Monday, April 2, 2012

SKETCHES FROM MY TRAVEL JOURNAL

I returned from a 5 week trip to the lower 48 last month.  I visited friends and relatives in Arizona, Texas, and Florida.  As usual, I took my journal/sketchbook.  Below are some of my sketches.  I included some brown pages in my handmade book to encourage me to use gouache.


The desert across from my friend Mary's home in Ajo, Arizona....


 I was fascinated with the plants in the desert.  Here are some listed that I saw on a hike in Tucson and the Jojoba I brought to the house and painted...


 

 this tiny lupine, almost like the lupines at home but much smaller, from the desert near Ajo....


The mission church in Ajo, now a museum.... 



An afternoon and Canyon Lake near San Antonio, Texas.  







 In Lake Wales, Florida visiting my  brother, I found a wildlife preserve a short walk away full of unknown trees that I tried to identify.  I painted this that I'm pretty sure is Pignut Hickory.


Almost home, in Juneau, I spent a Saturday morning with the Plein Rein Painters.   Instead of facing the elements, we painted from a studio on Douglas Island across from town.