Molly Hashimoto

Travel Journal: This Fleeting World

Giant Sequoias Sketches

At the January 27th workshop that I will be teaching at Seattle's Daniel Smith store, I intend to demonstrate some landscape sketching and painting techniques in addiiton to the other work we'll do on architecture. Last year at Yosemite I sketched the magnificent giant sequoias at Mariposa Grove. Watercolor is such a wonderful medium for quickly catching subjects that mean alot to us. A fast pencil sketch, a speedy filling in with paint, and wet-in-wet techniques for the dark shadows on the trunks: this sketch was probably finished in half an hour.

Sitka Spruce Sketch

To the right is another tree sketch, this one of a Sitka spruce that I saw on the Oregon coast in 2011. I've sketched this tree outside the studio at Sitka Center for Art & Ecology many times--every year that I visit, in fact! I never tire of it--this ancient and massive specimen!

I was recently reading from Rilke's 9th Duino Elegy. A passage follows that really struck me as being somehow about what we are all attempting as we keep our journals, both written and sketched and painted.

because truly being here is so

much; because everything

apparently needs us, this fleeting

world...

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More Sitka Center Students' Paintings

Noel Kreicker sent me this painting that she did on location at the Salmon River. One of her painting goals is to work more quickly and directly; I especially like the sky in this painting and it shows how much more expressive a sky done outdoors can be.
To the right is Jeannine Bailey's painting of Cascade Head, begun on location at the mouth of the Salmon River. Here she has emphasized the dark shapes of Sitka spruce, and the golden headland. She also took care to develop the rocky river shoreline. I was very grateful for the return of these two artists (as well as two of their friends)-I worked  with all of them last summer at a workshop that I taught for Sitka Center for Art and Ecology on landscape watercolor at Cascade Head. Each year I try to do things a little differently, as well as scout out new locations for us to visit.

Oregon Coastal Forest Painting

Gwen Morgan, one of the painters in the Landscape Watercolor at Cascade Head workshop I taught last week at the Sitka Center for Art & Ecology, shared with me this lovely painting that she created at our workshop. All of the artists came up with wonderful evocations of the enormous Sitka spruce sited just beyond our studio. Each of us went outside and sketched it carefully, then returned to the studio to paint. I had given everyone a preliminary exercise of painting wet into wet, showing how I begin each branch and the trunk with a bright green and then bring in the darkest undersides of the branches.  Some people chose to use a deep cinnamon brown for the trunk combined with the green, and others, like Gwen, kept the palette more related and harmonious.

Sitka Center Landscape Watercolor Workshop

Pat Gladden, one of the painters at the workshop I taught last weekend at Sitka Center for Art & Ecology, shared this small sketch with me by email. She liked its simplicity of design. In it I think she made excellent use of her preferred 300 lb. rough Arches watercolor paper. The hefty tooth of the paper allows for great drybrush techniques, and yet as seen in her sky, the paper still performs well for wet into wet applications of color.

Simplicity is a word that comes to mind to describe the summer world of Cascade Head in Oregon, where Sitka Center is located. The purity, the freshness, the feeling of the world made new in the sparkling air, the direct thrust of cliffs, headlands, and sea stacks through crashing  waves, the immensity of Sitka spruce trees: everything here is unambiguous--perhaps the only questions remain in the haunting rising notes of the Swainson's Thrush song. Many thanks to Pat, Bob and Terri for sharing their work with me and my readers!

Sitka Center Students' Paintings

Bob Conklin kindly shared by email some of the work he created during last weekend's Landscape Watercolor at Cascade Head workshop, which I taught at the Sitka Center for Art & Ecology. Today I am sharing one of my favorites, his dramatic painting of the seastacks and a tidepool north of Lincoln City, seen at low tide. On our first day, I had students work with some of my photos to establish frames and fit in the landscape elements proportionately. Bob really liked this photo and decided to pursue a larger scale painting with it. The values contrast and warm hues really give this painting power.

Another student, Terri Cohen, also generously shared several of her sketches and paintings with me by email. To the right is her Sitka spruce, which she created with a palette she selected for subtlety and harmony.
One afternoon a doe and her two very young fawns stopped by the meadow outside our studio door. Terri got a quick sketch and created this lovely painting of the fawns. It captures beautifully the fleeting moment of our encounter with these new beings.

Sitka Center Watercolor Workshop

I spent last weekend teaching a landscape watercolor workshop at Sitka Center for Art and Ecology on the Oregon coast. One of the highlights was spending Sunday morning below Proposal Rock at Neskowin Beach, just north of Cascade Head. In this photo you can see two of the painters seated just below the arch at low tide. We also painted at Knight Park and at the end of Three Rocks Road. Each day we were treated to beautiful weather, clouds and sun, and no rain! I saw lots of wonderful wildlife, too, on excursions away from the classroom. The ecology of the Central Oregon coast is really fascinating. Our class saw a seal in the Salmon River estuary, and an osprey  flying above us.
One evening after class north of Lincoln City we saw this pigeon guillemot.

The meadows around Sitka Center are often crowded with elk and one evening we saw a herd of about 40, including this beautiful bull.
A highlight for me was spotting this great horned owl. The photo is really out of focus, but the bird didn't sit still for long and I was thrilled to get any sort of photo at all!  We were alerted to the owl's presence by by a student who was staying in a cabin nearby and reported she'd been observing it in one of the stately Sitka spruce trees nearby. When we approached and heard a noisy crowd of robins scolding away, we knew the owl was somewhere in the vicinity.

Oregon Coast Watercolor at Sitka Center

Beginning tomorrow, February 26, 2012, Sitka Center for Art & Ecology members can register for the weekend workshop I will be teaching there this summer July 20-22. We'll be painting at the  Sitka Center meadows, in the incomparable Sitka spruce forests at the Center, and just down the road at the mouth of the Salmon River estuary which you can see in this painting I did last summer. This is the view from Cascade Head, one of the most marvelous places on the west coast! It's easy to become a member online or by phone; you'll get first chance to register that way, or you can wait for non-member registration on March 12.

More Portland Students' Work

One of my favorite things about the workshop I taught in Portland for Sitka Center for Art & Ecology last week was the sunshine on Wednesday and getting outdoors to sketch. We all really loved the maples in the World Forestry Center parking lot, dramatically framed by conifers. Many of the students did some great work from their sketches.

Portland Students: Autumn Beauty

This week I traveled to Portland to teach a class for Sitka Center for Art & Ecology. On the day of my arrival we visited the Portland Japanese Garden, one of the finest gardens in the world. The fall color there was simply astonishing. Our workshop took place in the World Forestry Center and we were surrounded by magnificent trees, conifers and vine maples, and boulevard trees chosen for their fine fall color. We went outdoors, just outside our classroom and sketched a beautiful vine maple. Here are several students' interpretations.

 

 

Coastal Forest

Last summer when I taught at Sitka Center for Art & Ecology, I walked in the forest each morning and often saw sunlight pouring through the mist. I took a photo one morning and I recently painted this watercolor of that experience. In reality, the light was a little less golden, but I emphasized that quality of it because there was a real warmth about that moment, and it felt right to emphasize that.