Molly Hashimoto

Flora and Fauna of Yellowstone, September 2009

Hiking at Slough Creek in Yellowstone National Park, we encountered this pugnacious badger. There were four of us hiking and this badger had no fear of us at all.  In fact at one point he began to charge us, which is why my photos are a little out of focus!

 

 

One of the things I love about visiting Yellowstone in September is being there for the elk rut.  Along the trails you hear the eerie sounds of elk bugling, and you may encounter a bull and his harem, as we did one day, charging down through the forest.  Here is a photo of one of the vanquished bulls, and another photo of a victorious bull.

 

 

 

 

In the Gardner River one day we saw this American Dipper at work, diving, working underwater and sitting atop rocks to spy his food.

 

 

 

 

This Three Toed Woodpecker tolerated our photography without complaint. The hole seemed to be of much greater importance!

Artists in the National Parks

I am taking a short break from reporting on last week's  Yellowstone Association Institute seminar to write about the program I am offering for King County Library beginning next weekend, October 3rd at the Vashon Library. The program-- Artists in the National Parks --is being offered along with several others by other presenters to tie in with the Ken Burns series The National Parks: America's Best Idea.   I will be at 8 branches of King County Library, sharing the research that I have done on artists in national parks, as well as the journals I have been keeping for many years, full of small landscapes and studies of birds, mammals, rocks, flowers and trees.  This is a hands-on program, so my short lecture will happen while you are sketching and painting!  I have many photos and lots of natural objects for us to examine, draw and paint.  I will be bringing my favorite books as well, among them ones on national park artists Thomas Moran, Chiura Obata and Abby Hill.  Be sure to tune into the TV show on your local PBS station this week!  Last night was wonderful--I think my favorite part was about the Yellowstone ordeal of Truman Everts--little did we know last week as we sat painting at Canary Spring and looking across to his namesake Mt. Everts that he had undergone weeks of being lost, frostbitten and burned, to earn that honor of a place name in Yellowstone!

Yellowstone Association Institute September Seminar

 The striking new Yellowstone Association offices and classrooms in Gardiner, Montana are in a restored historic building, directly across the street from the famous Roosevelt Arch.

Our weather was so perfect that we never needed to retreat to the classroom.

Instead we spent almost all of our class time outdoors painting and soaking up the sun and the amazing sights.  Here are few photos of us outdoors.

Joanne Hamm, Sharon Grandi and Vi Gardner are painting below Canary Springs.

 

 

 

 

One of my favorite sites was Swan Lake Flats where we painted on the last day of the seminar. It's just past the Golden Gate and you can see Bunsen Peak in the distance. Cary Retlin is seated in the foreground here.

 

 

 

 

Laurie Piskura found a spot to paint just below us in the sagebrush meadow, with a grand view of Electric Peak.

 

 

 

 

 

BJ Earle found the view equally compelling and here she is sketching.

Marcia Browers and Sunny Cox painted the view out west towards Quadrant Mountain and Antler Peak.

A Visit to the Yellowstone Heritage and Research Center

Thanks to the assistance of Colleen Curry, Curator of the Yellowstone Heritage and Research Center, we were able to see original sketchbooks of Thomas Moran, much celebrated painter of Yellowstone in the 19th century. He accompanied the Hayden Survey and his art was instrumental in the establishment of the Park.  The image to the left may be a scene from the Hoodoos, which was among the sites we visited.

 

Pictured left are Colleen Curry and several students viewing the sketchbooks and original watercolors of Moran.

 

 

In a display case in the entry hall of the HRC, we saw Thomas Moran's paintbrushes and palette knife displayed. Of course I had to take this photo!

In addition to the larger sketchbook, this small notebook of Moran's was on display. It reminded me of the very small and portable Moleskine books that many modern-day artists use for very quick sketches and notes.

Pictured left is a later Moran sketchbook, done while he was visiting Utah. The drawing is little more than a contour drawing, with washes indicating colors. He used a real shorthand on many of his sketches, mainly laying out the masses, and often labelling colors that he deemed insufficiently recorded by using abbreviations, like YO for yellow ochre, and BG for blue gray.

Painting in Porcelain Basin Yellowstone

Students Sharon Grandi of Toppenish, Washington, Leigh Ann Dunworth and Tonya Opperman (both from Gardiner, Montana) painted at Porcelain Basin. We seated ourselves near a beautiful runoff channel from Whirligig Geyser.

Here is a photo of the channel and the landscape visible beyond it.

Yellowstone Institute Plein Air Watercolor 2009

I've just returned from teaching the second annual Pleasure of Plein Air in Yellowstone workshop. I worked with 13 wonderful students and my much valued Institute assistant, Lisa Whitwell. We enjoyed perfect weather and stunning light conditions for painting watercolor sketches outdoors.  The autumn light makes for excellent illumination and cast shadows.

I will be posting several photos of scenes we painted for the benefit of our group.  Several students mentioned that they intended to finish sketches at home.

Above is Canary Spring, with views out to Mt. Everts. The yellows, turquoises, violets and pinks along with the ethereal vapors presented a scene that looked more like fantasy than reality.  What fun to escape reality, by visiting Yellowstone!

Liberty Cap, pictured right, was named by F.V. Hayden for the peaked caps worn during the French Revolution.

I think this photo captures the drama of the light and shadow on the geyser cone, as well as the cast shadow. In addition, I like the way the distant ridge meets the clouds in an x shape, created a dynamic diagonal movement in the image.

Reflections in Diablo Lake: Demonstration

In July I took a photo of the reflections of alder leaves in Diablo Lake. The glassy surface of the lake created mirror-like reflections of the leaves, whose graceful branching and serrated margins made for an elegant design.

The following is a step by step demonstration of how I painted this watercolor.

Step 1. I taped off the edges of the stretched paper, and completely wet the paper and laid a pale blue wash on it.

Step 2.

I created the pattern of the rocks with a blue/gray mixture, adding darker values wet into wet, as well as some areas where it was a little more golden.  Next I painted the upper branch reflection, using a slightly varying wash of greenish gold and darker greens.

Step 3. I repainted darker geens on the leaves and twigs where they fell over a rock shadow/edge.

Step 4. I darkened the areas between the rocks in the lake as they came closer to the foreground.

Step 5. I added the rest of the leaf reflections, moving down towards the foreground of the painting, varying the greens a little bit here and there, painting in a wet in wet technique.  I used a combination of a round brush and a rigger to maintain the delicacy of the twigs.

Step 6. I darkened the leaf areas over the rock clefts and edges, as well as darkening a few of the rock edges.

Sitka Center Students' Work

Two of my students were kind enough to send me scanned images of the paintings they began at the workshop I taught last month at the Sitka Center for Art and Ecology.  John Tubbs painted this dramatic view at left of the headlands and one of the Three Rocks at Cascade Head.  We had traveled down to the estuary mouth and painted there one day.

To the right is the work of student Max Smith . He painted the view of the arch at Proposal Rock at Neskowin, Oregon.  We drove up there on the last day of our workshop. Max was able to convincingly capture the sand, surf, distant headlands and remarkable arch being carved out of the Rock.