This week is *crazy* - the days are totally getting away from me, sorry for the late posting - again..
Saw a painting with this tree in it and loved it - enough to inspire a quickie sketch that might serve as a partially vignette piece for my homework (and future painting?). Deciding whether I like the concept well enough to pursue...
(more autumny music for your listening pleasure...)
There is always a plethora of wildlife up at the cabin-
From the wild - (can you pick out the pileated woodpecker perched on the trunk of the tree here? There was a mated pair flying about all weekend) - the owls we could hear, the small brown bats at dusk, the tiny red-bellied Douglas squirrels, the deer and elk prints on the trails... (we won't discuss the mouse that spent the first night in my room both under and ON my bed!...)
Oh - and the Fattest-Groundsquirrel-Evar - that lives under the front porch and is apparently seriously bulking up for his winter hibernation...
There was our yearly Great Dane 'mascot' -
(look at the size of those paws) - who we adore, and sadly are afraid this is his last year with us...
One of the 'locals' stopped by with a truck-load of elk antlers that he 'harvests' from the forest floors every spring as they shed them. Aren't these gorgeous?....
(Our hostess acquired a number of pairs - soon to be included in some very interesting works of art...)
And there were the elk bones! I came home with a very lovely vertebrae which is now living in my studio and will be the subject of sketching sometime soon I'm sure...
Even though it was nearly autumn, you couldn't really tell that by looking at the scenery on the mountain... And the weather was nearly perfect the whole time we were there.
These really are some of the best woods ever. Luuuurve them!
The song I wanted for this week was 'Moon Cradle' by Loreena McKennitt - but I can't find a version online to link to... Therefore, I'm putting up a moon-related repeat while I post the first batch of retreat photos:
So, POBL retreat 2010. Today, here are views of the wonderful cabin and Bumping Lake right across the way. Including the new crescent moon rising over the lake... I'm also including the lyrics for Moon Cradle in the absence of the actual song for you to listen too...
When the moon-cradle's rocking and rocking
Where a cloud and a cloud go by
Silently rocking and rocking
The moon-cradle's out in the sky.
Then comes the lad with the hazel
And the folding star's in the rack
'Night's a good herd' to the cattle,
He sings, 'She brings all things back.'
But the bond woman down by the boorie
Sings with a heart grown wild
How a hundred rivers are flowing
Between herself and her child.
'The geese, even they trudge homeward
That have their wings and the waste,
Let your thoughts be on Night the Herder,
And be quiet for a space.'
The moon-cradle's rocking and rocking,
Where a cloud and a cloud go by,
Silent rocking and rocking
The moon-cradle out in the sky.
The snipe they are crying and crying
Liadine, liadine, liadine
Where no track's on the bog they are flying:
A lonely dream will be mine!
Where no track's on the bog they are flying:
A lonely dream will be mine!
After an extra-long weekend retreat full of ART (and mushrooms, elk bones, Great Danes, ground squirrels, delicious food, crescent moons and crackling fires, etc.. - but that is another post), it seems most appropriate to choose a video that is full of Maxfield Parrish imagery of awesome. Youtube won't let me embed it, but here's the link if you haven't watched it recently. (How many Parrish paintings from it can you name?)
The retreat was awesome -one of the best yet. Wish we could have stayed there twice as long. I have many many pictures... Reports coming soon.
In other news, the latest Drawn Today podcast on Life Drawing, which I participated in, is posted here for your listening pleasure.
This weekend is our 9th annual critique group retreat....
I leave in the morning.
(There may even be *mushrooms* this year...)
So, much preparing is happening. I'm sure I'm hugely over-optimistic about how much art I can actually accomplish while there and have thus over-packed, but hope springs eternal. :-)
In other news - tomorrow is also the day that my daughter leaves for college... My husband and her boyfriend are going to take her up. I'm glad I am leaving at the same time. Hopefully the distraction of the retreat will keep me from being a quivering mass of tearful-mom...
I'll be back with retreat updates on Monday. If I'm not still crying...
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