Molly Hashimoto

Arboretum Field Trip: Students' Work

Last week my class and I visited the Pinetum, which is part of the Arboretum--it's on the west side of Lake Washington Blvd, and contains a huge range of coniferous trees, including giant sequoias and redwoods. We found shelter from the light rain under those enormous trees; several students did work both outdoors and in the studio. I'm including several of their sketches and paintings here.
Even though most of us only stayed for 45 minutes, because of the rain, and retreated to the classroom, Sally Yeager opted to stay the entire time and completed this detailed sketch.
Atit Brown worked at home on a new painting based on one he had begun on location.

Mary Williams began this painting outdoors, and her impressionistic branches and foliage worked well with the rain and diffiuclt conditions.

Noel Kreicker sketched at the Pinetum and then worked on two different paintings at home. Drawing and painting quickly outdoors, and taking photos really gives an artist alot to work from once back in the studio.

 

Watercolor Travel Journal: More Student Work

It's been so much fun seeing the styles and subjects of my students this quarter. To the left is Susan Hamilton's sketchbook page of lighthouses. Each sketch is linked to the others not only through subject matter, but through use of color.
To the right is Carol Mayes' sketch of a street on Prince Edward Island, and below is a small interpretation of Venice.

To the right is Chris Kopet's lively watercolor of a chair with dramatic cast shadows.

Chris handled windows, cast shadows and reflections beautifully in this sketch of a flower box in strong light.

Travel Journal: Students' Work

Eric Ramhorst spent two sessions of class on this carefully rendered sketch of Albrecht Durer's house. Note the half timbers and stonework on the structure, and one of my favorite touches, the signature done in the style of Durer! Below are two facing pages in Sally Yeager's sketchbook--she deliberately kept the pen line the prominent element in these sketches of lanterns and buildings in Japanese structures.

A Blogging Exchange: Handmade Journal

Handmade, a new feature on Typepad,  gave me the opportunity to befriend a fellow blogger, Briciole, who writes wonderful posts on food, especially Italian, and the meanings of Italian words. She also writes about her handmade books and photographs.  We exchanged art, and this is the beautiful handmade journal that she gave me. The cover is a heavy-weight flax paper, the signatures are sewn on tape, and the clasp is a horn bead. The size is perfect for tucking in my purse for short outings where I don't have time to do anything complex, but yesterday I decided to inaugurate this journal gift with a small pen and watercolor sketch of a seed packet given to me by a friend who has shared the bounty of her p-patch with me in past years. Every year I ask her how my favorites, her Italian flat beans, are doing all summer, and on the best years she rewards me with a big basket of beans.  This year I'm turning part of my garden over to vegetables, and my friend thought these Italian beans would be perfect for me to try.  I love the colors on this seed packet--the complementary violet and lime green are so appealing.  These two gifts called for a heartfelt entry from me!

Travel Journal: Students' Work in Pen and Wash

Here are two stages in Gail Karges' journal; these are cupolas and domes in eastern Europe. She allowed us to critique her first version in class and we felt that some ruled pen lines would add a crispness and strength to the page. Each of the journal pages here relies on pen work; in subsequent posts I will share other students' work.

The domes and the Road Runner page were done by student Soo Young Hwang. I admire how she adapted her style to the subject matter in each.

Romanesque Arches

There is something about Romanesque arches that has always moved me: their simplicity, solidity, here in evidence in a quick sketch I did in walnut ink of the Church of Santa Fosca in Torcello, Italy, near Venice. Romanesque arches feel elemental, basic, yet full of grace. I've never really been able to put my feelings about them into words, but then yesterday read a poem by the 2011 winner of the Nobel Prize for literature, Swedish writer Tomas Transtromer, beautifully translated by the Scottish poet Robin Fulton.

Romanesque Arches

Inside the huge Romanesque church the tourists jostled in the half darkness.

Vault gaped behind vault, no complete view.

A few candle flames flickered.

An angel with no face embraced me

and whispered through my whole body:

“Don’t be ashamed of being human, be proud!

Inside you vault opens behind vault endlessly.

You will never be complete, that’s how it’s meant to be.”

Blind with tears

I was pushed out on the sun-seething piazza

together with Mr. and Mrs. Jones, Mr. Tanaka, and Signora Sabatini,

and inside each of them vault opened behind vault endlessly.

Over the Rainbow

Later this season Pomegranate Communications will publish this print as a small notecard. I titled it Mountain Bluebird and I used the same method to create it that I employed on the Goldfinches print, a printmaking technique I wrote about for the Daniel Smith Artists' Materials catalog. I was inspired by the many mountain bluebirds I've seen in Yellowstone National Park--often flocks of them perch and fly near us when we have hiked at Specimen Ridge. I perched my bluebird on a pine branch at the foot of the mountains just inside the Park near Gardiner, Montana. I've always loved E.Y. Harburg's lyrics for the movie The Wizard of Oz. So many of the songs are funny and witty and perfect. And others are just beautiful, like Somehwere Over the Rainbow.   Somewhere over the rainbow/Bluebirds fly. Yellowstone, and the other amazing places that are national parks have often seemed to me to be the places "over the rainbow." 

Watercolor Classes: Spring Quarter 2012

Spring quarter I'm teaching two 8 week long classes in Seattle. The classroom that I rent for my teaching endeavors is located in a beautiful old elementary school in the University District--now called  University Heights Community Center with various tenants--I think this is the best classroom I've ever taught in, with wainscot to ceiling windows on 2 sides, light pouring in on even the gloomiest days! I'll be teaching Mondays and Tuesdays 9:30am to 12pm beginning April 2. Mondays I am offering Wildlife and Birds in Watercolor with special emphasis on placing the wildlife in landscape contexts, and on Tuesdays Watercolor Flowers and Gardens. We will paint flowers using various styles and techniques, as well as garden landscapes. We'll visit at least 2 private gardens in this class, including my friend Jennifer Carlson's amazing urban organic garden, complete with chickens and vegetable garden as well as ornamental plants and hardscapes designed by her: to learn more visit Haven Illustrated.  Please email me to register for either class.

Watercolor Travel Journal: Student Art

Today I'm including a number of other student sketches created in the travel journal workshop that I taught at Daniel Smith Artists' Materials on Sunday. Looking at all the architectural subjects was a real pleasure, and made me realize that the kinds of structures created by human beings all over the planet and over the course of history are almost as diverse and wonderful as the natural world--in fact, they aren't really any less "natural" than, say, a bird's nest!

Watercolor Travel Journal: More Students' Work

These are two facing pages in the journal of Noel Kreicker, who attended the workshop I taught at Daniel Smith on Sunday on watercolor travel journals. I'm including other fine work below and on subsequent posts, not all of it with names, as some students weren't on my contact list.