Afternoon Colors: the Front

The following photos were all taken within 45 minutes, as a storm front rolled in and out:

Morning Sky Colors

Witch Hazel Branch Drawing

Detail of a witch hazel branch drawing, in progress. The leaves are dry and brown, curled up or frozen in frail gestures, crumbling at a touch. 

I find myself drawing very gently, as if the pencil tip pressure might shatter the leaves.

The Ribbed Sky

“...the bones of cirrus clouds stand out like ribs against the sky - an angel is stretching...”

― John Geddes, A Familiar Rain

“Aren't the clouds beautiful? They look like big balls of cotton... I could just lie here all day, and watch them drift by... If you use your imagination, you can see lots of things in the cloud formations... What do you think you see, Linus?"
"Well, those clouds up there look like the map of the British Honduras on the Caribbean... That cloud up there looks a little like the profile of Thomas Eakins, the famous painter and sculptor... And that group of clouds over there gives me the impression of the stoning of Stephen... I can see the apostle Paul standing there to one side..."
"Uh huh... That's very good... What do you see in the clouds, Charlie Brown?"
"Well, I was going to say I saw a ducky and a horsie, but I changed my mind!”

― Charles M. Schulz, The Complete Peanuts, Vol. 5: 1959-1960

THE Blue Ridge Mountains

This evening a photo of a quiet pastel-colored landscape

and a few days ago... the same Blue Ridge Mountains, different light, 

different day, different time...more to come

Looking Back

Sorting through some old sketchbooks I came across this pencil drawing I did of one of my daughters when she was only 6 months old, asleep on the ferry from Ocracoke - strengthens my conviction to get some drawing and painting of the girls underway immediately, before I blink again and they leave the nest.