Savannah Hammock

I went out hiking and sketching along the Savannah River. The bare trees make for wonderful patterns against the bright winter sky. The hammocks in the marshes are particularly interesting, the way their unexpected symmetry breaks the vast expanse of the spartina and cattails. I was lucky to glimpse a bobcat hunting at the edge of the marsh.

Fernandina Beach, FL

We just returned from a weekend on Amelia Island. The sunset over the docks at Fernandina Beach was super. I especially enjoyed the factory in the background.

Curiosity

On November 26 I was fortunate enough to be at the Kennedy Space Center for the launch of the Atlas V rocket. Aboard was the Curiosity Rover, and it's now on its way to Mars, arriving there in August 2012.

The experience of watching the launch was great. Mobs of people crowded the shoreline in Titusville. The rocket launched exactly on schedule, and was up and out of sight within seconds! It happened so fast! The really phenomenal thing is that the launch itself was silent; but after the rocket had disappeared into the clouds, the sound waves finally reached us and we were blasted by the powerful thrusters!

This sketch was obviously done very quickly, and largely after the fact. (I'm fast, but I'm not THAT fast! Okay. I'm not fast at all. In fact, I usually paint very slowly.)

And finally, happy 241st birthday, Beethoven! And happy birthday to you, too, Reyn!

Ann Arbor in May

I spent the weekend in Ann Arbor celebrating my nephew's marriage to an incredible Turkish woman. Heading north from Savannah,  I was able to experience a second springtime. The apples and lilacs were blooming; bleeding heart sprouted everywhere; Solomon's seal lined walkways. I loved the textures of the sugar maples against the clapboard houses, the rain-soaked tree trunks against the sunny patches of sweet woodruff. It was an incredible weekend, all the way around!

The Beach at Tybee

I'm embarrassed that it's been so long since I last posted. Life has a way of getting between me and the things I'd rather be doing.

Nonetheless, we stole away to the beach yesterday where I was able to sketch for a couple of hours.

I love scratchboard, and have wondered about using it as a sketching surface. (Have you ever seen the scratchboard images Eyvind Earle created for his autobiography, Horizon Bound on a Bicycle? Those little sketches are what got me thinking about using this unlikely medium as a sketching surface. Earle's work is so much more elegant than my chunky attempt, however.) So inspired, I made a book with commercially produced scratchboard sheets, and headed out.

The book I made is small (out of necessity — if it were any larger, I'd never get any sketches finished) — the image area is 6 x 5 inches; I used screw posts to bind it (which is what I do with all of the sketchbooks I make).

When I work in scratchboard, I normally use Ampersand's smooth clayboard panels, and ink them myself. The quality of these boards has spoiled me, and my standard for materials has become high. The unfortunate result of this is that I find the commercially produced sheets stubborn to work with — the ink chips away in chunks when I want to smoothly slice away a fluid line. But it works for the beach, and I enjoyed working this way despite the challenges of inferior materials.

Here are a couple of shot of the scratchboard sketchbook I made.

Savannah Crime Scene

For those of you who read John Berendt's Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil and are familiar with the murder of Danny Hansford by Jim Williams, this is the elegant mansion on Monterey Square in which the crime occurred. The infamous deed happened in the darkened room to the left of the front entry. (A still more dastardly deed is represented by the 2-hour parking meter — if you've ever dealt with one of Savannah's metermaids, you know what I'm talking about.)

The house is generally recognized because of the Berendt book, but this was built for the great-grandfather of  legendary singer-songwriter Johnny Mercer. The house's current name, the Mercer-Williams House, reflects this dual notoriety.

I did this sketch with pencil as well as black and white ink on brown paper. The dense foliage in the square casts dramatic shadows on the house. (I can't say that I captured the intensity of the light and shadow in this sketch, but it was fun to do.)

Ybor City, Florida

I recently traveled to Ybor City, Tampa's historic district. I love the busy-ness of the place — fascinating characters milling about, low-riders cruising narrow streets, bustling cigar shops/cafés, crumbling brick buildings with wrought iron balconies. I sketched and sketched, yet my images were disheartening. I simply need to get out and sketch more often! (Easier said than done.) It's been so long since I've posted here that I thought I should put up at least one image from my recent travels. Okay. Here's another: