Red roses climbing

By Marcia Milner-Brage, Cedar Falls, Iowa

Steps to garden

Every year I attempt to express the beauty of my Iowa, May garden in a painting or drawing. The climbing roses on the arbor are usually the impetus to see if I can convey what I feel and see in my backyard paradise. Once again, I'm afraid I've fallen short. Nothing from my hand approaches the reality. l enjoyed trying though. May 30, 2016

Here's another attempt that includes our rose trellis from six years ago, shy two days. Note that the roses had not yet climbed over the top. May 28 2010.

Back patio roses

Steeple through Spring Trees: the process

A lot goes into a drawing even before I put a pencil or crayon mark on the page. 

KNOWING THE PLACE: I'd walked on Grove Street as it curves and becomes W. 7th many times, in all seasons. That curve borders this large grassy expanse. It was a floodplain of the Cedar River before the flood wall and dike (unseen to the left) were built.  This is a distinct Cedar Falls neighborhood of single family houses with yards, a nursing home, a church, and the Viking Pump Foundry. The Foundry, which was behind me as I stood at my easel for this drawing, is what makes this neighborhood not quiet on workdays. It's only a few blocks from downtown. On the other side of the dike are railroad tracks leading to the coal burning utilities plant and a City park that hugs the bank of the Cedar River. 

WHAT CAPTIVATED ME: the shadows on the grass, the grove of dark tree trunks, the steeple of Our Redeemer Lutheran Church through the trees before the leaves would unfurl fully and obscure it, the small dark red shed behind the tree trunk on the left, the soft colors of early Spring. All of this was in my mind's eye, before I actually started to draw.

WAITING FOR THE RIGHT DAY

The preceding days had been either too cold, rainy or windy. On this late April day all was quiet and early Spring idyllic. We all know here in the Midwest how breathtakingly rapid Spring can unfold. I knew I had a narrow window of opportunity to capture what beckoned. 

STARTING WITH A QUICK COMPOSITION SKETCH--soft pencil in my pocketsize Moleskin. Sometimes, my Moleskin sketches are all I need to do if I feel they've captured what I call "the truth of a place". But this time, I was pretty certain a larger, more developed piece in color was called for. I'd bicycled the 1/2 mile from my house, carrying my roaming studio in panniers: portable easel and my drawing accoutrements.

UNDERDRAWING--9B water soluble graphite applied with a wet brush on warm gray Canson Mi-Teintes paper. 

BRINGING IT TO COMPLETION: After about two-and-a half hours on-site, I'll  have an almost finished Neocolor II water soluble wax pastel drawing. That's about all I can handle standing in one spot. Anyway, it's alway good to take some space, step back and peruse afresh in the cloister of my studio. Sometimes, as with this drawing, I'll do some minimal tweaking (usually of value relationships), before I call it done. Go to my post HERE'S THE CHURCH AND HERE'S THE STEEPLE on the Urban Sketchers blog to see the finished work up close.

Repurposed Rental Truck and a story of my neighborhood

I wander the back-alleys of my Cedar Falls, Iowa neighborhood and find wonderful gems to draw, tucked behind people's houses. Here, a Penske rental truck made into a camper. Through the process of drawing, I come upon a story of place. Not just this driveway, this alley, but about the larger community where I live. Please, follow THIS LINK to the Urban Sketcher's Blog post.

Roses in full bloom!!!!!

Back Garden in May
18" H x 12"W
Neocolor II wax pastels

There's a tiny balcony off my second floor that looks out over the back garden and a neighbor's house beyond. The balcony is barely big enough to set up my traveling easel. I wanted to capture our out-of-control climbing roses before their first bloom of the season faded. I spent 3 hours on Wednesday, standing in a hot sun, and then another 1/2 hour Thursday to get it done enough. My preference is to do a drawing in one block of time. But I was wilting and my crayons were melting.

New Drawings from Cedar Falls/Waterloo, Iowa

I've been consumed by gardening the past two weeks, since I returned form my  trip to San Luis Obispo, California. Finally, last week, I was able to get some drawing done on my hometown turf.

Here's one from downtown Waterloo (the twin city to Cedar Falls). All winter long, every time I'd be over in Waterloo, I knew that when the weather turned warm enough to draw outside, this pump station, the Waterloo Waterworks building, with its chalky white smokestack, would be at the top of my must-draw list. I've included more of the little that I could cull about this building on my flickr post.

Waterloo Waterworks Pump Station

The peonies are blooming! A neighbor has a wonderful bed planted on the boulevard between the sidewalk and the street. One can't procrastinate when it comes to drawing flowers. These are now droopy and faded, only a few days later. Do other communities have flower beds like this? Technically, it's City property, but each property owner is responsible for mowing and/or tending it.

Peonies on the Boulvard

  

Flowers for Mr. Glass: a Memorial

This bouquet was picked from my Cedar Falls, Iowa neighborhood and garden. It was drawn on April 15, 2012.  I had painted another version of the bouquet a few days before in watercolor, that included a tall red tulip as the center of attention. I had envisioned this second drawing, done in Neocolor II wax pastels, to also include the tulip, but alas, it dropped its petals before I could execute it.

Two days later,  I received an email from a dear childhood friend telling me of her father's death on April 15, 2012. For me, this drawing then became a memorial for Mr. Glass. For me, this drawing represents the melancholic side of Spring: its breathtaking, all too fleeting beauty. Such is life.

As a teenager, I knew Mr. Glass as a kind man with a gentle smile, the father of one of my best friends. I was always welcome in their rambling house in Scarsdale, New York, which was filled with many books, creative projects laid out in process, and sleeping cats occupying the kitchen chairs . The garden that he and his wife tended introduced me to a variety of perennial flower gardening that I would try to emulate in my adult life. I hadn't seen Mr. Glass in decades. Only with his passing did I learn through the New York Times obituary of his illustrious career and his painfully difficult youth. This one is for you, Mr. Glass, in honor of your long life, well lived.

Winter--Now Spring

Crabapple Winter Shadows

White Crabapple 11th & Clay

A tree, drawn two months apart, is a way for me to chronicle the seasons. This crabapple is across the street from my house. I drew it from my second floor bedroom window in February at midday, compelled to record its blue shadows on the white snow. This week, in mid-April, it came into glorious bloom--a veritable cloud, a perfumed canopy, that spans overhead across the sidewalk. I set up my portable easel on the sidewalk across the street and drew, my back to the west. The late afternoon sun warmed my shoulders and cast dappled shade. Cedar Falls, Iowa, my home for 25 years, is a very treed city. This individual is one of my favorite.

Both are done with Neocolor II soluble wax pastels in Canson archival photo albums. Winter was done on black paper, spring on "wicker". 13.5 " X 11"

A Carpet of Violets and Dandelions in Cedar Falls, Iowa

Today I took my easel to Black Hawk Park, a few minutes by car from my house. I walk there regularly. When I saw this yesterday, I knew I had to come back before the color faded or the mowers were dispatched. I spend too much time sitting (looking at all the wonderful artwork on flickr or sketching from my folding stool), so I decided to stand next to my portable easel, set in the tabletop position. This was my first plein-air drawing of the season here in Cedar Falls, Iowa.

...and TODAY'S sketch...

Which is rather less interesting than Miss St. Denis...but the barbeque grills and flowers and bags of mulch are all moving outdoors at Home Depot...it was too nice to go in with Joseph, so I sat in the parking lot and sketched in my accordion folder emergency journal!  (Emergency because I forgot my own...I keep this one in the Jeep for just this possibility!)