Molly Hashimoto

Yellowstone Revisited

 
The bull elk I saw very early one morning just inside the Gardiner entrance to Yellowstone inspired this journal sketch.  I began by laying a yellow ochre wash over the entire page, dropping in some neutral greens and a deeper brown I mixed with carbazole violet and quinacridone burnt orange.  After that dried I sketched the elk body on top, and painted his body with a slightly darker ochre mixture, laying in the beautiful neck ruff with a small paint brush once the first wash was almost but not entirely dry.  I used a mixture of carbazole violet and quinacridone burnt orange for the deeper brown.  Next I mixed a more saturated brown adding a little phthalo blue red shade for the dark shadows on the elk's hindquarters and underside as well as the long autumn shadow he cast.

These summer sights (captured in sketches and photos) keep me going during the long rainy Seattle winters.  I'll be teaching a one day workshop in late January for Daniel Smith on travel journals--I'm really looking forward to showing how I incorporate quick sketching on location, and later more reflective entries like this one (done in the comfort of hotel rooms and home) in my travel journal. Students will bring their own photos so they can try out these methods using their own adventures as inspiration.  We'll be using many quick-sketching techniques and materials for our journal entries, as well as more carefully planned techniques with watercolor.

Relief Printing with Ink and Watercolor

 I created this relief print by carving a Safety-Kut printmaking block. I inked it with Daniel Smith water-soluble black ink (for ease of clean up), and after allowing the ink to dry for a few days, I painted the inked print with watercolor.  The ink is no longer water-soluble once dry.  I used Magnani Pescia printmaking paper because it accepts washes readily, though not as smoothly as a watercolor paper.  I was inspired to create this print for a workshop I presented for the Write On Calligraphers guild in Washington. I have admired the work of early twenthieth century German typographer and artist Rudolf Koch for some years, and the letterform that I created for the word "lupine" owes much to Koch, incorporating some of the design work he did with blackletter or Gothic letterforms.  He is most famous for inventing the Neuland font.  I presented a demonstration on this at Daniel Smith Artist Materials a few weeks ago; check out the Daniel Smith blog link to learn more about the process. 

Sparrows in November

 
This week I visited Union Bay Natural Area between storms--the Pacific Northwest has been buffeted by winds and rain for the entire month. I took a photo of this song sparrow on a cattail, his head feathers uplifted by a wind gust.

Union Bay Natural Area advocate Connie Sidles is reading from her new book In My Nature with friends from the Seattle Audubon Society on Sunday, December 13th at 3pm at the Center for Urban Horticulture. They'll also be birding there.  My student and friend Alex MacKenzie will be there--she illustrated Connie's book.  I  have met her and Connie Sidles at Union Bay on countless occasions, and Alex has devoted hours to photographing, sketching and painting.

I was sad to say good bye this week to all my wildlife painting students, as we had our last session. I attempted to photograph some of their work, but my photos really didn't do justice to the work. Luckily a couple of students had the ability to send me scans and here they are.

John Tubbs is a photographer and has keenly appreciated birds for a long time.  He photographed this Savannah Sparrow at the Nisqually National Wildlife Refuge.  I enjoy the perspective on this one--the bird's tail disappearing behind it, as well as the loosely painted background.

Susan Jones took pictures of these sparrows just outside her window at home. She really captures the character of their interactions and flock behavior.  This is a work in progress.  In class critique we talked about directions she could take with anchoring the birds and we all decided that a loosely painted ground, with perhaps just their cast shadows, would finish this beautifully.

Oregon White Oak

I spent the last several days in and around Portland, and marveled at the beautiful stands of Oregon White Oak there.  Significant stands can be found all around the Willamette Valley. I photographed this specimen at the Tualatin River National Wildlife Refuge. Many thanks to my online colleague Max Smith who suggested this and other natural areas near Portland. 

  I photographed these Canada geese and a couple of Pintails swimming alongside in the Tualatin River there.

The Tualatin Hills Nature Park has an amazing forest of white oak and ponderosa pine.  Prior to logging at the beginning of the 20th century the forest there was made up of Douglas fir and Western red cedar, but the succession forest that replaced it includes the oak and what some botanists think is a separate species of Ponderosa pine, more adapted to the wetter conditions west of the Cascades.  I took this photo of the oak leaves woven with pine needles and lichen. 

There is an iconic quality in the shape of the oak, both in leaf and in its bare winter armature. Seeing it brings to my mind my studies long ago of the classic Fraser book The Golden Bough.  The oak has been our constant companion thoughout history in Western Europe and America, playing a role in myth, religion, architecture, and commerce.  I don't see it in such abundance in Washington state where I live, and I miss it, so spending all that time in the Willamette forests was like meeting old friends.

Here are the oaks at Oak Bottom Park in Portland.  Many are still in leaf, displaying beautiful gold fall color.

I was surprised to see the deer at Oak Bottom, right in the heart of busy Portland, but there is considerable acreage here for browsing.

Student Art from Watercolor Wildlife Class

 Susan Jones took photos of the barn owl in a rare flight day at the Woodland Park Zoo before painting this series of watercolor sketches.

She worked with a squirrel round brush (these are made by the Isabey company in France) to create this beautiful portrait of one of the elder elephants at the Woodland Park Zoo.

Gail Kargas took two different approaches in these bird sketches. Left is a looser portrait approach.

Above is more of a scientific illustrator's approach, with accurate details convincingly rendered.

Here is Donna Kostka's portrait of a puffin. Notice the rich details on the rock.

Diane Adam felt that watercolor would be a good medium to express the delicate range of colors of a cedar waxwing's feathers.

Brooke Randell worked with her own photo of a duck. Notice the ripples and the reflected colors of the duck in the water. Interrupting the brown with areas of white helps show the moving water.

Sitka Art Invitational

I'll be exhibiting this watercolor: Salmon River Estuary and 3 other paintings at the Annual Sitka Art Invitational at the World Forestry Center in Portland, Oregon next weekend.
I'm also teaching a class for the Sitka Center for Art and Ecology, and have been preparing lots of landscape watercolor handouts and demonstrations for the students. I am excited to meet all of them, and I know we will have fun working with my many photos of northwest landscapes.

Tree Trunks in Watercolor

  

This is a study of two tree trunks, a western hemlock and a bigleaf maple. I began each of them by painting overall washes of local color, dropping in blue grays on the hemlock, and darker browns and mossy greens on the maple while the first wash was still wet.  I used a rigger brush to articulate the smaller branches and twigs that grow from the larger trunk on the maple.  After the first wash had dried, I used a drybrush technique for the texture, dragging the heel of a round brush in a vertical motion to create the rough bark.

Painting Birds in Watercolor

 
 I was rewarded on my visit to Union Bay Natural Area in Seattle two weeks ago with a wonderful sighting of a common snipe. I took a fairly good photo of the bird, who sauntered down the path ahead of me.  Soon enough the bird took off in wild flight and there were no more pictures to be had.  But I contented myself with the one, and used it to do this little portrait in my journal. 

Trees in Watercolor

I'm preparing for next week's workshop in Portland, Oregon at the World Forestry Center for the Sitka Center for Art and Ecology and have been looking for good examples in my journals of trees and other elements of landscape. Autumn is a great time to observe trees, because of the color and also as the leaves begin to fall, the armature of the trunk, major branches and limbs begins to be exposed.