Two More Trees

10/9/13 Platinum Carbon ink, watercolor, Strathmore 400 140 lb. paper

On Monday I said that I was going to sketch as many trees as possible before they lose their leaves, and I wasn’t kidding. Here are two more.

As I pulled into the Whole Foods parking lot (I didn’t use the underground garage this time, since it wasn’t raining), I noticed that all the trees surrounding the store and in the lot had turned a bright yellow. After sketching one (at right) in front of the loading dock, I looked closely at its leaves – long, narrow, pointed and only slightly serrated (see below). I put a leaf in my purse for further research. (Anyone know what this is?)

 

The afternoon turned out so sunny and beautiful that I had my car’s top down when I spotted this aspen (below) in the parking lot of St. Catherine of Siena Parish (which I sketched a year ago. In the background is the Maple Leaf water tower, which I also sketched last year). Apparently nothing was going on at the church, because the parking lot was deserted. With space to park wherever I wanted, I had the rare opportunity to use my topless car, which is at a good height for painting, as a taboret. The ultimate portable studio, huh? (See bottom of post.)

10/9/13 Platinum Carbon ink, watercolor, Strathmore 400 140 lb. paper

By the way, back in February, I had declared trees to be my latest sketching nemesis (architecture and cars had come first). Somewhere between lots of practice (as of today, 56 blog posts are tagged “tree”) and using heavier papers, trees and I have called a truce. This is not to say that they are no longer challenging – indeed, they are still one of my most difficult sketching subjects – but I stopped avoiding trees long ago, and I look forward to attempting to convey each tree’s unique “treeness.” How can I have a nemesis that makes me happy? I’m checking this one off my list.

MiataGrrl's traveling taboret.