“Spring on the Rocks” features that first flush of color, mosses, ferns, violets, speedwells, and a sprinkling of spring beauties just catching the sun on a rise of limestone draped with last year’s leaves. Yes, a little abstract, just a small, quick sketch, practice, but I think I caught the light and shapes and colors and patterns.

A few visits to prepare

I’ve been trying to take the time to head out somewhere and sketch en plein air. I even got myself a new set of pastels for the field to encourage me.

Last week I stopped by the trail between errands and found only one wildflower. Earlier this week I stopped by between things and found an abundance of the smallest spring ephemerals, had only my cell phone and not even a pencil to draw with. Make notes: just put the bag of drawing materials in by the door so you can grab it.

Today I packed the good DSLR and the art materials, got done with some errands a little earlier than I expected and hit the trail.

So many things to draw and paint! But I knew what had stayed with me from my visit the other day: the mosses just brightening up, rosettes of plants pushing through the dirt and last year’s leaves, and the lichen and moss on the limestone rises and cliffs in the woods. And I knew just the place I could catch that, if the sun was compliant.

About “Spring on the Rocks”

Here’s the full sketch before I cropped it.

The cropped size at the top is 5″ x 5″, so the paper above is about 6″ x 8″. I’ll put these little things on my easel or tack it to the wall and sometimes work around the edges if the composition needs balanced, or I know there are things I left out for time or need of a particular color or whatever.

Here is the a reference photo of the area I focused on, but I know I moved a bit to one side because a big shadow fell over where I wanted to work and I wanted more moss, and the sun came and went.

I worked most of it on site but I needed a few pastels that weren’t in the little travel set I’d packed, so I added those deep greens, blues and purples when I got home, scanned it and here we are.

I used Clairfontaine Pastelmat for the surface that grabs and holds the pastel, giving me nice clean edges were I wanted them, and the anthracite color of the background makes the colors glow.

Photos and writing from these walks in the woods too

Visit my daily photo site Today to see Feather Moss Celebration; Spring Beauties, Pink and White;  First Flowers Waking Up; Fern, Lichen and Moss, and likely more and more as the days go by. I will probably also be painting from a few of them.

Also my writing site to see a few notes that may evolve into poetry or prose in Some Idle Thoughts Along the Trail.

Find more art like this

Visit my Seasons Along the Panhandle Trail gallery featuring my artwork of the Panhandle Trail and the woods and streams around.

Also visit my gallery of Landscape Artwork  to see more of the area.

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