Sketchbook Wandering : Travel

Showing posts with label Travel. Show all posts

Sunday, August 16, 2020

Travel During the Pandemic. Summer of 2020

A sketch from a journal sketch (see post of July 2...)

For years my favorite back road trip was up to

Skowhegan & Jackman, ending in Quebec City.

The Canadian border is closed, & I stay home a lot these days.

But road trips are still possible.

From Belfast to Brooks, Dixmont, Winterport, Hampden.

This is organic farm country in towns like Montville & Monroe.

Roller coaster ribbon roads.

Forests, farms, scattered country homes,

occasional views of distant fields, faraway mountains.

Here & there, political signs appear on the sides of the road,

but I try not to look at them.

This is not the coastal route with its crowds & cars,

Its clusters of restaurants & hotels.

For a short time the world feels safe, normal & familiar.

Beautiful.

The radio is off & I drive slowly, glancing, occasionally stopping.

I am told I will be able to visit Québec & other cities again.

In the meantime, how lucky I am to be here.

Thursday, July 2, 2020

Cool Summer Colors. Vibrant Fabric Colors

A little road trip off the beaten path.

Not the coastal route with tourists & cars
& clusters of restaurants and hotels.

This was roller coaster ribbon roads,
forests, farms, scattered country homes.

Occasional views of distant fields
& faraway mountains.

Destination:
A fabric store in the city, about 50 miles away.

I've been luxuriating in assembling

vibrant colors of cloth.

And yesterday I basked in
cool country colors
on a wet summer day.

Thursday, January 30, 2020

Art Journaling On the Go

A new 8 X 11" page in my art journal,

created at the weekly Library Art Journaling Group.

Sharing & working together, they call it "synergy."

I call it magic.

This was my first "To Go" page in my Daily Journal.

After watching a ton of videos

about the Midori Travel Journal system,

& about approaches to Bullet Journaling,

I modified my Rhodia A5 size dot grid book

(the best for fountain pens!)

by adding colored elastic cords under which I slid

loose, folded sheets of blank paper.

On the go, I can pull a sheet out, draw, write,

& then stick it back in! It worked!!

Below, I'm loving seeing the accumulation of Jan. days

on my Mini Memory Calendar!

The squares measure 1 1/4 square inch.

The calendars are on premium color copy paper.

Nine days ago...

Today!
One day at a time a month happens!

Happy End of January!

Tuesday, June 11, 2019

Maine Country Road Trips

Road trips in the countryside from Midcoast Maine.

An idyllic corner on earth.

This is the region of many small, organic farms,

2nd or 3rd generation of back-to-the landers:

Blackbrook Farm, Many Hands Farm,

Sunnyside, Aqua Terra, Royal View Farm...

Many of the farms supply the food coops

in Belfast & Brooks &

sell their produce at farm markets and

the beloved Common Ground Fair in Unity.

The views from the hilly roller coaster roads

leading from Belfast to Unity, Brooks, Jackson, Monro

take my breath away!

A frequent road trip out of Belfast: Route 1 South.

Last week, like a kid on summer vacation

I was so excited to drive down to Rockport with a friend.

While she went to the doctor, I sketched out the window

of a café. Then we went to the Guini Ridge Nursery

across the road road to buy plants.

To do a little farming of our own!

For other posts on Farmers Markets and The Common Ground Fair, click on these in Labels.

Wednesday, June 5, 2019

Quebec City and Sketching People

No matter where I go to sketch,

if there are people nearby,

they will most likely enter my sketch.

In Québec Ctiy we had our annual library date

at Bibliothèque Claire Martin

housed in the former St. Matthew Church.

I have mentioned this church in previous posts about Québec.

The Franco American Museum includes a restored chapel.

It has lots of ornamentation, but I went right for a figure,

an elevated sculpture against a wall.

Here is the figure of me, at one of the altars.

It's officially no longer sacred

so tourists can wander all over the place.

When we had our other library date

at the large Bibliothèque Gabrielle-Roy

(see previous post)

I found a book I've always wanted to own:

Un peu de Paris by illustrator Jean-Jacques Sempé.

He is a master of depicting human nature

through simple line drawings

as well as nature-nature & architecture.

He is my number one favorite illustrator

dans le monde entier!

I photographed a few pages.

Oh the humor, the expressions, the brilliance!

We used to watch a TV show when I was a kid,

"People Are Funny". I didn't really like the show,

but that title was a theme for my mom & me.

And People are Loveable too.
••••••••••••••••••••••

I've signed up for a figure drawing group

to hone my skills. Not a class,

just artists drawing from a model.

I studied figure drawing in college classes

a LONG time ago. I am anxious.

What if everyone else is a super talented,

experienced artist??

(I'm good about advising others

to not compare themselves,

but mon Dieu!

I have to apply this attitude to myself!)

For my other Quebec City posts, put it in the search bar,

or click on the labels, "Québec City" and "Québec"

that are on the side.

Wednesday, April 10, 2019

Sketches From the Back Seat

In early March I got to be a passenger along Route 1

heading south!

So many times I've driven that road, sneaking glances.

So I took the opportunity to sketch! Of course!

Composing sketches while moving quickly is in some ways

like putting together a puzzle.

I grab elements from the landscape as it whips by

and fit them in on the page.

By the time I'm drawing individual parts

they are memory images,

but with actual references in the moving landscape.

I added some colored pencil notations in the car

and later I painted lightly with watercolors.

Observation lists

also come in handy in such fast situations.

Monday, October 15, 2018

Back to Acadia, Autumn, 2018

Excursion to Acadia with an art friend.

I got to add another panel to my Moleskine accordion book.

The 1st panel created in June, 2016

The one before yesterday's: Last May.

To see some past posts re. Acadia, click HERE. And here.

From the path down to the (large) Pond,

from the Jordan Pond House,

where lunches, popovers & views are divine.

The left shore. Some years ago I hiked the trail

around the entire lake.

The shore nearby, the carmines & corals

are waving, Look at us!

Rather than hike we walked gently along carriage paths.

Design, color, dancing lights & shadows,

translucence, luminescence,

sparkling, shimmering, glittering leaves!

In the woods a stream that flows into into Jordan Pond...

...My friend, who takes gorgeous photos,

captured my physical surroundings: a dark shady pocket

in the midst of sunny, brilliant color.

What she didn't know is that she had also captured a mood.

I was remembering happy times spent with a childhood friend

with whom I used to play in our woods by the creek.

I was grieving, because

I learned of my childhood friend's death last week.

Eagle Lake, how different

from our explorations around Jordan Pond.

Places, flora, time of day, weather, mountains, bodies of water,

changing light, so many varied images...

I said to my friend,

"Sometimes the beauty seems unbearable in its immensity."

A National Park like this, open to the public,

is one of America's treasures.

It's an enchanting glimpse of Mother Earth

for us town & city folks.

On the way home, a Maine Blueberry field, at sunset...

That was yesterday...

Autumn is passing through Coastal Maine.

Friday, April 27, 2018

Sketchers Go Downeast

Sketchers went Downeast, to Stonington. Field Trip!!

Sketchbook Wandering!

I got to ride in the back seat...

Quick impressions on the road to Deer Isle.

Last chance to enjoy tree branches as buds are sprouting.

I got car sick from all the curves & hills, but it was worth it!

Glimpses drawn from imagination & memory.

In the sketchbook, not on watercolor paper...

Low tide.

If I could sum the voyage up in word, it would be: BLUE!

Blue & breezes & springtime sun,

replacing frozen grays of winter.

On the way home we stopped on top of Caterpillar Hill,

and looked out across the Bay! So often I have looked out to

Caterpillar Hill from my home on the mainland! Amazing!

Saturday, March 10, 2018

Dreaming of Provence on a Snowy Day

View from my studio window

While it was snowing all day, a friend came over

and we shared stories of travel in Provence.

My past travel, her upcoming trip.

St. Rémy de Provence, a view par la fenêtre du Musée Estrine.

That was the trip on which I didn't bring my camera,

but I did fill 2 sketch journals.

A little drawing, 4 X 6" made this morning

from the initial sketch.

Blogger La Table de Nana has been posting photos

of her last trip to Provence. She loves it there,

but then again, she finds & shows beauty wherever she is.

Click here to visit her exquisite blog.

Monday, November 20, 2017

At LL Bean recently I had left my sketchbook in the car. Horrors! "Oh please, I asked the young woman in the café, do you have any scrap paper, I am desperate!" Yes, she did, so I was able to sketch out the window

on that chilly morning while waiting for my breakfast.

On a trip to Boston, I sat on a bench at the edge of the Commons, at Park St. to sketch.

After years of Boston trips,

I never before noticed a large fountain!

A fast scribble sketch, just making notes, watching, listening.

Sitting there in the park, a great theater experience,

with diverse characters & conversations!

A mellow November day in peaceful Harvard Yard.

Lots of chairs out, so I hung out after going to the Fogg Art Museum.

(loved the museum, not as grand as The Museum of Fine Arts, but wonderful.)

People waiting for subways, and buses...

...are always favorite city subjects.

Sketches at the Portland Museum of Art...They & the Fogg don't allow ink pens,

so a lot of the sketches in this series are too light to post.

The last 2 are from the Farnsworth Art Museum, Rockland.

...which does allow ink pens.

The Farnsworth: one of my favorite art museums!