A few initial sketches

I’ve been outside sketching most days despite the cold and damp weather and thought it was time to share a few drawings tonight and will post more as the days continue. After a full day outdoors in the cold, I was too tired to post the sketches from the first days here, so my goal is to start posting the work I am doing. More will follow tomorrow.

Each day I start with a drawing from observation, and then shifted to more conceptual abstractions -- explorations of the relationships between trees and water, the water cycle, and watersheds. Sometimes I can’t help but return to observational drawing like the last image here when the light was so dramatic. Frequently time or weather conditions prohibit completing the sketches but I try to at least get to the essence of what attracted me initially.

The trees are delicate lines — both trunk and roots—as usual I limit myself to a single line for a tree, no branches, or roots. Dots for rain, circle patterns emanating near base suggest chemical communication between trees. Starting to think about the water table as well. (See a note and a variation in color below.)

This sketch harkens back to a painting I made about 20 years ago when I was thinking about transformations in the water cycle. Trees became slender lines in a cross section of land and sky.

Drawn at the edge of Trout Lake, trying to capture the rapidly changing sky, and a short burst of light on the distant water. Its been a very cold week and that day was also windy with drizzle blowing in sporadically. I fought the wind to keep the pages in the sketchbook down while I worked. The water at the sandy edge was so pure and clean!