i started this post in montecito where it was cool and misty this morning. now i am home and it is still cool and gray, but you know me, i enjoy these rare days when our star stays hidden far above the cloud shelf.
after nearly a week by the sea i headed back south to moss cottage. the coast was once again a swirl of fog, churning surf, and yellow hillsides.
blind contours are an important part of meetings with friends.
i love it when a rental has lots of books you want to browse through at a leisurely pace.
here are a few pics of the little place i stayed. hopefully there are no stray bras or dirty socks laying around!
yesterday i took a walk down the ennisbrook trail off san leandro lane. there is evidence everywhere of the terrible mudslide of january 2017. there has been a herculean effort to restore the area where so many lost their homes and their lives.
wildflowers are everywhere, new rock walls are being built, the 30 ton boulders have been relocated, the trail is walkable again. i saw many sycamores saplings growing out of bent and broken trunks.
montecito is slowly returning to a wonderland, but for the dear people who lived through the mudslide i imagine the knowledge of what tore through here and what could come again is ever present.
if you care to read more about the devastation that was wrought by the massive debris flow go here.
i was content to stroll beneath the overstory of oak and sycamore and think about how things recover and regrow.
here in montecito there has been a lot of that in the last 15 months.
i carried very few art supplies on this jaunt up north. a couple of sketchbooks – this one below with the sticker is always in my car and my landscape book. a couple of pens & brushes.
this palette represents my current set up. 1 row of gouache down the middle and the rest watercolors. everything’s a mess, but it works for me.
i bought this palette on amazon JUST for the palette – it was around 15 bucks. i took the watercolor bricks out and squeezed my watercolor tube paint in the spaces built into the palette. same old daniel smith tubes i’ve used for a long time now. the spaces are half-pan size. the empty space in the middle i filled with full pans of gouache.
I wanted to tell you about a new journal/notebook I just bought–takes watercolor media very well: The Holbein mixed-media notebooks. They are spiral bound and you can find them at Dick Blick. I’m using one for my travel journal and so far it does well with collage too.
That rental is the cutest thing ever!
thanks for head’s up sandra!
Do you use a fountain pen w waterproof ink? or a Micron? I’ve love seeing your drawings over the years. You don’t say much about your kids and your classroom. Maybe your heart isn’t there all the time are your retirement nears. So curious to see where you end up. My husband and I went through this a few years ago and we ended up moving across town to a one floor condo in Portland, Oregon. Perfect for us.
just a writing pen i had in my purse – waterproof and has a .7 tip. i like the thick lines. believe it was a signo of some sort or another.
I love this section of the world so much. Every year my father’s side of the family goes camping in Carpinteria, so we’ve got to discover the surrounding areas as well. Coming from the San Gabriel Valley, it sometimes feels like another world over there. I see you Lucky Llama sticker. It’s my go-to coffee shop when we’re camping:).
oh isn’t it fabulous? i love the MOON BOWLS with a side of cappuccino
I love this section of the world so much. Every year my father’s side of the family goes camping in Carpinteria, so we’ve got to discover the surrounding areas as well. Coming from the San Gabriel Valley, it sometimes feels like another world over there. I see you Lucky Llama sticker. It’s my go-to coffee shop when we’re camping:).
I have long loved your blog posts…I rarely comment, and yet I always feel a kindred spirit in you! I love your posts, photos, and artwork so much. I recently moved to Grass Valley, CA and have been making a point to go on my own wanderings and ramblings around my new neighborhood and appreciate the details, the flowers, the fresh air of the foothills. Soon I hope to reconnect with my sketchbook and watercolors, as it’s been too long. I did, however, notice that your little white palette is the same as mine, and I too removed the paint blocks it came with in exchange for my Daniel Smith, QoR and Winsor Newton watercolors. Thanks for sharing your adventures with the world, and here’s a little wave hello from Grass Valley! 🙂
heidi,
i was in grass valley once. i wanted to go there after reading wallace stegner. it was such a lovely place and i remember it fondly as well as my long beautiful adventure up hwy 49. i do wonder where you moved from…
happy settling in to your new home and picking up the paint brush. i recall there were some good coffeeshops and of course nevada city is close by. you’re in a wonderful area for exploring!!
I moved up from Riverside, CA – it’s been a wonderful change and I was ready to bid farewell to the desert after 20 years there! 🙂 Thanks for the well-wishes! I have just met my next door neighbor who is retired and likes watercolor/sketching too…we’ve made our first date for an art night, and I am so excited to have found another art soul so close! I’ve always loved your “art retreats” with your sister and Pam Garrison…reading those posts made me wish for a small group of friends to laugh and make art with too. I’m working on it… 🙂
As usual, I so enjoyed “our” foray into the wonderful world of nature’s offerings. I do love wild roses. We had a lot on our property when we lived in Maine. And Bar Harbor, Maine has a walk way over flowing with them. Can’t get outside at the moment as I am in the midst of recovering from shoulder surgery… for a badly torn rotator cuff. I think I will be “allowed out” this coming week. I am enjoying seeing all of Spring’s offerings by looking out the window. Forsythia is especially Luxurious this year and my daffodils and other bulbs are doing well… they will all to soon be passing us by as other flowers take their place but I am enjoying them now!!!
your trip has encouraged me to visit Montecito. Happy to hear the re-build efforts are going well. Can you share where you found your lodging? It looks perfect and I’d like to stay there. Love hearing about your travels near and far! Glad you had such a great trip…
sent you an email!
so sorry to hear about your shoulder cuff injury, beth but am glad you’re in recovery mode. my sister in kansas has been telling me about the forsythia there. do enjoy your spring outing next week but no cartwheels yet!