Carrasco Studio

Watercolor Triptych. A Day on the Llano River

I finally mailed off my Austin client's watercolor triptych.  I framed them with cherry and left extra wide mats, and I think he'll like them.  My client wanted a realistic rendering and wanted a local butterfly included, so I spent some time developing a technique for working with glazes and textures appropriate to the subject.  Here's a close up of my left painting. 

I got better as I went along.

The effort of coming up with detailed work was helpful, since I plan to do a series of loose paintings of the same... closeups and  and more abstract.   I spent  actual time on the river and took many photos and did many sketches.  There was a gentle wind, and I kept singing to myself, "Hear the wind blow..."

The Llano River and I became well acquainted.

My right painting.

My center painting.

...and my left painting.

The center painting is wider...12"....and the left and right paintings are 9" wide.  All are 30 " long.  The right painting is the river coming "in", the wider center painting is the point of view, and the left painting is the river going "out"

I was taken by the granite rocks, the transparency of the water, and the animals and the colors of the underwater strata.  Since the rocks are metamorphic and have been carved by rain and wind, they have strange inclusions and holes.....the navel(s) of the world.

    
 ..... ikebana-like arrangements of pools, rocks and grasses.

and pockets of still water and creatures....

I am fascinated by the river and water in general, and find the transparency and the difficulty of watercolor both appropriate and  challenging for the reflections, clarity, the torrents and deep still pools.  I will get better.  I can hardly wait to start on my series.

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.

 

 

EXcellent TEXas EXcursion....Mural making, Big Bend, Dinosaurs and Donald Judd

Bear with me.  This will have to be a wide and spacious entry since it is about Texas.

First of all, my friend (since we were 14!) Alan had me fly down to Austin to paint a mural on his 5' x 9' entry wall.  He initially wanted something abstract with a nude, but it turned out that he wanted something impressionist (he's an engineer and doesn't do artspeak)and he chickened out on the nude.  so we regrouped, walked around his property.....

.....went over to the Llano river..... clear clear water running over granite in streams....

and I sketched and pondered and came up with a plan he liked.  It also had to have bluebonnets (mandatory in Texas murals) and three "Queen" butterflies....one for Alan, one for me, and one for his 102 year mother. (also a friend of mine) 

In five days I was done, and like God, I rested.  Alan supplied me with Shiner beer and Texas Bar Bee Que (part of my contract) and at night we killed scorpions on his big back porch (a plague for new construction in Hill Country)...20 scorpions in five days.  Also, a pack of coyotes on the trail of something tasty came howling by my window at   2 pm one night.  I thought I was surrounded by wolves.  Nature rules at Alan's place.

Then my friend Norma Jean came down from her home in San Angelo to pick me up and return to Austin to get Phil at the airport.  Norma has been my friend for 45 years...we were roomates in Peace Corps, and I was there when her twins were born.  We went to her daughter Natasha's place and stayed the night, left early the next morning for Terlingua, down on the Texas Mexican border at the west entrance of Big Bend National Park.....600 miles of Mostlly Flat.....through Fredricksburg (adorable), to Fort Stockton on the killer highway 10, Marathon and dropping down through Alpine and on to Terlingua just at sunset.

We checked into the El Dorado Hotel...a homey place that Willie Nelson would have liked....and went out to watch the sunset over the mountains with liquid refreshments and lawn chairs.

Later we went into the bar to listen to music, have a delicious burger, and later View Art.

The next day we drove up to stay in Big Bend National Park (60 miles) with our friends Larry and Gary.  The room was small so it was quite cosy.  Gary and Norma drug their sleeping bags out to sleep on the porch, and Larry, Phil and I snored in harmonic chords.  D-flat, I believe.

Big Bend is an extinct volcano, and you can see Mexico through the awesome notch in the crater.  It has javelinas, skunks, bears and the largest community of mountain lions in the USA.  Uneasy lies the back of the neck of those who sketch alone in Big Bend.  I was always on the alert in the midst of such stunning natural beauty.

The next day we hiked 2.5 miles into the desert to see dinosaur bones.  I blanked out the location name because people steal the fossils and sell them for money.  It was hot, very interesting and full of what Phil called " all those goddamn plants with stickers." Our friends Gary and Larry are men of wide ranging interests, so I learned a lot about the wild life, the history of the area both geologic and human, and the plants.  I LOVED the hike and I did pretty well on my new hip.

People ask me how I found time to do these journal drawings.  Well, I memorized what I could and then spent a lot of time drawing in the back seat of Norma's KingKab on the long stretches.  Texas roads are usually very straight and smooth.  Washington roads are curvey and bumpy....if I drew in the car here I would throw up.

After  Big Bend we drove to Marathon and on to Marfa.  I wanted to see Donald Judd's installations.  He was from New York and is a famous minimalist/conceptualist sculpter (think I got that right). He also started the Chinati foundation there.

It was not Phil and Norma's thing.  Lots of comments about concrete and aluminum packing cases.  However, I enjoyed it.  Very peaceful, and there were lots of dead birds (flew into the plate glass) around the perimeter of the buildings housing the aluminum cubes, and some fantastic grasshoppers.  Shadows and highlights kept moving with the changing light.

After Chinati, we drove through charming Ft. Davis and up to the McDonald Observatory.  Phil and I decided we wanted to come back to that for a whole day of exploring....many wonderful huge telescopes and night skies to see.  I bought myself a sky chart in the gift shop, but it won't do me much good in cloudy Seattle.

We ended up in San Angelo where Norma and her husband Donald were wonderful hosts. Norma has a Huge Garden where she grows heritage veggies and flowers and takes her produce to the farmer's market. I picked peppers for her and Phil helped her cover her tender plants from a threatening frost.  Norma also took me for a massage from her favorite masseus.  His technique was one inch away from Rolfing but I was brave and felt wonderful afterward.

We also went to the water lily garden and of course I went nuts.  I met the man, Mr. Landon, who set it up, and he is very concerned that this national treasure (most complete collection in the USA) is going to be closed by the Texas Legislature.....they have decided that any water plant not native to Texas has to be destroyed.  If you love waterlilies and want to save this contained  collection, contact http//www.internationalwaterlilycollection.com. Mr. Landon said that years ago he planted several species in the Concho river, but the turtles thought they were lunch and ate them all up overnight.  In short, the lilies are not invasive.

After three days in San Angelo, we returned to Austin and stopped by Alan's to pick up my paints and luggage. In Austin,   Natasha arranged for us to meet her twin brother Bernabe and his lovely wife Lauren at a Taco Express (fabulous food and atmosphere).

Me, Phil, Norma, Madeline, Brandon and Natasha and Donald.

And Lauren and Bernabe.

And then we went to the Capitol Building and also to the highlight of Phil's trip, Lance Armstrong's bicycle shop.  Then we flew home.  Jinglejanglejingle.  Git along, dawgies.

Oh yeah.  I forgot to mention.  I made Alan a paint shirt like mine.

 

 

 

 

Art Among Armadillos. Rooting Around for Mural Directions

A friend of mine since highschool has commissioned me to paint a 5'x9' mural in the entry of his new home in the Texas foothills.  Usually I paint on canvas and ship the painting out, but this time he said he wanted me to paint on site and install my "aura" as well as my mural.  Of course it sounds like fun.

And, after I finish, Phil will fly down and we'll take off for a trip with my best friend Norma (from San Angelo) to fabulous Big Bend....one of the wonders of the world, in my opinion.  If my friend, (I'll call him "A") wants to go, he can come too. We'll go at the end of October, so the weather should be perfect.

Anyhow, we are right at the beginning of the mural design process, and I thought some of my subscribers and Facebook friends might find it interesting.  In fact, I would love to hear comments and input. Please!

Here goes....................

 

Dear A.
For your 5'x9' entry mural, I have included 4 possible ROUGH designs to give me some direction in where you want to go. You mentioned that it would be fun to have an abstraction instead of the usual cattle grazing in bluebonnets mural...something different to "annoy people".  Love it.

So, instead of my usual initial pencil drawings, I did them in color, since you stated you wanted the design to be abstract, and color is so important in an abstraction.  Abstraction, to me, is  where nothing  recognizable as figurative....the painting is geometric or a loose color field with what we painters call "marks". The language of paint and color...value, color, texture and shape are paramount.  But, to a lot of people , abstraction can mean stylization, a loose sort of rendering or an impressionist approach. I present these beginning color sketches are to help me understand your vision and show me a direction for your mural. You should be able to  see how I  went from figurative to increasingly abstract. You can pick one or pick and choose...your wishes (with my input) are my command.

You sent me some photos of your house in the hill country near Austin, and some of your landscape...Texas natural with some of the flowers, the live oaks and the cedars.  I have been in Austin several times and loved it....it's freewheeling openess and mix of people and cultures, and the land, especially the land.  I was fascinated when a friend took me out to her acreage and we waded down her spring in the shade of the oaks and cedars....the ancient aquifer water dripping  down in trickles and falls from  the limestone ledges , the lush line of growth and creatures along the spring, the heat and the sound and presence of insects and birds.( Ack, the ticks!)

So, what I tried to include in your renderings....all except the last true abstract version.....(1) the spring and pools, (2) the rounded pillowy shapes of the live oaks and the cedars (especially striking to a Pacific Northwest native used to the sharp points of firs and hemlocks), (3) the purple blue of the blue bonnet wild flowers, (4) the stacked limestone ledges, and the (5)  hot blue of the sky and  (6) the glare of the Texas sun. And, of course, (7) some nymphs (except in the abstraction.)  De rigueur for a landscape. 

#1 is impressionist and loose, the next, #2 and #3, are more stylized, and #4, of course would be the abstraction.

When I asked you about the bodacious level of the nymphs, you said you wanted them not so defined.  A gleaming haunch seen through the water, a giggling girl leaning around a tree.  After all, your mother does visit, although I know your 102 yr. old mother. She is sharp as a tack,  has probably has seen it all and when it comes to actual seeing , doesn't see much at this point anyhow.

 Let me know your wishes, oh Tall Person among Cedars.  We'll come to a fabulous conclusion.  Hope to hear from you soon.  J

Do offer suggestions....we appreciate any feedback, viewers and friends, and remember, these are ROUGHS!