:

• Sketchblog - Travels with a Sketchbook in......
• Main blog - Making A Mark
• Website - Pastels and Pencils