walks

My Gettysburg 2017 sketchbook

| WildTomato

I’ve had a whirlwind summer of travel, and now I have a few weeks to catch up and review what I created!

My return trip to Gettysburg this year was delightful and busy! I was a visiting teacher at Adams County Arts Council, where I had the joy of teaching a weeklong Sketchbook Journaling summer camp for youth, ages 10 to 13, as well as an adult creativity workshop entitled, “Hope for the Late-Blooming Creative”. I also did an Instagram takeover of Destination Gettysburg for the week, posting three photos a day on their account. On top of that, with the generous support of Lynda Taylor, Monica E. Oss, and J. Jay Mackie of Gettysburg, I was able to transform the lobby of an old bank building into a pop-up exhibition space for one evening. All in one week! This left me few large swaths of time to sketch on the battlefield, but instead compelled me to capture smaller moments around town when I could.

Here are the results.

First some airport sketches: I was astonished that this father was carrying two backpacks (one in front, one in back), and three suitcases through the SFO airport. His partner carried one child in a front pack and a toddler walking next to her. They were not smiling.

Brief layover in Chicago, drawing some faces from memory…

Noticed that the Susquehanna River through Harrisburg was brown with high water, reminding me of some of the swollen rivers I had seen in Southeast Asia.

Then my first meal of the day, with rain pouring outside, at Food 101 in Gettysburg. Delicious! I got caught up in all the ceiling tiles and never got around to sketching my food.

Morning sketch of the Evergreen Cemetery gate on Baltimore Pike in Gettysburg:

Sketch from the back patio of Ragged Edge Coffee House:

And a quick sketch of my food from Ragged Edge:

Quick 10-minute pen and ink sketch (colored in later) of the flowers in the back garden of my airbnb:

My afternoon sketch of the Pennsylvania Monument on the Gettysburg battlefield — almost three hours in the sun doing this one!

I find a shady spot to capture the Gettysburg Hotel, and happen to sit in front of this Ford Model A:

And a report on the magic unfolding, as it always does for me, in Gettysburg:

I am driving around, chasing the sunset, when I catch this view of the Eisenhower Farm, and I pull my car over to sketch from the side of the road.

Wandering around the Soldier’s National Cemetery before 100 Nights of Taps, I notice the bronzed words of the Gettysburg address at the base of this statue.

I take some rubbings in my sketchbook, and I look forward to using them in a future piece:

My students receive a surprise invitation to visit the attic of the Seminary Ridge Museum and sketch the views from there. I manage to snag a 10-minute quick sketch in between taking photos of them.

Every morning as I walked out the back door of my airbnb to go the half-block to Adams County Arts Council, I saw this view of the Thaddeus Stevens log cabin on Middle Street. One morning I finally took out my stool and sketched it.

More food notes and sketches.

At the end of my trip to Gettysburg, I had one afternoon to spend in Harrisburg before leaving on an early morning train to Vermont. It was a gorgeous day, so I luxuriated in a sketch walk around the capitol building and riverfront, followed by dinner at Cork & Fork.

Harrisburg State Capitol Building, with a lime green dome (!):

Study of a historic mansion’s roofline on Front Street:

Wanted to find a way to quickly record some of the architecture and the presence of the river on this walk, so I attempted an illustrated map:

At dinner, I sat outside and could not help being inundated with the loud conversation of the table behind me. I embraced it as a illustration opportunity and created this collage of phrases overheard:

The food was excellent, and I had to create this mini tribute to Cork & Fork Harrisburg:

Visit my Facebook page for photos of my students at work, and stay tuned for stories and images of my time in Vermont!

Yosemite backcountry sketchbook 2017

| WildTomato

Once again, this year I had the opportunity to go to Yosemite National Park in July for twelve days (see here for my 2016 trip stories and sketches). Four nights, five days of wilderness backpacking followed by seven days six nights of volunteering for Yosemite Conservancy. Below are the images from my backpacking trip.

I used a small, handmade sketchbook using landscape shaped scraps of watercolor paper, painted cardboard box covers, and nylon yarn as binding. My tools were a Pigma Micron 01 pen, a Pigma Sensei 06 pen, Aquash large and medium size water brushes, and my own mini palettes of Daniel Smith watercolors (sixteen total colors). The last three pages I finished coloring when I got to Yosemite Valley on the afternoon of Day Five. The rest I completed on site, in the backcountry. All except the rout map were painted from memory or en plein air, not from photographs.

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I also returned to an old favorite format: 6-inch by 6-inch squares, which I brought on my 2014 trip to Yosemite while I was completing work for the 50|50 show, a 50-day process of creating fifty works, all measuring six inches by six inches. I love the small square format, and Fluid Watercolor paper from Global Art Materials, Inc., comes in a great portable block that fits in my front pack in the backcountry. I love the Fluid “Easy Block” because it’s easy to remove finished paintings in the field (a key feature for backcountry sketching). Also, the paper is acid-free and archival, meaning the finished pieces are ready to be mounted or framed.

Stay tuned for images from my Yosemite Valley week…to be posted after I get back from Gettysburg!

Yosemite Series: Day Eight

| WildTomato

Day 8: Geo-Mythology, Ranger Karen, and Lisa-Chu-rri Sauce

I am up before my 5:45am alarm again. Today’s breakfast menu is hash browns, scrambled eggs, sausage patties, and the leftover black bean and corn salad from last night’s dinner. I find out Mary Lou has never made hash browns from boxed or frozen potatoes…only by grating fresh ones.

“Trust me, it’ll work,” I say. We have picked up a carton of dehydrated shredded potatoes from Yosemite Lodge, and I am ready to go at them, testing my hash brown flipping skills on a larger scale than I’ve ever done before. The skillets we have are the size of backyard garbage can lids. The spatula is the size of a Kindle reader. Mary Lou is a skeptic all the way until the moment she tastes the cooked hash browns. Continue reading →

Yosemite Series: Day Four

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Day 4: Sherpa Steps to El Capitan

The nosebleeds started three years ago, on our backpacking trip from Tenaya Lake to Clouds Rest to Little Yosemite Valley. That was another case of trying to go light by carrying less water, and sleeping at a high altitude. Ever since then, Randy has brought a kit of supplies with him to deal with sudden nosebleeds in the wilderness. I pass the time by theorizing about the causes and possible remedies – not of the symptom of having nosebleeds, but of the determining factors.

I contemplate the mystery of how the blood vessel constricting effects of the pseudoephedrine in Claritin-D could paradoxically promote bleeding. I wonder if the drying effect of the antihistamine in Claritin is too much in the already dry alpine air. I blame coffee, wine, and not enough electrolytes. I wonder if he should have done a sinus rinse using water taken from the creek. I even imagine how it would be possible, on future trips, to bring distilled water to do sinus rinses in the backcountry.

These are the things that go through my head as his nose is bleeding in the middle of the night. I also note, with some mixture of horror and pride at the accuracy of my self-assessment, that this is the kind of parent I would be, if I were to become one — an analyzer, a fixer of things. I am not a natural when it comes to providing pure comfort and soothing presence. My mind is usually too busy understanding “why”. Any abilities I now have in the area of healing and calming presence I have acquired from many days, weeks, and months of attending workshops and retreats and practice. Continue reading →

Yosemite Series: Day Three

| WildTomato

Day 3: Arriving at Yosemite Creek

Before there is “arriving”, there is “getting there”. On North Dome, I am feeling unmotivated to get out the skillet and and do dishes in the morning. So we go with a very light breakfast. Perhaps too light. It is a granola with milk and blueberries dehydrated meal from Backpackers’ Pantry. Delicious and satisfying, but probably low on protein.

We leave North Dome at around 8am. I already know where the first creek is, so the day’s agenda is a matter of passing that creek, then Lehamite Creek, then cresting the ridge at Yosemite Point, and making the descent to Yosemite Creek, followed by a short ascent to our hidden campsite just above Yosemite Falls. Continue reading →

Yosemite Series: Day Two

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Day 2: Entering Wilderness (AFTER Seeing A Bear!)

I wake up early, mainly because I am cold. I didn’t think to bring my beanie or gloves (because July!), but I am wishing for them in the morning. I pull on some wool socks and slip on my Chacos instead of putting bare feet into flip flops. As I am tooling around camp, I notice a round, peach-colored glow from behind the trees. It is the moon set. And it is full. Could it be that we accidentally scheduled our backpacking trip for North Dome on the night of the Full Moon?

Yes. Yes we did. Continue reading →

Whales whales whales

| WildTomato

It’s been hard to ride my bike continuously along the coastal trail these past few days. Every few feet I am stopped in my tracks by a breaching whale or pair or three! I have begun to observe how the birds show us where the next whale will breach. And I love seeing pairs breach in unison!

Plus, have you ever heard a whale honk?

Whales remembered from Quarry Park view point

Spring hiking and biking!

| WildTomato

After the rain, there are the flowers.

This spring, I’ve been out on my bike, and on my own two feet hiking along the California coast.

I’ve also been inspired by children’s books, and the amazing artistic freedom shown by so many illustrators.

Check out my new portfolio of Wildflower Collage Illustrations (some of which are available NOW in the store as limited edition prints) and below, enjoy a sneak peek into my landscape sketchbook from this spring. All sketches were done outside! Follow me on Instagram to see these images in their natural environment. Continue reading →

Just like that…

| WildTomato

I have started hiking again. After many months of biking, beach sitting, yoga indoors, and other forms that had replaced the simple act of walking under the trees, I returned to hiking.

This weekend, on Valentine’s Day to be exact, a six and a half mile hike with grand views and not a soul in sight.

Hiking reminds me that the only way to get “there” is one “here” at a time, by the rhythm of my own breath and the pace of my own two feet one in front of the other.

Continue reading →