Carrasco Studio

Grey Whales in the Llano

 Llano River and Boulders                        ©Jennifer M.Carrasco  11/21/10

 

I am working with a series of watercolors about the Llano river in Texas.  I find, that in painting, it is always a fine balance between honoring  both the surface and depth of water.

The river is very clear and runs  over granite boulders smoothed by water and time.  The boulders, where they emerge from the water, make me think of grey-backed whales....and pockets of grass in some of the stone declivities add to the illusion.  Blowhole spouts of grass. Each boulder has a middle ring of dried salts with  the water marking a hem of dark pink granite in the lowest ring.

The water doesn't  rush into rapids, but slides sleek and transparent from gentle level to level, eddies in dark green channels and occasionally stills in a hollowed out bathtub of stone.

And all day the Texas wind blows, and the minnows dart in the shallows.  Tiny frogs leap from still puddle to puddle, and hide in the algae from the herons that stalk them.

I could play all day in this sparkle of clear water, smooth  granite and faded blue Texas sky.

 

 

Rain's Antidote

I am beginning to gather studies and drawings and renderings......and memories of summer sun. Tore a grapevine off a fence and did a canvas study...aged it with umber and raw sienna and some spritzes of alcohol. 

When I finished I laughed at myself.  It looks like it might slither out of a corner, climb up my leg and clasp me around the throat.  I swear, I can draw a rock and make it look nervous.  I should run around the block three times and meditate before  drawing.

My new project is a series of three arches...approximately 11'x7' done on canvas for a sheltered courtyard in a Spanish style house on one of Seattle's lake front properties.

When I went to the site, I immediately thought of the Spanish coast....cliffs and brilliant light, , olive trees, regimental lines of grape vines, and goats in stark rocky meadows.  

I thought something like this example of an Andalusian courtyard....sepias...drawing with a few gouache like accents of color would be terribly chic. (Victorian study...no attribution.)

My client wanted a more gentle Italianate coast, so we came to a compromise. Note the martello tower, but a field with grass and sunflowers.  

However, the client wanted a richer palatte and did not want the parrot cage. She wanted more color and more Tuscan. Ack! I still think something is needed in that space.  If any of my readers have suggestions........

I may end up doing this ala Zuber style, with opaque paint and infinitesimal increments of value and hue.  If I do that, I can get a buddy to come in and work with me to finish quickly.  That style is almost paint by numbers but has a sophisticated look.

I do like working HUGE and then  tiny....back and forth.  Probably tears my mind to shreds.

What I did on my Summer Vacation

 

We spent an idyllic two days on the Kitsap Penninsula with our friend Paula.  The clouds are massing......summer is showing it's sunny behind over the Olympics.  I stand on my front porch and wave my hankerchief at the passing season.

Paula's feast. A Primary Poem.

 

Ah.

Can yellow be so round?

Webs of algae.

 

Paula's garden, Paula's hops

......that reflection and shadow thing....again.

 
Port Townsend Market...and all the beets and carrots, color co-ordinated.....


 

Sea salad

Glorious potatoes.

Farewell Blue Heron.

Hola! What lurks in yon grass?

I'm inviting you to join me on next Tuesday evening, July 20, 6-9 pm and spend some time painting and/or drawing in the meadow, next to the HighPoint pond and all the ducks, barn swallows, cedar waxwings, goldfinches, dragon flies and clovers and grasses, and reflections in the water and fresh air. And it's FREE.  It's accessible to everyone...nice level walks, sloping meadows and viewpoints everywhere.  Tame, safe, and very pretty.

One of my students, Engrid, mentioned to me that she was noticing all the different lovely shapes of the meadow grasses.....the bobbing plumes, the delicate patterns of the crisscrossing blades and stems.  Think about it.  Right in front of our eyes!  We must draw and paint them!  And bring your camera too....

 

Bring what you need for creating, composing or just getting composed, and come sit in the grass with me.  I won't be teaching or even talking, for that matter....just sitting in a peaceful little meadow in the middle of the city  with my watercolors and pen. 

The meadows of the PNW are miraculous to this very Eastern Washingtonian, (Pomeroy Washington in Garfield County, to be exact).  Not only are they lush and full of clovers and wildflowers, but THERE ARE NO RATTLESNAKES!

Let's say hello to summer....it's on the wane already and we'll need to fix it in our hearts to help us brave the rains of coming winter.  And, of course, if it does rain on the 2oth, all bets are off.

 And, by the way, whoever sent me that case of beer via FedEx (with no message).....A big thankyou!  Manna from heaven.  Who needs roses. (I have my own)

 

Green Oceans

I was raised in a small town in a valley between these hills.

And this is the ending triplet stanza for a sestina I wrote about going home for a visit.

Wind parts the grasses, revealing the lines of crumbling foundations.
A dust devil swirls and ripples the wheat, like the stir of inventions
  still turning and flashing, the green fields of my mind..

 

 When I went back this June, I  almost unnerved by the silence and the empty sweep of clouds and wind over the land. I belong in the Palouse, I was born and raised there, but at the same time...never at home in this vastness and quiet.

I want a simple life...to be able to walk in safety to the grocery and the library and to have enough land to root around in.  But not this simple. I like having real water ocean nearby, not an ocean of grain.

Summer's Lease , Lesson 4, CandP Coffee watercolor

To enhance the quality of the day... that is the highest of the arts...Henry Thoreau

Ollala Path                                                                               © Jennifer McCabe Carrasco 5/18/10

I really like the black and white version better...Lunar Black Watercolor Primatek, Daniel Smith.

Lesson 4   Watercolor values.

1. Reading ..37 to 38...French Style values...start light...add more and more glazes to painting.or drawing.  How many values do you see?  color?   Look at Tiepolo drawings.

 How can you glaze over a painting to  unify it and keep it from being too “jumpy”.  Best glazes...aureolin yellow, cobalt blue, and Rose madder genuine. (Look on page 37.  Look at glazes on pg. 37....where were they applied?

2.  Look at lunar black value studies,,,,can glaze over and over to get a deep black.  Now, match a color in the strip  to the value....squint!   poke hole in value strip. Show with black plexiglass.   Look at Mitch’s color chart.

Give out color chips. How would you make this color from primaries?  I am giving you 3 colors... and match them to your value strip and.reproduce the color using only your primaries.  Make sure the value is correct. Paper punch on their value strips so you can see without distractions.  Show me your colors before you go on to the next project.

3,  When you finish, look at your value study of your waterscape.  Is there anything you need to correct in the values?  Remember....usually, the sky is the lightest...then the water or the horizontal plane.  Then the slope, and elements in the vertical are often the darkest. But remember, even within the very darkest shapes, there are variations .

Ollala Path 1                                                                   © Jennifer McCabe Carrasco 5/18/10

4. Paint your waterscape.....working in 4 values of color in the broad shapes.  For example, if one shape is mostly the darkest value...then paint in that shape any color in that darkest value.  (Some colors have a wider value range than others...i.e.....blue or green or purple goes from the lightest value to a very dark  value.  Yellow goes from very light to medium dark before it chickens out and becomes something else.  In a very dark shape, yellow would not work.

Look at the yellow in this painting by John White Alexander.

With your own painting, don’t worry about “Real” or local color.....think about value and temperature....cool (recedes) hot (advances)Work large brush first....top to bottom, light to dark.

Assignment: Re-read 66 to 67 carefully.

CandP Watercolor class #4 Green thoughts in a Green Shade

 Jerry drawing                                                                 ©Jennifer M. Carrasco  5/15/10

  Lunar Black Primatek watercolor paint (Daniel Smith)..washed on 300 lb. Arches.....then LIGHTLY, LIGHTLY apply some color watercolor glazes over the top.   Sort of like after Dorothy got whisked off to Oz.  Although, I think the black and white type of rendering with granulating paint  is quite chic.      

The best way to show depth is to have variation in values. The best way to learn this is to paint without color... (Tom Lynch) 

Jerry drawing                                                                 ©Jennifer M. Carrasco  5/15/10

Value does all the work and color gets all the glory. Unknown quote.

Lesson 3...Water color and Water.  The "Green Thoughts" is a quote from the poem, The Garden, byAndrew Marvel.

1.  Would people be interested in a coaching type watercolor class?
Look at waterfalls....lay them out and make suggestions. Show pictures again of my steps...then show Marsden Hartley's waterfall.  He just got in there and let 'er rip! Bold, direct and almost abstract.

Ask about pigments reading...stain glaze? Use for first wash...can lift only for a short while.Sedimentary, granulating and opaque.? Name a few...good for rocks!...let move, don’t overwork  Hand out pigment chart.
2.  Discuss frisket and maskoid  (show leaf frisket)  ...would suggest using old brush for liquid frisket, (rubbed in soap first) and applying that way.  Look again at brushes.....fan brush is not appropriate for watercolor.  When you scrub with something like a fan brush, it forces pigment into the paper where it dies, and because of the bristle shape you have no control in making marks.  It’s for blending with oils.

3. Brush movement...Show Homer..rounds and riggers are good for squiggles. Flats are good for sideways marks and chunks of color or value. (Show on example). Demo.  The flat 2D surface...it is a flat plane....the surface of the water!

4. Values....in landscapes and sea scapes.  Show Albala’s diagram of planes.  When the sun is shining, the sky is usually the lightest value, the water the next value, and vertical and slanted areas will be the darkest.  Show examples in Trevor Chamberlain’s book. (flop a tissue over the example so students can see)....then tell them to Squint!!!!  When a plane changes, the value changes. (show “bendable” strip of a single grey value...how it changes the value of the grey when the strip is bent into planes.).

5.  Make a four value watercolor strip.  Leave a moat between each value!

6. Flop tissue on your seascape and  the shapes you see....Exterior shapes...simple straight and curved lines. No minor details!  Draw some interior contour lines that describe the planes and curves of some of the shapes....a topography of sorts. Bend paper to show example. “Color” in the 4 values (show Mitch’s design) with your pencil and then do the same thing with lunar black on watercolor paper.

Assignment.....Re-read 36 and 37 of Jan Hart’s book.

-on painting a watercolour...
Make the best of an emergency. (John Singer Sargent) 

©Jennifer M. Carrasco 5/17/10  All blog entries on this site, visual or intellectual, are the property of Jennifer M. Carrasco (unless stated otherwise) and cannot be reproduced or used without her written permission

Anna Akhmatova Swimming

"......Anya had grown tall and graceful, with long, thick, straight dark hair and beautiful white hands. Her gray eyes looked out of an almost unnaturally pale face.  Swimming in the dark, still waters of the ponds of Tsarskoye Selo, she (seemed) like some mermaid or water nymph and Gumilyov was...entranced by this image.(Amanda Haight, Anna Akhmatova: A Poetic Pilgrimage" pg. 8)

Summer's Last Sigh...Watercolor class #5

There's a grove in Lincoln Park that opens up like a cathedral...the branches are gothic supports for the sky ceiling, the floor is laid with laths of green and gold,  and in the afternoon, the sun is a giant golden monstrance on an altar of leaves.

Water Color Class # 5.....

Not a lot of instruction for this class...just reminders of working from light to dark, large to small shapes, top to bottom, background to forground.  Remember, this is just a set of guidelines for traditional transparent watercolor.  With any medium, there are many different approaches. 

No pronouncements from on high from this woman.

Lesson 5.......Review and Landscape.

Look at finished assignments.....Show types of paper. Different weights and the challenges of working with each...and the hot press, cold press and rough with the different qualities...

Review....hand out “Maxims.... Value, relative size, grouping, negative space, etc.

Choose a Landscape from the photographs I brought.  Interpret it with your watercolor.  Remember, where the water ends is your horizon line.
Do a thumbnail first (show sample) of three values in pencil...light, medium and dark on the same format. (show sample)
Don’t use any color straight from the tube!

Show mine...start light...light to dark., top to bottom, small to large, etc.  Match the VALUE with whatever color you are using.

For the next class, please bring one 1/4 section of GOOD PAPER and two 1/8 sections of GOOD PAPER already taped.

Next class will be the last of this series.  Will start the next six units on October 27th....let me know if you are planning to join us.  I need ten people to make a class.

....and my Boston ivy is burning out of control on my concrete garden wall....

Light in the trees

I tried again with my sun through the late summer trees, and I'm happier with this.  I think I'll do a series of these pieces.  This is probably closer to my true self as an artist.  Not the subject, but the approach....a little messy, more emotional, more abstract. I can do the exquisite,  controlled pieces  for clients, but for this personal work  I want the feeling, not every leaf.  Transcendant yearning, awe.

"Oh how that glittering taketh me!"....Robert Herrick

©Jennifer M. Carrasco 9/25/09  All blog entries on this site, visual or intellectual, are the property of Jennifer M. Carrasco (unless stated otherwise) and cannot be reproduced or used without her written permission.