Forces of Nature

Forces of Nature, originally uploaded by apple-pine.

We had some gorgeous weather during last week or so. And Ginkgo trees are marking the change of season by brightening everything around them with yellowest yellows. There was no way I could miss this so I grabbed my new sketchbook (handmade, I will write about it later - when I am done posting from moleskine ;), some sketching gear and my son.

It happened to be our first plein air experience together. Before this it would be either me drawing and trying to make him not draw in my sketchbook - or I would surrender and let him go through a few pages doodling things while we are in the park. This time I actually took his sketchbook (he has a special one ;) and brush and decided that I will share my paints.

It was OK ;) Each of us ended up with a spread covered with paint and scribbles. We had a nice conversation about the color of the trees and an argument about usage of the water and what to do with waterbrush. Ended up running after some things scattered by the wind or thrown away by accident and also killed one of my waterbrushes :( (it was time for it to go - and it's on the list of things Santa would probably bring me this year but there were some emotions spilled about the accident too ;)

I learned that forces of nature (in this case - wind and my son) should be respected and carefully planned for. So here is an image from my today's plein air set: I added some clips to hold pages, some string to hold together my water spray bottle and it's cap and another string to replace rubber band holding my sketchbox together and some extra wiping material for mess and spills ;)

Click on the image to see some notes ;)