A Perfect Day in The Forest

I took my pocket gouache palette and small sketchbook on a hike. It was a perfect forest hike in the mountains with temperatures changing quickly. I saw lots of banana slugs, all sorts of mushrooms and many signs that this forest is shared by many creatures. 

Forest Bathing - My Report on the Holiday Break

Forest Bathing aka Shinrin-yoku is a great way to describe how I spent most of my in-between-holidays time this year: in nature, with minimum connection to the world outside, attending to what I hold dear, in good company. 

I hiked a wide range of landscapes, drew some on location, took naps, tried lots of interesting teas, cooked with new and well-tested recipes both, napped, drew some, looked at the sky a lot. Here are some of the sketches from this break:

Forest Diary

Sketching the redwood forests on the Pacific Coast as I hike is a speeding activity - but is always worth it - even if all I get to do is put a few lines on the page or spread some huckleberries as an illustration to what is happening (see process photos below)! Bits of text are usually added when I get to the table and glue and tape in my day's sketching bounty. The forest was wet and full of wonderful light and colors. I am ready to go there again! 

Chanterelles in gouache and sour cream.

I spent some wonderful time in a forest where we found some luminous chanterelles! I enjoyed sketching them with gouache and then cooking them with sour cream :)

Forest trip to start my holidays

I spent a few days in magnificently wet and colorful forests on the Pacific Coast near Mendocino. Mostly hiking - but also looking at a gorgeous ocean sunset, foraging for mushrooms, and cooking them after. 

More from the Mushrooming trip

Forests are such primal places - especially older ones with the multitude of layers opening up more and more as you let the place unfurl by being still. My love for sketching in the forest grows out of stillness that enraptures into a world I did not see before. Even with the smallest, fastest, simplest of sketches by the time I am done and ready to catch up to my party, the world around me is larger. There are more birds, everything suddenly is alive and not what it seemed before. 

I made a video flip-through these pages in my sketchbook:

Mushrooming - more!

 Here are more mushroom spreads from my sketchbook:

Muhsrooming

I spent a few days in the forest - looking at things and also looking for mushrooms. Here are some that I decided to bring with me home:

December 2014: When there was rain...

Sketchbook #79

This is resketch sketchbook - it's a kickstarter project to create sketchbooks from all sorts of paper leftovers. 7x9", lots of different papers, none are watercolor-friendly so far but I am taping in smaller pages with WC paper to compensate. 

Fun, challenging and different - what else might you wish for the New Year?

you can read more about the resketch idea here:
resketch.org/