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 I had such fun today painting blueberrry bushes at the original Cascadian Farm farm stand. I have eaten their cereal for years and was fan girl excited to find out that this place was just up the road from Concrete. It's a lovely place to stop and have an ice cream -- they make their own from their organic berries, and the just-right-tartness of the raspberry chocolate chip is some of the best ice cream I've had in my life. I went to paint today, since the blueberries against the mountain had been calling to me. The sky was perfectly gorgeous, so it was a fun morning. I came home with ice cream too...
 I recently saw a couple of exquisite gouache studies posted by someone on the Urban Sketchers site, and I loved them. I have continually struggled in watercolor to depict skies and clouds the way I would like to. Gouache is opaque, and a little bit more like oils, but portable and water based like watercolors. I'm still getting used to it, and the only green I have is quite vivid, but I think this could become a new love for me. Above is my first effort a few days ago, and then I went out early this morning to paint clouds. Now that I have gouache, apparently the clouds disappear for summer here in Washington (as they largely do at home as well), but they made a reappearance this morning, and I was grateful. I definitely need more practice, but here are my early results.  
It was a gorgeous day here, so I took my camp chair over to the Greensward at the park and just settled in to paint. I did two different views in different media without even moving my chair. It was a lovely way to spend the afternoon. Merlin lounged around in the sunshine and had some meet-and-greets with other dogs, so we both had a ball. 
I had a crazy busy day yesterday, but I had a little time in the late afternoon to take Merlin to the park to hang out while I did a quick drawing. This is one of my favorite trees (though I know I say that about a number of them). It rises up on the far side of Rainbow Lake and glows in every sunset. I truly love the graceful white sycamores.
It was glorious the other afternoon, and I walked to Overton Park with my pack and chair and did several more watercolor and gouache paintings on tinted paper. Above is my favorite, of the Brooks Museum. I tried a gray paper for another view of Brooks, and while I like the color of it, it wasn't quite dark enough to give the same richness of tone. I also missed the mark a bit with the drawing. 
Finally, I tried a lighter brown paper, and I'm happier with this one. I've been fascinated by tree shadows for a couple of years now but haven't managed much work with them that I like. I'm going to try more in this medium. 
I took Merlin to the Old Forest today. I've been greatly admiring the art of Wayne Attwood, and through the miracle of Facebook, he advised me on his technique when I admired it. He bought one tube of white gouache and uses it with his regular watercolors, which is lovely, because it doesn't require buying an entire new set of something else. I bought some brown paper and decided to paint in the forest. I've always been drawn to the woods, but I've had trouble doing work there that I'm happy with. This might be a medium that works. I'll definitely be spending some more time there with the brown paper and gouache. Here's the Shumard oak that's at the entrance to the Old Forest trail. 
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Martha Kelly is an artist and illustrator who lives and works in Memphis, Tennessee. To sign up for my emails (show notices, occasional news, and resources I find helpful), fill out this form: To subscribe to this blog, by email: 
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