in the pink

pink isn't a colour I tend to work with, nor drawn to, though I don't dislike it...

in recent days I have had a couple of encounters with it that have been pretty special

sunset on Friday night, around 11:15

the days are already getting noticeable shorter, and the night sky has some darkness to it in the wee small hours

the sky started with a soft pink and over the next few minutes it the colours of the sky deepened

and deepened, gaining intensity

the blues becoming more violet-tinged, especially at the horizon

and then it began to fade...

and lighter still

the most beautiful sunset I've ever seen

and definitely the pinkest!

a few days before that I found a "paintbrush" plant whilst walking along the river

clusters of what seem to be red berries of a sort though you really can't see any individual berries

they're in soft clusters that as soon as they're touched the colour is released, staining whatever they come into contact with

I gathered several stalks and pulled the colour clusters off, placing them in a jar in the fridge

a few days later I took one out and rubbed it on a page in my watercolour book

no idea how permanent it might be but not too worried about that - I'll draw into this once I go back and get a closer look at the plants

(my photographs didn't turn out at all)

afterwards I added a bit of water to the jar and cooked it in a pot of steaming water for about 30 minutes, adding a few drops of vinegar and a dash of salt

once the mixture had cooked down a bit I removed it from the heat, let it cool, then strained it into a small jar to use as ink

there was some left over so I used that to paint a few papers

this first one is on watercolour paper

and this next one is on khadi paper

very pleased with both of these and next is to try the ink with my dip pen

made from plants found by the river... local colour

love that I found it and got such great results

the stockpile of working materials to take home to the studio is growing and growing

my heart is full

what we want and what we get

years ago, whenever I wrote a thinking reflective type of post I would begin with an image of Robert Service standing outside his cabin in Dawson City, pipe and papers in hand

for some reason that image made me think of a conversation waiting waiting to happen, something interesting

on arriving from Whitehorse I stood in front of said cabin and though it wasn't for the first time, it was no less special

no renovations have been done to it except perhaps the stairs, but two days after this photo the fence was taken down and in the process of being replaced

on that day we wandered up there for a last look before heading back to Whitehorse

it was too early for the cabin to be open to visitors but the Parks Canada employee working on the fence waved us into the yard to explore on our own 

what a treat to have it all to ourselves!

a faint path led up through the wildflowers and grasses of the front yard and for the first time I noticed the front door

every time I have been there over the years and decades the door has been open for the tours - I hadn't seen it shut before

random strips of wood,  cobbled together as so many things in Dawson City always were, it's full of creative inspiration

I would have loved to take a rubbing of some the textures but didn't dare press my luck; close-up photographs will do just fine

the old rusted hinges and padlock on the door keep it true to the Yukon

later, walking through streets of old buildings in this living ghost town we found this painted on one side

 

fitting words for my experience there... I went wanting one thing, came away with it but also a fresh perspective on life and lives lived, what lasts and what doesn't, what we want and what we actually need and how all of that fits in with the passage of time

random...

this past week has been filled with all sorts of random things... a beach day, another beach day at a different lake, a walk along the river, landscaping, playing

seems fitting then that the photos in this post will be a random collection too

first is a tangle of wildflowers along the Yukon River

a very windy day at Lake Bennett

a glacier lake, the water was icy cold that day so wading only - but I did love the colour bands of the water

zooming in on the far-off mountains 

many Yukon mountains have amazing fractals and I never tire of looking at them

a quick rough sketch - the wind made it just about impossible

I wanted to paint a full-page spread and though I was using elastic bands to hold the pages in place they were impossible to paint around so I took them off but then had to continually fight the wind

still, the messiness of the sketch, especially the water, will always remind me of that day

enjoying the long daylight hours - this was taken at 11:37 p.m., just as I was going to bed

and no, I did not pull the blind!

and finally, Grey Mountain, looming over Whitehorse

this is the mountain my grandson is named after

on a dark rainy day, the sun came out briefly and lit it beautifully

Monday we go to Dawson City for a couple of days and there the days will be even longer

on the solstice people stand on the "Dome" overlooking the city and the watch the sun circle the horizon 

it truly is "The Land of the Midnight Sun"

in the woods...

this weekend we camped at Wolf Creek

surrounded by the forest, the deep blue sky punctuated overhead by the towering pines, wildflowers dotting the open spaces of the forest floor

I had made a small sketchbook with heavy weight drawing paper and have been using it to record some things I have seen arriving last week

this weekend it was a few of those wildflowers mentioned above

my grandson was interested in what I was doing so to engage him further I showed him how to use the dandelions themselves to add the yellow flowers to a quick sketch of leaves and stems

from there, he brought me a horsetail fern and a sprig of something I could not name so he supplied his own:

"Grey's Water-bell"

and for the people from England who read this, a Yukon version of a "Bluebell Wood"

these tiny blue bell-shaped flowers' Latin name is:

Mertensia paniculata

also known as "Tall Lungwort", commonly called "Northern Bluebells"

the woods surrounding the creek are full of them, in every direction, but there was also Fireweed (which is just coming in to bloom), Wild Roses, Dandelions and Queen Anne's Lace

I stood and did the drawing on the left, later Grey brought me a small stem he had picked on his way back from the woodshed so I sketched that too

(the shadowed fern below it is the horsetail fern showing through from the other side)

it was lovely looking, seeing, sketching and sharing it all with a 5 year old 

a small part of a fun-filled weekend but one I'll remember for a long time

travelling

today I flew to the Yukon, travelling through the landscape from above

for the next five weeks I'll be travelling through it on the ground

last week I travelled through it in my mind...

twenty-five 1 1/4" squares with pen-marks and brush-strokes, soft subtle greys, dusky blues and greys and a few splashes of fireweed and wild rose pink

some were done hesitantly, a few marks, a long pause

thinking my way through several, a few coming far more easily

winter ice and snow has a lot of presence, as does water

it was interesting to notice the subjects I kept coming back to

it was also interesting to note the ones I added because I thought I should

I printed a copy of it and brought it with me thinking I may take a few and work on developing them further

or perhaps they will be the springboard to something else

either way, there is more of this kind of work in my future now that I'm back in the landscape that inspired it in the first place

"got to be starting something"

like the song, I started out with 

"wanna be starting something"

and eventually the "wanna" became "got to" and things finally start to happen

this time it's to do with a long-held desire to experiment with various print-making techniques and over time I've enrolled in a few courses that focus on some aspect or another, bought a few supplies and tried one or two things

this last week I've begun again, working through one of them by Anita Lehmann (same instructor as the Landscapes course I've been posting about recently) though with an upcoming trip to the Yukon I won't be getting very far until my return in August

nevertheless, a start was made

beginning with mono printing, working in the subtractive, where the plate is fully inked and then ink removed using a tool or tools of some sort to create the desired image

for the first session I used the edge of the brayer

it took a while to get the evenness of the ink layer sorted out, longer still to get the dampness of the paper at the right level but after a few unsuccessful attempts I finally pulled a few prints I was pretty delighted with

the first image shown is of the plate, inked up with the marks made

rolling the brayer up the the plate, switching the angle, curving this way and that, I seem to have created a tangle of growth - no plant in particular, just playing with the edges, angles, speed and curves

 next is the resulting print

I love the texture and line of the stems, the way the leaves curl and bend

there's nothing at all contrived about it, nothing was planned - I just made a mark, liked it and did more

this way and that, until it felt like enough

so I tried again, this time printing on a lightweight Awagami paper in pale green

this version seems even more of a tangle and I like the effect of the green

for first efforts I'm pleased and will continue with the subtractive process for a bit and then move to additive, making marks on a clean plate

I may even begin with the same motions as I used here, just to have a comparison

it feels good to have finally got beyond the gate

studio trials

a few different trials over the past couple of weeks

bite-size things that can be done in the between times of yard and house work

first was layers of ice in tinted charcoal with a flat brush

not a planned study, more a way of using up leftover paint on the palette, but I do like it... it's another forward movement in my effort to get interesting ice

after that I used a darker grey to try for a rock wall/fence

I think I need to do a whole page or two of these sorts of trials, to explore the marks further, and really set the motion of making them into my hands

in addition to that I finally tried doing some image transfer on to linen cloth using black & white laser prints of photos taken up north last year

the first is ice on the Yukon River using clear gesso for the transfer medium

it worked quite well though I may have been a bit heavy-handed when rubbing off the paper

as well, the clear gesso I used isn't exactly clear, more of a pale amber and it has lent that slight tint to the transfer

it gives a slight effect similar to that of sepia-toned photographs

the second try was with an image of the clay cliffs that line the river through much of Whitehorse

this time I used Liquitex Matte Medium  - this worked especially well, the transfer is clear and sharp, very little detail was lost and the fabric has kept much of it's drape, still feeling soft and flexible in the hand

it's good to do things like this, experimenting and focusing on simple things

it may not seem like much but there's good learning here that I'll be using in the days and weeks ahead as I continue working with the winter river

never mind that it's just great fun!