Molly Hashimoto

Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone: Plein Air Sketch

Here's my plein air watercolor sketch of the scene I wrote about a few days ago. You can see my pencil lines still evident, especially the ones on the far side of the canyon. I never painted the spires, as they weren't visible until the sun came out at the end of our session there, casting shadows that sculpted the forms. The light was a little bit on the gloomy side, and I have been giving some thought to painting a larger studio work from this sketch. I like the low light, the forbidding aspect of the Canyon. This trip to Yellowstone I found I was looking for the lesser known places, the quieter spots, sites where the Yellowstone mystique may not interfere so much with my own immediate reaction. So many artists have focused on the amazing colors of the Canyon, and rightly so. That is perhaps the most striking thing about it. But this year I was especially moved by the the deepness of it, the sheer cliffs, the immense power behind the falls. When I visited the Brink of the Lower Falls, I could feel my body quivering a little from vibrations sent out from the water movement. It was positively thrilling, but with a small element of fear thrown in. To be that close to something so inherently powerful and dangerous lets you partake of those qualities, just a little bit.  As my students and I sat on the trail just above the steep walls of the canyon, I had a similar feeling. So close to the precipice, to the possibility of falling.  I want to convey something about that in my painting. And maybe it will be something new, that other artists have not felt or seen.

More Student Work from Yellowstone

I am sharing more of the work my students created in the workshop I taught for the Yellowstone Institute. It's not entirely fair to call these sketches and paintings "student work", as so many of the workshop participants were students in name only and were very competent and talented artists. But it was a pleasure to have them join me and demonstrate their skills outdoors. This is Babs Vanyo's sketch of Canary Spring--in the distance is Mt. Everts.   Below is Karin Connelly's diptych sketch of the same place. On the left she has focused on the dead trees--both artists created compelling portraits of the trees. On the right Karin has looked more at the colors in the pools and at Mt. Everts. 

More Student Sketches from Yellowstone

 Karin Connelly did this wonderful energetic sketch of Electric Peak and the north edge of Swan Lake in the watercolor class I taught for the Yellowstone Institute. She was working on a fairly smooth piece of paper, which allows for a more textural approach, very appropriate for all the grasses and low shrubs of the Flat. Swan Lake Flat is one of my favorite places in all of Yellowstone. One morning I drove out quite early and discovered frost on the sedges and grasses at the lake's edge. Only a short distance from the Park's main road, but early enough in the day to be away from the major traffic movements, we listened for the huge silences of the Park, and were treated to a beautiful distant chorus of wolf voices singing out to each other. To my ear, it seemed to be sung in a minor key, but I think I may have been projecting a human autumn melancholy onto the wolves.
To the right is another of Karin's fine sketches--this one was done in Porcelain Basin at Norris Geyser Basin.  I appreciate the economy of brush strokes in this sketch, and I was very impressed at how Karin was able to show the  scalloped edges along the inner edge of the pools.

Yellowstone Paintings: Student Work

Seen left is the lovely painting Babys Vanyo did from her sketch (pictured on the right) of the Canyon. Notice how in her sketch she began with a monochrome thumbnail, then a color thumbnail, finally scaling it up to a bigger and more detailed sketch. I also find it interesting to see her thought process between sketch and more finished studio painting. She emphasized the pinks and golds, carved out the rocks and cliffs more sharply, and added elegant foreground tree shapes, mirroring the spires on the cliffs. I will be featuring more of Babs' work on this blog in coming days, and also other students (who have kindly shared their work with me) from the workshop I taught last week at the Yellowstone Institute.

Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone

Last week I taught a plein air watercolor painting workshop for the Yellowstone Institute. This was my fourth consecutive year of teaching, and for the first time we visited the canyon, thanks to the suggestions of one of my students. The canyon has been a favorite of many of the artists who've painted in Yellowstone. You can read more about them in the article I wrote for the Yellowstone Association's magazine Discovery. The meditation on the place that occurs while sitting in one spot for a long time, drawing and painting, is one way I have found of getting beyond the more Disney-esque aspects of Yellowstone. My student found this out-of-the-way location, and we all sat quietly contemplating the beauty, giving it our utmost attention. I have photographed it in many light conditions and the first day I was there without my students, the morning began foggy. Later it cleared, revealing more shapes and colors. The day my class visited began overcast and shapes were not well-defined: the distant canyon walls were barely distinct from the foreground walls.     

Just before we finished our sketching and painting the sun came out, revealing spires on the other side of the canyon.
 
    

Artists in Yellowstone

Many of the artists who've painted in Yellowstone National Park have visited Norris Geyser Basin to paint the incredible colors of the thermal areas. I sketched this runoff channel from Whirligig Geyser in the Porcelain Basin area of Norris when I was teaching a class for the Yellowstone Association Institute. I've researched several of the artists who visited Yellowstone over the last century and a half and I recently wrote an article, Artists in Yellowstone, for the Association's magazine Discovery. 
You can preview the article at this link.

Vine Maple, North Cascades

The weather is hinting at fall this morning and I am reminded that I'll be traveling up to the North Cascades Institute's Environmental Learning Center in a few weeks to teach a class--we'll be focusing on fall color. Last year, teaching the same class, I discovered this beautiful vine maple on the shores of Diablo Lake. I've often thought that wild vine maples must share some genetic relationship with cultivated Japanese maples, with their elegant growth habits. So much of the Japanese aesthetic is based on wild nature; I've observed many things in alpine settings that made me think of Japanese gardens.

Northwest Forest

  Last week I painted this watercolor of the forest below Cascade Pass. I had never seen devil's club look so beautiful and fresh--the plants must have loved the moisture of this spring and summer.  I keep seeing devil's club everywhere this month. Here at Cascade Pass in North Cascades National Park, the plants were just leafing out.

To the right is a specimen I observed at the Kruckeberg Gardens in Shoreline, where it is also offered for sale.

Two days ago I went to the Big Four Ice Caves near Verlot and saw these beautiful fruiting plants. In the dark forest they glowed like rubies. Native Americans used them extensively for their medicinal properties, and possibly because of their dangerous spines, they were seen as protection from evil in its many guises.

Black Bears in the North Cascades

Each year that I have taught at the North Cascades Institute I've seen black bears, often a sow and her cubs. She lives near the Environmental Learning Center, and all of my encounters with her have been memorable. This time I was driving up to the parking lot and my dear and lifelong friend and hiking companion Gerry Fuller was in the passenger seat and was quick enough to get a wonderful photo of the mother, surrounded by goldenrod and oxeye daisies. One cub was with her, the other was on the other side of the road so we moved along to give them the chance to reunite. To paint this I used masking fluid for some of the daisies and goldenrod, so that I could quickly paint the background forest and the dark fur of the bears. Having the fine photo was very important, as it's pretty difficult to get any kind of a good sketch of a big mammal moving. This fall I'm hoping to get to the Woodland Park Zoo with my sketching class, where we'll view the grizzlies and mountain goat at the Northern Trail habitat.