Molly Hashimoto

Sandhill Crane, Yellowstone: Egg Tempera

 This is the third artwork I created from Glen Dreger's beautiful photo, taken at the Blacktail Creek plateau at Yellowstone. The first was a watercolor, the second a drypoint etching, and now here is an egg tempera painting. The dimensions are 8" X 10". I learned how to paint egg tempera from a master teacher and artist, Koo Schadler. This painting is very much inspired by Koo's work and is an homage to her worldview, and inspired teaching.  The medium is very demanding, and this painting, small as it is, probably took about 25 hours to paint. There are countless layers of paint; techniques included sponging, spattering, glazing, sgraffito with a razor blade and sanding.  I purchased my gesso panel from True Gesso, and these are the best ready-made gesso panels available.  They come in standard sizes, but can be cut and gessoed to your specifications. These are panels made with the classic ingredients--panels that would take you weeks to make yourself.  Though I have painted about 10 egg tempera panels in the 2 years since first studying with Koo, I have much still to learn.  

Why I Keep a Watercolor Journal: 3. A Chronicle of Visual Experience

Diaries and written journals are chronicles of lived experience, but what about our visual experiences?  Photos and digital media do that for most people in the modern world and they do it well and easily,  but the fact that you can take hundreds of photos in a minute means that those images are often invested with much less care and feeling. The hour that I spent with this trillium one spring day imbued it with a meaning for me, as I sketched it first in pencil, then painted it in watercolor. It is weighted with the memory of my delight in that specific individual plant as well as the memory of many forest excursions over the years in earliest spring, when the coniferous forest floor is aglow with dozens of trilliums. Perhaps I wouldn't have chosen to take the hour to paint it without the earlier experiences.  Past, present and future merge in the act of keeping a journal.  You can read more about watercolor travel journals on the Daniel Smith blog.

Why I Keep a Watercolor Journal: 2. The Fresher Vision of a Sketch

I painted this view of a lupine meadow just off Highway 20 in the North Cascades. I was teaching a class for the North Cascades Institute and we were driving back from Washington Pass.  We stopped and sketched for about half an hour. I like the freshness of this sketch, done so quickly.  If I tried to do a larger studio painting of this, I think the flowers would become labored and much of the energy of this sketch would be lost.

Eugene Delacroix, 19th century French master painter (and artist of the wonderful Moroccan Sketchbooks) wrote: Perhaps the sketch of a work is so pleasing because everyone can finish it as he chooses. The artist does not spoil the picture by finishing it; only in abandoning the vagueness of the sketch he shows more of his personality by revealing all the range but also the limitations of his talent.

Read more about keeping watecolor journals on the Daniel Smith blog.

Why I Keep a Watercolor Journal: 1. Practicing the Craft of Drawing & Painting

On Saturday at the demonstration I gave at Daniel Smith, I had many interesting conversations with the people who attended, and we talked about the  purposes of journals. I think the primary one for me is that it is a way to daily practice the craft of drawing and painting. I can spend as little as 5 minutes at it, or an hour, which is probably how long it took for me to do these studies of a piece of pumice and a withered twig.  Albrecht Durer, the Northern Renaissance master, wrote that the artist should fill his spirit with much copying of things seen.  This is not an end in itself but is converted into artistic skill, which germinates, grows and bears fruit...the secret store gathered in the heart is made manifest in the work, which the artist fashions in his heart in the form of a specific object. That is the reason why an experienced artist does not need models for every painting, for he can draw on the store he has gathered over a long period.

Read more about keeping watercolor journals and travel journals on the Daniel Smith blog.

Watercolor Journal: Quick-Sketching Landscapes

On Saturday I gave a demonstration at Daniel Smith about watercolor travel journals. You can see the demo on the Daniel Smith blog. I selected a few favorite Yellowstone photos, and chose this one of aspens seen in the fall on the Slough Creek trail. The white aspen trunks with their dark scars and the golden grasses gave a kind of handle for quick sketching--some scenes lend themselves to it better than others. I sketched in the aspen trunks and painted the pale brown-gold grasses around them with a mixture of yellow ochre and quinacridone burnt orange, neutralized just a very little with carbazole violet, using a more intense hansa yellow medium for the brightest golds. I employed the sharp edge of an aquarelle brush to etch in the grasses while the wash was still wet.  Next I painted the blue sky, allowed that to dry and painted the pines and firs in the background.  Once that dried I painted the shadows on the trunks and the scars at the bottoms.   I finally added the diagonals of the cast shadows on the hillside. 

I often work on two facing pages at once, so that I am not waiting in frustration as washes dry.  To the right is the facing page, a scene at early light of the fall color on the Gardner River in Yellowstone.

Watercolor Travel Journal: Yellowstone

This is the view in May of Electric Peak and the famous Roosevelt Arch at the Gardiner Entrance to Yellowstone National Park. I got up early several mornings and worked on a pencil sketch of this view, one morning sitting in my car because it was so cold.  I added the washes quickly, just to establish basic colors, and finished it back at home with the aid of photographs. I appreciate architecture in every setting, and especially love the historic structures at Yellowstone and Yosemite. The Arch is inscribed with the words "For the benefit and enjoyment of the people."  Theodore Roosevelt laid the cornerstone when he was vacationing in the Park in 1903.

The new Summer 2010 Yellowstone Association Institute catalog is out and I'm excited to be teaching again in September of 2010. Registration is open for my seminar Painting Fall Landscapes of Yellowstone. It's a new course, so in addition to painting several of the hydrothermal features at Yellowstone, we'll also paint   at my favorite fall color sites there.

Watercolor Travel Journal: Architecture

Nikolaikirche in Leipzig, Germany was built over many centuries and has Romanesque, late Gothic and Baroque features, which gives it a kind of organic feeling. I loved the roofline angles. Prior to the fall of the Berlin Wall, prayer services and demonstrations were held here; thousands participated to end Soviet domination.

Thomaskirche, pictured right, also in Leipzig, was built in 1212 for the Augustinians.  J. S. Bach was cantor and director here for 27 yeaars.

We traveled to Dresden, Germany on this trip, and I was intrigued by the oblique windows in the Royal Palace. After years of rebuilding, the city had returned to its former glory after the ghastly devastation of the firebombing of February 1945. I am currently reading Victor Klemperer's diaries I Will Bear Witness-- one of the most moving books I have ever read. He was a professor at Dresden University and as a Jew was subjected to every terror of the Nazi regime.

I used permanent pen and watercolor for the Royal Palace and Thomaskirche. The pen really helps give form when there are no strong darks or shadows. I find it a really helpful tool for my travel journals when the subject is architecture.