Leaves, Leaves, Everywhere...

In the words of Carl Sagan, as you look across our yard, you'll see "billions and billions" of leaves during the Fall season.

Mostly, to start off with, it's the Maple, Birch and nut trees that drop their leaves around this time of year.

 Out back there are some Sassafras trees and small bushes that toss their leaves around with abandon.

The Pine trees way out back start pitching their cones in later summer, as the Oak trees start dropping those acorns, and it gets harder and harder to walk across the lawn without slipping and sliding on the nuts and cones.

Later in the season, seemingly the minute I've raked up the last leaf on the lawn, the Oaks start dropping their leaves.

Many hang on until the first snow so that I'm greeted in the Spring with the same activity...rake and toss, rake and toss.

One other use for the annual pile of soon-to-decay flora is to paint pictures with them.

So, here I present this year's Fall Collection.

Take a minute to write back and let me know what you think about them.

The ones I get onto paper will last long into the winter...maybe even for a bunch of years.

By hitting the word "comments" at the bottom of this post you can let me know your favorites or ask me questions, such as, "Don't you have anything better to do?"

 I have about 15 paintings represented here.

They are all watercolors, using just three primary colors...red, yellow and blue.

 Sometimes they come out on the first try.

Sometimes, they don't work at all and I end up throwing away a whole bunch of "mistakes."

Well, I don't actually get rid of them...they go into a big pile downstairs that my wife looks at saying, "Can't you just throw these away?"

My response is that I might see something in the painting later on that I'll like...can't take the chance of getting rid of a masterpiece!

 After about 15 years of painting these things, I do have quite the stash of saved mistakes.

Perhaps, someday, when historians reconstruct my studio to educate future artists they'll think they stumbled upon art treasures...might make a few bucks then!

Here and there you'll see:

Oak to the left.



Maple to the right.


Another Oak below to the left....




 And, another Oak here to the right.




My wife came up with the idea for the "Ghost Leaves"  below.


They take over our house just before Halloween...a fun leaf to have hanging around.  Maybe a little bit scary?

 Dark and spooky?

Surprised?

 

 Shocked?





                   A ghost, aghast?






The most scary thing of all?  I just looked out the window and another million leaves just dropped....looks like I've got a lot of painting to do!
                                 

Poet's Walk

Poet's Walk

*check out the link below

Today we decided to take a walk

Somewhere near, where we could also talk.

We got in the car and headed west.

Took my car...heated seats are the best.

Just under an hour and we were there;

Easy to find, after paying bridge fare.

Only a few cars in the parking lot.

Little company on the trails is what we got.

On the web we took time to check out the place

And wanted something easy, no hills to face.

Trails were level, 'bout two miles out and back,

But the meadows and flowers the place seemed to lack.

Of course, it is winter and most plants are dead

And the birds were smarter than us to be there, instead

They probably had flown to places that were sunnier.

The fact we expected spring scenes made it funnier.

The wind blew cold and the bridge blocked the view

And sightings of other fauna were few,

But the thing that ended up perplexing us the most

Was the lack of who we expected as hosts.

The name of the place had us thinking we'd see

A poet sitting near or under each tree.

Instead, although we looked real hard,

The place that billed them was missing their bards!

*http://scenichudson.org/parks/poetswalk

The Whine Trail

Living in the Hudson Valley of New York State allows us the opportunity to visit a number of local wineries.

Some of our favorite are Baldwin Vineyards, http://baldwinvineyards.com/, Millbrook Winery, http://millbrookwine.com/index.php, and the Robibero Family Vineyards, http://www.robiberofamilyvineyards.com/...there are many others and you can find them by doing a web search of Hudson Valley wineries.

When my wife announced today that she was thinking of "doing a trail," I thought she meant the wine trail and I quickly suited up for the trip!

We have recently hiked and cross country skied and she said that she wanted to take it easy today.  I thought, "Nothing better than sampling some of the local winery treats," and was in the car before she unlocked it.

We drove quite a ways heading north, the opposite direction of where the wineries are located from our house.  But, as we all know that my sense of direction is way off, I figured she knew a shortcut.

We drove into a parking lot, with just a few cars, and she popped out of the car and instructed me to follow her. 

I was a little surprised to find myself walking across a frozen lake, with no buildings in sight, but figured she was in a hurry to get to the wine tasting building.  As we all know, the quickest route is a straight line!

We walked across the full length of the lake, and I kept my questions to myself.  I know better than to ask her, "Are we there, yet?"  I followed along as we took a trail off the lake and headed into the woods!

I did see signs for "Trail," and figured we were gaining on the vineyards.  All trails lead to wineries, no?

I didn't see any little grape icons or other wording that would leave one to believe that vino was in sight, but continued in trust.

The winding trail took us up and down, around the lake, and I noticed that there were woods everywhere.  Wondered where the grape vines were.

But, I know that some winemakers import grapes, due to the short growing season up here and the lack of many varieties of grapes that thrive in this area, so I pushed on.

I finally spoke up and said, "I see signs for Trail, and Trail Marker, and for Foot Trail, but I don't see anything that says Wine Trail!"

"Stop your whining," my wife replied, "We're enjoying the day, and the snow, and it's not always about wine, you know!"

Not always about wine? Why did I come? And who's whining?  I was making a comment about the markers, thinking we were headed to wine country!

And, why would I be trekking mile after mile if there weren't a reward?

About another half a mile up the trial, I spied a marker that gave me hope!

The tree marker was slightly atilt, a sure sign to me that someone had to have been drinking to put it on the tree that way.

I was energized to push further along.

About another half mile passed before I spotted the next marker...again, no words leading me to believe that we were any closer to my anticipated destination, but a sure sign that it was a possibility. 

It took me a few minutes to realize that I was laying on the ground looking up at this marker, having taken a fall on the trail.

As I lay there, I was now thinking that I really needed a drink...you know, to help me to my feet and soothe the soreness from the fall.

My wife said, "You're all right.  Just get up.  We're almost to the end!"

"Almost to the end," I asked, "You mean almost to the winery?"

She again expressed the opinion that I should get up, "Before you freeze to death," and I turned on my side to make the move upwards and thought I spotted something under the trees.

Could it be?  Had we found an outside winery?  Wouldn't the wine freeze?  Maybe someone just placed it there, knowing that we were on our way?

Now, I've heard of "Winter Wine," and I think I have even taste-tested it during a recent trip to the Finger Lakes. 

Spotting the bottles laid together out in the woods, in the snow, gave new meaning.

It meant it was already chilled!

I squinted again at the display and things seemed to get blurry. 

I asked my wife if she thought there was a corkscrew in the vicinity.  She told me to, "Stop fooling around.  Are you able to get up?"

I thought she said, "No fooling, there's a table set up!"

That, of course, encouraged me to muster every ounce of energy I had left and I dragged myself to my feet!  I could see what she was talking about!

I was ready to sample the offerings of the Winter Woods Winery.

After I was on my feet, I turned to make my way to the table and it all disappeared...I couldn't have imagined it, and I didn't have a thing to drink, honestly, but it was all gone.

Again, I heard, "Stop your whining.  We're not on the wine trail, but I'm starting to think we've found a similar one!" 

Off she tromped towards the parking lot.

As we were about the leave the trail, I spotted the next sign. 

Was it still the clunk on the head?

A sign with which I'm sure my wife had something to do, or is there really a new trail system?

Rakish Behavior

Can you believe I'm raking the roof?

I spent two months raking leaves off the lawn, now I have to rake things off the top of the house?  What's next, raking the trees?

The artist in me is saying, "Go indoors,warm up by the wood stove to warm the body and conjure up a creative project to warm the soul, and put on some good music, like the Bee Gees."

An artist needs time and space!

The wife next to me is saying, "You need space?  Go outdoors and do something about that snow that's forming icicles that are hanging off the roof!  And that'll take some time, too!  When you're done you can think about playing with your paints and listen to your Bee Gees!"

They're my Bee Gees.  No one else in the house listens to them, unless I'm playing them and then they're forced to.  The tunes stay with you...at times, I don't always remember the lyrics, but the energy of the music is good and gets one moving...Jive Talkin' is good roof raking music.  I have to figure out how to hook up an outdoor speaker!  Just like the best of "Stayin' Alive" is now the recommended beat for CPR, Jive Talkin' could be the next snow removal tool!

Of course, I had to make up some of my own lyrics..so as you listen to the guys belt out this tune, you can follow along with my verse below!

Wife Talkin'

 It's just my wife talkin'. She's making me work, yeah.

Wife talkin', should wear a disguise.

Wife talkin', she don't understand, yeah.

Wive talkin', work before fun.

Oh, my wife, you'll never know

Just what rakes do to me.

Oh, my wife, make me do so much;

It's gonna take away my energy.

With all your wife talkin', you're making me work, yeah.

Glaring sun gets in my eyes.

Nobody believes what I say.

It's just your wife talkin' that stops all my play!

(Bridge)

Oh, my wife, you're so good at finding work to do.

There you go with your fancy lists,

Leavin' me lookin' like an overworked fool.

With all your wife talkin', you're making me work, yeah.

Wife talkin', should wear a disguise.

Wife talkin', she don't understand, yeah.

Wife talkin', work before fun.

You know now, work talkin' is all very fine, yeah.

Wife talkin' just isn't a crime.

And if there's somebody you'll love till you die,

Then all that wife talkin' just tears up your eye.

More to come on that...

Meanwhile, back at the snowed in farm.  I was allowed back in the house, but was too beat to do anything creative.  You probably can see by the photos here that there are no sidewalks to shovel, just a 300 foot driveway!  And, the weather forecaster is saying, "More snow this week," so I'll be sure to come up with some more lyrics (as long as you don't tell my wife I'm writing these things)!

Keeping My Whites White!

I got inspired by a few comments that I received in regards to yesterday's blog and decided to try a watercolor of trees in winter.

As we live in the country, there's no shortage of material for this type of endeavor.  I also looked at a couple of pictures in some magazines we received and then took out a blank piece of watercolor paper.  No doubt you remember blank spaces from my previous post.

There are two methods for keeping white spaces white when doing a watercolor.

The first is to paint around all of the spaces that you want to remain white (not as easy as it sounds); the second is to apply something called Maskoid to protect the white spaces.  Maskoid is a masking fluid that dries so you can paint over it and not worry about dirtying the white spaces.

On the right here you'll see my white paper with Maskoid applied where I want to save all of the snow highlights I decided that I wanted in my picture.

I didn't do a drawing ahead of time (don't tell anyone).  I sort of drew the places where the highlights would be on the trees and ground with the Maskoid, so I guess you could say I Maskoid-ed a drawing!  It's not cheating...it's being creative!

I had actually given some thought to stopping right here, framing it and calling it "Winter Study."  Always a good thing to stop before you ruin a good thing, but my friend Guy would say, "Take a chance and make it better."

I've taken many chances in the past and have a stack of rejects to prove that I tried!

Anyway, on to the next step.

For this, I mixed some colors in my little tray that my friend Carol from New Paltz gave me and made a dark wash to lay out where the trees will be.

The nice thing is that you can paint right over the Maskoid after it dries (it's like plastic on a sofa) and the highlights are still there.  Really!  They're under the Maskoid.  You're going to have to trust me on this!

Two things about watercolor.  First, you have to remember to give the Maskoid and subsequent painting steps time to dry before you go on to the next step.

Secondly, the time allowed for drying is just about the right amount of time to make a batch of margaritas or to put together some cheese and crackers and aerate a nice Shiraz!

Here, on the right, I thought I would share what my paint tray looks like at this point.

I generally only use three colors, primaries of course, and love cobalt blue!  Along with that blue, a cadmium red and a cadmium yellow.

The three combined will make just about any color you might need.  I don't use black or white, but have been known to eat half a dozen black and white cookies!  They're the best.

After a glass of wine and some snacks...I mean after the first tree layout has dried, I go back and paint in a few more smaller trees, such as those that would be in the background, and put in some shadowing to represent folds in the snowbanks up front, shadows in front of trees, and start to show some differences between tree types.

Here you'll see Hemlock, Spruce and White Pine, Sassafras, Maple, Ash, Oak, and Elm trees.  

Trust me!  I know trees.

Under the snow, there is grass, acorns by the ton (of course), ferns, moss, trees that fell and are rotting, and many leaves that I didn't bother to rake up this Fall.  I gave up.

Oh, by the way, the third tree on the right, the big one?  There's a squirrel climbing up the backside!  

Can't see it? 

Sorry.  Maybe next time I'll paint facing the other side of the trees.

Now we'll start to add some character to the thing and add some color.  As shown on the right just below here, I do a wash of blue where the sky would be, add a little blue to the trees, for contrast and then some blue in the snow at the bottom where I've dripped paint across by mistake.  Trying to hold a brush and a wine glass at the same time, while mixing paint and thinking about the drawing can be very complicated...but, we always make the best of our mistakes and snow shadows do have a blue tint to them, no?

 

You can see here that the white spaces are still protected from the paint (and from the wine and the cracker crumbs).

The shiny stuff you see is the Maskoid that's still in place.  You have to imagine what the painting will look like when the Maskoid is taken off.  

Many times, I have to imagine that my painting isn't going to look anything like what I intended.  It hurts less if you're flexible.

You see, there have been times when I've been asked what I was painting and pointing straight ahead at the subject have still had the inquirer say, "I don't see that!"   I keep painting.

The nice thing about nature landscapes is that a they don't have to be exact representations...unless you're painting Mount Rushmore (and if you do, please use exterior paint and check with the park rangers first)...and we're not doing portrait work here, so most will buy the fact that this is titled "Winter Trees" and that there's snow here and there, even if it's not exactly as it is in my backyard.

The next part is the fun part!  I get to take the Maskoid off!  I do it by rubbing my fingers across the dried Maskoid.  There is a removal tool, something akin to a hard sponge, but I like the feel of the stuff peeling away and I get some exercise doing it.  

As a result, I have very, very strong fingertips!  I can tap so that it sounds like thunder!

When you get all of the Maskoid off, as pictured here on the left, you have exposed the white paper (it's not illegal, so don't worry), and can now think about what you're going to do next.  

Usually, a second margarita or a vino refill may come to mind, and that may give you more time to contemplate your next move.

I might mention here that it's important to keep your drink away from the water you use to clean off your brushes.  I only learned this one day working on an oil painting when I found myself reaching for what I thought was my drink and realized, from the smell, that I was about to take a swig of turpentine and my brushes were resting in a gin and tonic!  I can tell you that mixed drinks don't clean brushes well, and there's some sort of lead and other chemical poisoning information on paints in general that are important to heed.

Some people won't eat or drink while they're painting.  I say, why bother painting?

I digress.

Once the Maskoid is off, I paint branches below the white spaces where I want branches to be, put some blueish hues here and there to show shadows on the branches and play in the snow, adding things that I hope will make the painting better.

The next steps are very important.  At least, to me.

When I think I'm close to done, I put the painting away in another room and I don't look at it for 24 hours.  

Sometimes, I'm surprised with what I find.  

Once, I came back to a painting to find out my mother had tipped over the easel and put a hole through the canvas.  

Another time, I had left a watercolor standing up and some of the paint was still wet and it ran down the paper.  Several times I was certain someone had taken my beautiful work and left their reject!

On those wonderful occasions, you see a work that needs one or two things to be "people ready." 

So that's what I'm going to do with this one.  

We'll look at it again tomorrow.

As you can see by my little tray, on the left, I still have a bit of blue left and the darn stuff costs a bundle so I'll see what I can do to get it back in that little tube!  

 

Actually, it's okay if the colors dry a bit.  They can be re-wet and used again.

Wash your brushes, put the caps back on your paints and be sure your wine glass is empty...if that stuff dries up, all is lost!

Sidewalk-less Walks

We don't live near sidewalks, yet my wife likes to go for long walks.  So, we walk on the sides of our rural roads or we end up driving out to the hinterlands and we trek the sides of mountains.

It doesn't matter the season, when she gets the urge to "go for a walk," she'll most times want some scenery (other than houses on the side of our road) so we try to dress appropriately, pack up some snacks, jump in the car and head to a nearby park or preserve.

A favorite place is the Mohonk Preserve.  We're only fifteen minutes from several of their entry ways and there are plenty hiking trails.  Some are very easy, others necessitate legs and lungs of steel.  You can check them out here:

http://www.mohonkpreserve.org/

Another spot we frequent is Minnewaska State Park.  Formerly a private resort area, it became a State Park a number of years ago and my wife is the very proud owner of an Empire State Park Pass.  Paying an annual fee for that pass, she gets entry into state parks, and we've been to a few.  Here's some information about Minnewaksa:

http://nysparks.state.ny.us/parks/127/details.aspx

There are other parks we've visited, and hiked, and the important thing to remember is that you have to get out of the car and walk once you get there.  And, you're pretty much walking into the park so that you can walk out of the park.  There aren't any shops or cafes in the plan.

Today, we arrived at Minnewaska and decided we would visit the falls.

To get there, one parks in the lower lot.  Then, you walk back to the entry way, across the road, to get to the trail head.

I thought, as it was cold and it's a hike in and of itself from the parking lot to the trail head, that we should ask if there were valet service.
 
My wife enjoyed asking the question for me, as much as the gatehouse attendant enjoyed hearing it.  They both had a good laugh and then made me walk from and to the parking lot anyway, on top of the hike!

Here's another issue.  There are no sidewalks, just paths.  To boot, what's left of the path after winter starts is worn and packed areas...snow if you're lucky, ice if it's cold without snow.

I expressed the idea that the addition of heat tapes to the paths would be a great thing.

It would keep the paths from narrowing during the winter and reduce the issue of walking on icy spots.

Now, I don't want you to think that it's just me.  I think the wildlife would benefit from this, as well.  I didn't see a single animal on the trails today and I'm sure it's because they are aware of the conditions and don't want to fall.  A porcupine with its quills might be able to catch onto something to slow their slide, but furry and feathery fauna are in for a ride.

We did about an hour and a half out there and headed back to the car in pretty good shape.

I did have one other thought, when we were out there in the woods today,that I didn't share with my wife.  Right out there, by the water falls, in the middle of nature, how about a hot chocolate shop?  If we lived in a town with sidewalks, and went for a walk, we'd most likely end up at a cafe and be able to sit for a few and savor a hot cocoa with marshmallows. I think it's a natural. 

And, until we find our sidewalk paradise, I think I could be persuaded to go for more sidewalk-less walks, and put in the trek to and from the parking lot without complaint, and hazard the trails, if I knew that I could take a break at the hot chocolate cafe in the woods.