Molly Hashimoto

Fauna of Mt. Rainier National Park: The Uses of Technology

At Mt. Rainier National Park on the Wonderland Trail last week, the alpine daisy was the most common wildflower. To take the photograph, I knelt down on the trail, getting quite close to the flower, yet completely failed to notice the beautiful beetle perched alongside the central disk of the daisy, until I put the photos up on my computer.

I cropped the photo and enlarged it in Photoshop. Gadgets do have their uses!  I have sometimes written critically about them on these pages, but when they can complete my knowledge and add to my appreciation of a place I have been, I am most grateful.

Wonderland Trail, Mt. Rainier, continued

The Wonderland Trail in Mt. Rainier National Park is full of wonders and not just flowers, but oddities and beauties of many species. I've hiked along the northern Trail many times before, yet never noticed this Alaska cedar tucked into a stand of subalpine firs. I believe this may be uncommon in Mt. Rainier National Park; perhaps the firs outcompete the cedars in most stands, yet these cedars can outlive the other species and in some locations have been found to be over 1,000 years old. I wonder how old this specimen might be--its small size is no indicator of youth-- the rigors of extreme altitude and heavy snow keep plants very small.

Mt. Rainier: Wonderland Trail

Earlier this week I hiked a portion of the Wonderland Trail at Mt. Rainier National Park. It was late summer and I thought I had missed the big flower show in the meadows, but as I strolled above Berkeley Park I saw countless alpine flowers, including some species I'd never observed. In order to maximize their appeal to pollinators, the flowers stagger their bloom, so you can see them in a continuing revue from snowmelt in June until autumn. There are over 100 species of wildflowers in a Pacific Northwest alpine meadow. To the left is Hulsea nana, its leaves a glaucous blue/gray curling out from the base of the plant.

I also saw a globe penstemon--Penstemon globosus--I had to look this one up as I wasn't used to seeing penstemon blooming in the shape of a ball. These are the first of a series of small watercolor sketches of all the flowers I saw. I took many photos and I'm working from them back home in my studio.

John Muir visited Mt. Rainier and wrote about its meadows:

...above the forests there is a zone of the loveliest flowers, fifty miles in circuit and nearly two miles wide, so closely planted and luxuriant that it seems as if Nature, glad to make an open space between woods so dense and ice so deep, were economizing the precious ground, and trying to see how many of her darlings she can get together in one mountain wreath...

Grebe Triptych

At Union Bay Natural Area, sightings of pied-bill grebes are very common, but it doesn't diminish my enjoyment of their peculiar charm, especially in August when they are surrounded by lily pads and water lilies. They are small, low-riding water birds, agile divers who seem to have no trouble in a tangle of lilies. I painted this triptych on one piece of watercolor paper, dividing the paintings with masking tape. Working on the three paintings simultaneously allowed me to maintain the same palette throughout. Medieval and Renaissance altarpieces were often painted wooden panels constructed in the form of diptychs and triptychs, sometimes hinged to open out. Frequently additional panels called predellas were attached and they further elaborated and commented upon the stories told in the altarpieces. I think they might be seen as predecessors of moving pictures, as the eye moves through the panels, gathering the entire story from the whole.

Ocean Palette

I've just returned from another trip to the Oregon coast where I looked at a palette of hues quite different from what one imagines the ocean to be about--not the usual blues and greens.

At Haystack Rock on Cannon Beach I saw the pinks, oranges, reds and violets of sea stars.

 

Just below Haystack Rock, black oystercatcher beaks blazed in scarlet, matching their unlikely yellow and orange eyes. These parents were raising their chicks in the relative safety of a ledge below the Rock.

  

Near sunset on Manzanita Beach I saw sandpipers running along the tide line in shades of cream, gold, russet, mauve and lavender. If one picture is worth a thousand words, I wonder how much the color within that picture is worth? 

 

 

Draftsmen may be made, but colorists are born.

--Eugene Delacroix

Gardner River, Yellowstone National Park

 Last September the fall color along the Gardner River's edge just inside the northern entrance to Yellowstone Park was so striking that I had to sketch it. The riparian vegetation in Yellowstone can include black greasewood, chokecherry, coyote willow, silver buffaloberry, silver sagebrush and western snowberry. In spring the shrubs glow with new twigs and earliest new leaves, and in autumn they are aflame with oranges, russets, and golds. I love dropping down to the river from the dry flat scrublands above--your senses come alive with the sound of water, the smell of moist earth and tender leaves--all this in addition to the visual feast of color and texture.  I happily anticipate my upcoming September class in Yellowstone, where we will paint in the geothermal areas, and sample some beautiful autumn color as well.

Celebrating Summer: A Poem

In celebration of summer I am sharing the poem Swine Judging: Dakota County Fair which appeared this morning in the St. Paul Pioneer Press. The poet is my twin sister, Jane Graham George, about whom I have written before on this blog; her poetry is published by Red Dragonfly Press.  As teenagers we often went to the Minnesota State Fair, and even worked there briefly one summer. The carnival rides were never the highlight for us--no, it was always the animal barns and the 4H kids, so read on!

Swine Judging, Dakota County Fair

Plaid-shirt farmboys with bale-strong

arms leaning on the metal corrals,

grandmas, other pigs and handlers,

all watch breathlessly as a small

teen-aged girl and her black, white-

belted pig stand waiting for the judge

who speaks as though he hails

from one of the finest salons

in Europe, literary, I mean,

as if awarding the Prix Goncourt,

enunciating each honeyed word.

"Folks, this young lady does not poke or prod,

is at one with her charming Hampshire hog.

4-H or not, this is equanimity."

Though she really does look like Athena,

it isn't quite like hitting a home run

or sinking a putt from an improbable distance

which is why, once the judge awards the blue ribbon,

there's no arm pumping, no prom-spinning in place.

Something about a hog does bring you right back to earth.

--Jane Graham George

Cascade Head: Variations on a Theme

While teaching at Sitka Center for Art & Ecology, I took several photographs of Cascade Head, on different days and at different times of day, revealing how much or how little of the topography can be exposed in varying light situations. I especially like the dramatic cliffs and truck-sized blocks of basalt and appreciate how their color changes as they are bathed in different light. 

We painted there during the late morning hours when fog was streaming over the crest of the headland.

My favorite photo captures the dramatic light and shadows of early evening.
I am planning a larger painting working from this last photo, but am also considering a work that may incorporate different views, gathering elements from my countless photos and many sketches of the subject over the last several years. I am drawn to the idea of working changes on a single subject, something like the composers who took simple themes and elaborated variations of amazing complexity.

Forest Bathing

Early one foggy morning while I was staying at the Morley Residence at Sitka Center for Art & Ecology, I photographed the sun pouring through the coastal forest. One of my students told me about a  New York Times blog "Well" post that reported on the Japanese habit of Shinrin-yoku, or "forest bathing." Recent studies showed an increase in immune function, lowered pulse and blood pressure in subjects who spent time in parks and forests. Trees give off antimicrobial compounds called phytoncides which protect the trees from insects, fungi and bacteria; inhaling the phytoncides seems to provide benefits for people who frequent forests. What happy news for me and my painting students at Sitka Center, North Cascades Institute, and Yellowstone Association Institute!   

Here's a photo of some of my Sitka Center students painting outdoors in the meadow just below the studio.