Take me out to the Ball Game!

Ah summer! Gloppy sunscreen, shaved ice and baseball moments. I’m trying to incorporate creative art expression into every part of my life.

The Fourth of July is a busy holiday and it put my latest painting project–a copy of Renoir’s Luncheon of the Boating Party–on hold. The fact I’d just finished a study of the painting left me with a new appreciation of the joie de vivre that’s possible while spending time with friends and family under the summer sunshine.

It meant a trip to Kennewick, Washington for our grandson’s baseball tournament. I love central and eastern Washington, the golden ochre shades of rolling hills and massive blue skies remind me of Montana’s big sky country. Plus it was 90 degrees there, something we haven’t felt since, what, last August?

In the spirit of artistic expression (even on boring road trips) I brought my handy lap-painting set and did a little painting of a sunflower from memory after the style of Nina Johansson, a Swedish sketch artist I discovered. My goal was to draw a free-form outline in pen entirely from memory, and then add color.

While the sunflower was in progress we passed through the Columbia River gorge. Of course, the views passed by our car window at 70 miles per hour, so I had to memorize, then try to recreate it. This small painting is what transpired.

The next morning before the baseball game we sat on the porch and drank coffee while Rem (our grandson) brought out his sketch book and started to draw! He loves wolves. I had to jump in and we had a little drawing and painting lesson on how to see the shapes that make up the wolf. We drew triangles and measured and compared. I showed him how the eye tricks us into thinking we know what something looks like, but by measuring we can draw the shape correctly.

My lap-painting set came in handy for adding colors. Here’s Rem working on his drawings:

Here’s Rems’ finished painting:

And here’s all our wolf paintings–even Allan jumped in!

I can’t help but think that Rem’s new confidence in his ability to draw helped him play better baseball! Well, it’s possible! They won the game in the last inning and we whooped for joy! Go Kennewick National All Stars!

 Did you catch the baseball moment?

Have a Happy Fourth of July!