The Carpathian Walnut Tree

This photo doesn't quite catch the impression the tree made on me when I went out to dispose of the trash last night. Its branches shone white from the light of the spotlights on the corner of the garage.

The tree branches spread over more than a third of our backyard.  The swing gives you a clue to its size.  The leaves are all down.  Some years when the conditions are just right the leaves fall all day long like rain.  Usually that means we have had a sudden hard freeze.  This year the leaves fell gradually like those of ordinary trees.

Holmes County, Ohio, Rolling Countryside

Holmes County is hillier than Miami.  It is also home to many of Ohio's Amish residents.  People come from all over Ohio as well as from states further away to see the countryside in the fall when the foliage is bright.  They come all year round to buy quilts, and furniture and other Amish crafts.  They also like to eat the traditional foods found in the many restaurants...noodles, fried chicken, pickled beets and eggs, homemade pies...

Tom took the photo above and the one below from the parking lot of one of those restaurants.

Another way we can tell we are in an Amish area is by the work horses in the fields.  Although there are electric lines along this road, many of the Amish do not rely on electricity from these lines.

August 5, Painting with Sarah

 

 

We painted from this shelterhouse. The temperature was close to 90 degrees but there was a pleasant light breeze and we were in the shade. The day was overcast. There were a few sprinkles of rain as I was driving home about 4:30 PM. The shelterhouse is in the middle of a large mowed field.

The last time I was at Stillwater Prairie was during the Hug the Earth Festival. There were about a thousand elementary children here, the Banana Slug String Band and lots of action. Today was peaceful and still except for the fall insects calling, a few birds singing, and the distant sound of a riding mower. I painted my version of this scene across the field.

 

 

Here are three photos of the painting in process. I still want to play around with the right side and lighten the tree behind the Red Cedar, the little oval evergreen about in the center. Probably will do a few other odds and ends as well.

 

 

 

 

 

 

This is Sarah's painting as she progressed. I noticed this morning that I didn't have the entire painting in the picture when I took the third photo. I'm sorry because all of the painting is important.

 

 

 

 

 

 

We both painted on 300 weight cold-pressed Arches. Both paintings are 10 inches by 8 inches.

Charleston Falls, April 12, 2012

The county parks education staff have nature names. This is Sassafras Susan. I saw her as I started off down the trail. She told me she was looking at Sassafras (Sassafras albidum) flowers. I had never seen its flowers so she showed them to me. She said most of them were past their showiest stage.

Since I had Tom's camera because I wanted to get a picture of the young owl, I was able to get a fairly good picture of a fresh enough flower when I took Susan's picture. I am not good at using Tom's camera so the picture is fuzzy.  I hope to go out again tomorrow.  Maybe I will do better.  At least you can see that the flower definitely looks like a flower with petals and stamen. 

She told me the park maintenance crew had to cut down a big Shagbark Hickory (Carya ovata) so I could see its flowers if I looked for them. And sure enough, I found them. Quite a few trees seem to have this type of flower, not very showy.

I found some young leaves also.

When I saw the stump, I understood why the tree had been cut down.

Just before I reached the falls, I came to the the Ohio Buckeye (Aesculus glabra). A couple weeks ago I took this photo of its flower.

Last week, when I took this photo, the flower was opened wider.

I continued on...past the falls,...over the bridge that spans the creek,...along Redbud Valley trail on the ridge behind the falls until I arrived at the owlet viewing site. The owlet is a Great Horned Owl (Bubo virginianus). It is getting feathers now and, if you look carefully, you can see two small lumps on its head. I expect that those are caused by the feathery tufts that will soon pop through the down. Here is a side view...

And here he is looking at me looking at him.

Spring...What a Difference a Day Makes

Saturday morning was foggy and a little overcast when Jeanne and I started off down the trail at Charleston Falls. The bush honeysuckle leaves were popping out. This is not a happy thing. Bush honeysuckle is an alien species which crowds out the native plants. The park staff is constantly eradicating it by a variety of methods. In our part of Ohio, keeping the honeysuckle in check seems to be the best we can do. But as we approached the falls, we saw other leaves.

The Ohio Buckeye (Aesculus glabra) is the earliest native tree to open its leaves in the Miami Valley woods. Lots of the buds were not yet open. if you enlarge the photo below you can see the large whitish leaf scars that last year' leaves left when they fell.

Just beyond the falls and beyond the creek which feeds it, I was amazed by this sight. Usually, I see other wildflowers before I see Purple Cress (Cardamine douglassii).

As we walked on Redbud Valley Trail above the falls, we found leaves of Virginia Bluebells (Mertensia virginica) and also Bloodroot buds(Sanguinaria canadensis).

At the bottom of the trail we found a few leaves of Dutchmen's Breeches (Dicentra cucullaria). By the time we had climbed up out of the ravine, the sun was out and the fog had condensed on the spiders' webs.

The walk was a lovely one, even though we saw only a few flowers. We knew spring was on its way.

The next morning, Stephen and I discovered that spring had truly sprung. Stephen spotted the first sign.

Spring Beauties (Claytonia virginica). Once Stephen found the first couple, we found them everywhere we looked. But the next flower we found was more amazing. Jeanne and I looked for Dutchmen's Breeches but all we found were a few leaves. This is what Stephen and I found.

Winter Shadows, Part 4

This is the painting as it looked in Part3.

These are the places where I intended to make changes.

Here it is after the changes were made.  I also made a few additional changes.  I lightened the background trees and gave them more of an angle so they would "point" to the cliff and to the trail.  I also extended the distant edge of the cliff to simplify that area and to make the steepness of the trail more apparent.

The painting is finished except for some minor tweaking, a paint stroke here and there.  I will sit it on my easel and look at it now and then as I work on other projects. 

It is important to choose a subject that you really want to paint.  Otherwise you will be tired of the whole thing before you are finished.  This subject has passed the test for me.  I am thinking of doing a larger painting of the same subject.  I am also considering doing an abstract version, even although I rarely do abstracts.

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Winter Shadows, Part 3

This is the painting after the mask has been removed from the near rocks.

Here I have softened the areas of the rock cliff  which I had masked.  I used a stiffer brush than I normally work with.  This requires careful strokes, firm enough to smudge the sharp edges but light enough so  I don't damage the paper.  A few light glazes of cobalt blue also softened the masked areas. 

I darkened the trees with cobalt blue  and added Orange Lake to the largest tree as well.  I want that tree to be the most prominent. 

A wash of Antwerp blue brightened the sky and distant snow.  I continued working on the near cliff wall to give it more rocky texture and shape.

I am getting close to being finished so I printed the painting in grays.  This helped me focus in on the areas that I will concentrate on next.

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Walking at Brukner Nature Center

I walked at Brukner twice this week.  Brukner's  trails tend to go up and down hills. I hike because I like being alone outside in an unspoiled bit of nature but also because I would like to lose a few pounds.  I think I use a few more calories walking up and down hills than I do on trails which are mostly flat. (Much of this part of  Ohio is relatively flat.)

I started down Short Step Hill.  As I neared the bottom, I noticed the limbs of a Sycamore (Platanus occidentalis L.)  parallel to the trail and a tree further down broken off about ten feet up.

This tree beside the little creek that flows down to the Stillwater River had been standing since long before I began volunteering at the nature center thirty years ago.  For many years, woodpeckers have been working on it.  I often pointed out their holes to children I was leading on a hike.

When I reached the stump, I took a photo of the base of the fallen section.  It was hollow just as the remaining stump was.  The creek must have risen after it fell because there was a little collection of rocks and stones in the fallen section.



Nearby, I found sycamore leaves with their distinctive hollow petioles or leafstalks.  Usually the children call them stems.

A bit further down the trail, I found a bit of sycamore bark.  This  piece reminded me of an eye.  Often the pieces of bark which fall off the tree as the tree expands in diameter are larger. 

I continued on toward the little swamp, hoping to see Skunk Cabbage (Symplocarpus foetidus)  emerging.  I walked my usual way along the boardwalk that crosses the floodplain but I had to turn back.

I climbed the trail to reach the swamp from the other side.  And there I discovered that another huge tree that has been there for over a hundred years had fallen.  Many hikers had used its trunk to steady themselves as they started down the steep slope to the swamp. 

Down in the swamp, I found what I was looking for...Skunk Cabbage.  Skunk cabbage doesn't stink if you simply notice it but...if you break any part of it you will understand why it is called "Skunk".  I've been told that the flowers of the skunk cabbage smell good.  None of the open spathes were  near enough to the path for me to test what I've been told. 

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Winter Shadows..First Steps

As the painting looked last week.

Stage 2

I started putting texture on the trees with Orange Lake and added another wash of Cobalt Blue to the background.

Stage 3 with Maskit protecting whites

I protected the white of the paper with Maskit which is a bit like rubber cement but  better chemically for the paper.  I laid a wash of Primary Blue over the sky, Burnt Sienna and Orange Lake for the distant trees and a wash of Ultramarine Blue to darken snow in the valley.  The blue on the nearer trees  is Cobalt.

Stage 3 with no Maskit on right side

I took the mask off so I could see the contrasts on the trees.

Stage 4

I added texture to the distant trees with scribbles,  a mix of Burnt Sienna, Cobalt Blue, and Orange Lake. I worked a little on the far cliffs. and so on. I decided the most prominent tree needed reshaping.  I added short strokes of Orange Lake and Cobalt Blue.  I  added washes of Quinacridone Gold, Orange Lake, and Cobalt Blue on the near cliffs. I removed the Maskit and add more washes of Quinacridone Gold, Orange Lake and Cobalt Blue.  The last thing I did was put splotches of Maskit on the cliffs to preserve some of the new washes.  Next I will add more washes to the cliffs and see what I then have.