sight lines/drawing lines

warmth, after extreme cold and whipping winds

a walk then

downstream first

the swift, treacherous current swiftly moving though the surface remained glass-like

reflections rooted in place on one side, the pilings on the other

there are two things that spring to mind... 

first that the trees were cut to create the pilings and now they face each other across the divide, both rooted in place

and how the river is in constant flow yet the reflections that lay on the surface remain in place

back at the house, the recording begins

questions of sight and thought

"what is the impression I'm holding in my mind of where I am and what I see?"

-Debbie Lyddon

I look at a photograph, close my eyes, and think back to the river

open them and begin

nothing special, not a lot of detail, just the things I payed attention to the most

twisted and curled brown leaves clinging

for some reason I payed a lot of attention to them

I had noticed them a few days before, a different place, different trees

wind-swept snow-lines

waves of winter

repetition

space

light

shadow

edges

a closer view, after a somewhat treacherous walk down the bank

texture

rough snow and ice

smooth river

guardrail supports on the other side provide additional repetition

these were the things I remembered most

other than the light

of course

in the landscape

warmer days, and windy

a 44 degree temperature change in four days

and time

time to explore the landscape, both inside and out

I began with a photo

then explored shape

thought about line

considered texture

and played with value

pencil, charcoal, and paint

after that a more considered drawing

trying hard to keep it loose

some things I got right, others not so much

the second try (lower drawing) was better, at least the cliffs were, but still not as imposing as they should be

in both the trees at the right are not broken up enough

things to work on

always

I'm pleased, though I think I'm more pleased that I actually got to sit down and do this than anything, it was just so delightful 

next week I head home so I'll be making the most of these last few days, getting in a few more river walks

today's took me along the river on my usual path 

and then over the bridge to the other side and a slightly different perspective

looking over toward downtown

the low sparkling light of a northern winter's day

hmmm...

the beauty of the river, it changes

with the cold of winter

the brighter blue of summer gives way to a steely, more greyed version

the ice begins at the islands, creeping, , spreading through the quieter channels 

a land of white, blue, beige and black-green

layers of ice and water

winter stratas

pebbled ice formed during an ice-storm borders smooth ice, formed afterward

the wind died, the cold deepened

translucent blue next to snow-bound shores

nature frames the views

and screens them

water in constant motion creates ice that looks the same

deep shade, black water

Monday I was able to go for a walk, but the rest of the week has been taken up with the sickness rebound

it was a vicious one but thankfully, though all the others were ill this week, I stayed healthy 

lots of soup-making and looking after the wee ones whilst their parents recovered

hoping we are finally, truly, through it now but life comes one day at a time and that's how I'm taking it

better here or better here?

working away on the FATT course

"Visual Narratives"

explorations of twilight was my inspiration in 2022, stemming from the book 

"Last of the Light"

by

Peter Davidson

whilst still a subject of interest for me I'm re-visiting the juxtaposition of old buildings and elements of nature using a mix of old, very old and recently taken photographs that I began last year

and, in order to warm up, I've spent some time this week cropping various images, spinning them around and layering them into two contact sheets

reminds me of going to the optometrist... each lens trial followed by 

"better here or better here?"

after the fourth or fifth time it's just all a blur

these have all gone through a few more iterations than four or five and I'm feeling much like it's all become a hair-splitting adventure so I'm calling one done and the other needs just one more image added and it will also be deemed done

{I hope}

here are three versions of the first sheet

the original version

a slightly cropped at the bottom version

and finally, with the bottom two images cut off completely

 I like the last one best, the simplicity of it

the following are all the images I used

the only one I didn't alter at all is the black and white landscape - that photo was taken by my 

grand-parents in the 1950s and is a particular favourite of mine

the Yukon River on a foggy morning in August

a very large rock high in the hills

side of a building in Dawson City

Yukon landscape 1950s

Air Stream Caravan in Whitehorse in the 1950s or 60s

Yukon River November 2024

from the Dawson City Museum 2024

below is contact sheet #2, with one more piece yet to come

two little ones at home sick this week so it's been busy days for me but thankfully it was one right after the other rather than both at once

and now that everyone is healthy again, next week I'm planning to take this imagery further in a few different ways 

after I finally make up my mind on the missing piece that is...

drifting home

cold... fresh, icy cold

sparkling water, frosted colour

I seem to never get enough of photographing the river

the water, in the low grey light of a cloudy day sparkled and shone

no sunshine required

when the images uploaded to my laptop I noticed the reflections - long, and indistinct

duplicated one photo

then cropped it

swiped to the left to see the original 

for some reason iPhoto overlaid the two

took a screenshot

edited that... 

on it goes

photo crop of a back channel

thin ice

texture

another image

silvertone filter

current marks

crop and crop again

another view, upstream

and silently still,

with no load to carry

the sentinels of the river stand watch

I bought ink today, and a brush

I have an idea, a drifting thought

ride the current

make the journey

changing times

twilight's slow descent comes early now

the dimming of light, that time when the outside world begins to recede whilst the inside one gathers in a little more closely

more than any other time of day it's twilight that causes me to lift my head and look to a window

"ah yes"

a welcome letting go of the active portion of the day

two months ago this photo was taken at 7:22pm

now, twilight falls just before 4:00

twilight...  that increasing absence of light and colour 

an in-between time

I'm off, again, to the land of winter twilight, to help with the wee ones

how can one say "no" to that?

the Yukon no longer follows daylight savings time so the light will fall later than here, right now, about 5:30 but the sunrise is at 10:30 a.m., 3 1/2 hours later

I do love the dark mornings though, a slow easing into the day

the drawing below is one I did of some mountains there, from memory

looking forward to doing that from life now

also happy to have the chance to take a few more pictures to work with

and if I'm very lucky I will see something of the northern lights - this is heralded as the best winter for it in many, many years

wish me luck!

more than twice the price

there is a way of looking at the true cost of a thing 

that takes into consideration the cost of every aspect of what it took to bring it into being, not just the materials and labour 

a  factoring in of the cost of the education or life experiences required to develop the idea

or the same in reference to inventing/developing the raw materials

the cost of building the roadways or rail tracks to deliver the finished product, not just the cost of the actual transport

but another way of looking at the true cost of a thing is to also consider the price you will pay to make use of the thing you acquire - the cost of the time it will take you to read the book you just bought

or to buy the bookcase you'll need to store it

this week I discovered the true cost of one of my favourite things to do in my art practice - collect materials to make paint, ink and dye in a bid to bring "local colour"  into the materials I use in my work 

during my recent travels to the Yukon and Oregon there was an abundance of natural materials available in the landscape that I could use in making art

acorns, whole plus already separated caps

bark from the Madrone or "Arbutus" tree

dried rosehips

wild yarrow

swan feathers

oak galls

in less than an hour one afternoon at the farm I gathered enough acorn caps and madrone bark to fill a large brown paper bag

last week I decided to get busy with them

five days later I finally finished tagging and photographing a good sized collection of fibres dyed with natural dyes of my own making

and what a long, drawn-out messy business it was

a friend asked me the other night why I found it messy

I had to think for a minute and as I typed my response I began to laugh... no bloody wonder I found it to be messy...

I seem to like to work in a manner where I do everything all at once so...  as I was working with silk, cotton and wool fibres I needed two different mordants, one a hot process, the other a mix of cold and hot

and then there were three different dyes to prepare... acorn cap silver grey, a golden madrone, and the pinky-gold rose hip

plus some acorn cap silver grey ink

and why not a lake pigment with the madrone dye so I could make watercolour paint

 since there was a large quantity of good strong dye what about tossing in a few pieces of linen cloth?

what about making some in to greyed threads done with an iron-water dip 

a messy business?

well, fair enough

this was the also the first time I've worked through the dyeing process properly: weighing the dyestuff and threads, doing a proper mordant, preparing samples, recording method and so on

a lot of work but such good results

below is the acorn cap silver grey dyed fibres

from left: wool (from "Jack" the sheep), twisted silk, and four different white/off-white DMC 6 stranded embroidery threads

these were all dipped in iron water the day after they were dyed

the fibres below are the madrone dye with an iron-water dip the day after

the top four are the same DMC embroidery threads, again in base colours of white or off-white, the bottom hank is silk

and this last group is a second set of madrone, left in their beautiful golden state, no iron

from left: Jack's wool, two skeins of silk (one left in the dye much longer than the other) and four of the same DMC threads as the other two groups

I love the colour variations using different base colours gives

(the ones I used were "Blanc", 3865, 822, 644 and 648)

after they were all twisted into skeins I labelled each and then wrote the methods used in my dye journal and added samples of each

nice to have that record should I want to do this again...

it just won't be for a very long time!

it took less than an hour to gather the materials and approx. 50 hours to do all of the preparation, make the dyes and mordants and then do all the finishing work once the fibres were coloured

 the true cost