sketchbook | Just Sketching

30 Square Challenge #17

8 November, 2023.

#30SquareChallenge2023, number seventeen. Leaving the paint kit at home in its entirety, we traveled across state for a couple of days in search of quiet, solitude, and hiking trails. As my legs can attest, excellent trails were located. A few days ago I found myself wandering for miles just adjacent to a clear, cold stream. The trail crossed the water a few miles on and I paused midway through my ford to enjoy the dense schools of fingerlings darting around in the water. Eventually the trail turned away from the stream. We found ourselves marching upwards, tracing limestone bluffs, through woods of oak and other various hardwoods, ultimately emerging into a meadow near at the top of the final incline.

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The challenge is simple. Make 30 square paintings over 30 days. Any style, any subject, any media – just make art. October 15 through November 14. #30squarechallenge2023 #30squarechallenge #landscape #landscapepaintings #acrylicpainting #sketchbook #sketchingdaily #sketching #sketchingart #sketchingartist #trees #square #river #hiking #farm #farmland #field #backroads #sumac

30 Square Challenge #15

Posted on November 1 by azorch

1 November, 2023.

#30SquareChallenge2023, number fifteen. I’ve painted big, round bales of hay many times now. To me they are one of the most iconic of autumn sights, and they beguile me to no end. I don’t know if it’s the fact that they are circular in shape – I love to design with circles and squares. Or that a field of round bales forces me to search for a visual pattern, another design characteristic that holds enormous appeal for me. Or perhaps it’s the interplay of warm color, the intrinsic contrast of values. Perhaps it’s all of those things.

As a rural teen, one way to earn money was hauling hay. Those bales were rectangular and much smaller. The job required a team of (usually) classmates: one to drive the flatbed, one on back to stack, and two on the ground to “buck” bales up in the air and onto the back of the truck. Those bales could weigh, perhaps, fifty pounds or so if they were straw, and upwards of 80 or 90 for clover, and they made for an exhausting, dusty, and long day. I don’t recall the exact wage, but I seem to recall something like a few cents per bale, with the driver getting the smallest percent, the stacker next, and the buckers getting the best cut. We all bitched about the number of bales in a field, but more bales meant more money – something that was in short supply for most of fifteen and sixteen year olds.

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30 Square Challenge #14

Posted on October 30 by azorch

30 October, 2023.

#30SquareChallenge2023, number fourteen. Dawn emerges well below freezing. Steam from my breath is a near constant, and my fingers are stiff.

I’ve grown accustomed to how watery this cheap acrylic paint I’ve been using is, but I noticed how difficult it was to lay down a brush load of color in this sketch. It’s almost like painting with toothpaste. So I dip the brush into water as colors are mixed on the palette, and the sketch turns out much less opaque than those I previously made in this series. Having grown comfortable with thicker, more buttery strokes, I’m not crazy about the effect of stiff color washes. I make a note to myself for future sketches to make my strokes intentional, visible, and to take real care to avoid too much blending or thin wash.

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30 Square Challenge #13

Posted on October 29 by azorch

29 October, 2023.

#30SquareChallenge2023, number thirteen. Damn! It got cold fast, didn’t it? Yesterday dropped to freezing, with rain and wind. It was miserable walking weather; in fact, I didn’t come close to getting in the distance I’d planned on.

There was this strangely short transitional period between the day beginning with sun, then suddenly – and I do mean suddenly! – cloud cover moving in. The rain began shortly after, soaking my shirt, chilling my hands to the bone. The small tent we’d pitched threatened to become a box kite, and was eventually tied down using pumpkins for ballast. My hiking pants, an uncharacteristically pricey indulgence from the previous Christmas, were comfortable and shed water like crazy, living up to the advertising hype of a higher end outdoor brand. Counting my socks, that makes two times I’ve drank the Kool-Aid these past twelve months that have turned out to be positive experiences. Score!

Today promises to be colder still.

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30 Square Challenge #12

Posted on October 28 by azorch

28 October, 2023.

#30SquareChallenge2023, number twelve. Fields of gold and yellow and ochre and just a tiny touch of green. Trees are blocks of fading green, and I’m already worrying myself about how I’ll sketch them once the leaves fall in a few days time. I’m happy with my palette at the moment; how will the colors change once the skies turn grey and muted?

All of these quick sketches are 6 x 6 inches, painted very quickly in the hopes of retaining some of the initial energy and spontaneity I felt at the time of painting. This is the most I’ve done with acrylic paint in years, and I’m enjoying both the immediacy as well as the chance to improvise as I go.

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30 Square Challenge #11

Posted on October 26 by azorch

26 October, 2023.

#30SquareChallenge2023, number eleven. It’s still very wet. My hike last night got cut short when about twenty minutes in I was drenched in a downpour. Up until that point it had simply been drizzling, which is an acceptable walking condition for me. But I turned around once those conditions made it so that I was soaked to the bone!

Patches of murkier light in the mornings lead to sketches that are loosely scrawled. In this one there is the slightest feeling of unease, as if one is unsure what the next minutes may bring: sunlight or a shift in the weather. Or perhaps it’s an encounter around that turn? Who is there to be met along my path – friend or foe? Is it simply foreshadowing events yet to unfold that day?

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30 Square Challenge #10

Posted on October 25 by azorch

25 October, 2023.

#30SquareChallenge2023, number ten. Twenty-four hours or so of rain, and the colors have really gone through significant change. Yesterday morning I hiked before the crack of dawn as is my wont, and the skies were incredibly dramatic, the stars crisp, the wisps of clouds catching the tiniest glow of horizon, light not yet visible from my ground level vantage point. As the sun emerged, for the briefest time casting a low, glancing spotlight on surfaces, the latest hues were visible. And then it began to rain, and I feel like it must be Autumn now.

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30 Square Challenge #9

Posted on October 23 by azorch

23 October, 2023.

#30SquareChallenge2023, number nine. Another sort of blustery day – or at least, there are gusts of wind intermingled with moments of relative still. The sound of birds is still present, but less so every day, and as the afternoon comes to a close the breeze is still cool enough that I don’t break into sweat as I hike. Clouds, wispy and somewhat frail, chase one another across the sky, and I feel thoughtful as I enjoy this solitary walk. Much the same as I do when bicycling over distance, I take advantage of the opportunity to think and be present in my own mind.

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30 Square Challenge #8

Posted on October 22 by azorch

22 October, 2023.

#30SquareChallenge2023, number eight. The fields and trees and backroads of Clay County are undergoing dramatic Autumnal change. Indeed, everywhere I drove in mid-Missouri these past two days is experiencing a shift from green to the duller oranges and browns and earth tones that tell of another year waning. Patches of sunlight occasionally strike a section of a mown field of hay or corn stalks, and glow, the illumination made all the more intense because it’s surrounded by muted tones. The sky is grayer now, and bursts of wind make it difficult to cast my fly rod over pond and lake waters. It’s blustery at times, and leaves skitter across the ground, louder than I’m used to because many are already dry. My patch of zinnias is still in bloom, the colorful flowers a last hold out of summer. The morning temperature is quite cool and I can see steam from my breath in the air.

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30 Square Challenge #7

Posted on October 21 by azorch

21 October, 2023.

#30SquareChallenge2023, number seven. I’ve lived near the Missouri River for many years. The view of the waters in Autumn still profoundly moves me.

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