Last week, my two homeschooling art students and I made our way down to the river that runs through the nearby town of Phoenicia, NY. Located in the heart of the Catskills, this little town has a lot of character. Two major waterways – Esopus Creek and Stony Clove Creek – join here, and continue their way down to the Ashokan Reservoir, which supplies NYC with water, and then on to the Hudson River.
The Esopus (a Dutch word meaning “small river”) is familiar to all who live here and see it rise and fall with the seasons. It’s really a river, but its average depth defines it as a creek. Here it passes under Route 28, the main east-west two-lane that makes its way through the mountains. My students and I settled on the rocky beach with our drawing pads, and looking upstream, began to draw the riverscape that lay before us.
I encouraged the boys to work from coarse to fine – that is, to begin with broad strokes to establish size and position of the main elements of the picture – and to lightly sketch in large shapes first, before filling in textures and details. The horizon lines of the two mountains would be most important to get right, as this would establish the entire composition. These mountains are very old, eroded over millennia from an ancient plateau. The curves of the Catskills are gentle, shapely, likened sometimes to a reclining female figure, or part of one. Drawing curves can be difficult for children, who tend to straighten everything out and create visual schemes, rather than observing what they see. So, we practice drawing curves, and making them subtle. Drawing itself is a teachable skill, but sensitivity to one’s subject is what sets a dry rendering apart from a composition with character.
Deciduous forests are a challenging subject, as it’s obviously not possible to depict every branch and leaf of a tree, much less hundreds of trees. In order to depict the texture of foliage, artists resort to various techniques of mark-making – in my case, a rather scribbly one. Changing the scale of this texture as the mountain recedes was crucial – another challenge for young artists. “Make the trees smaller in the distance and bigger under the bridge,” I reminded them again and again. The results looked a bit like rows of jagged molars stacked in the mouth of a shark – but that’s okay, we’re learning.
The tree that stands right in front of the bridge all the way to the left is familiar to me. This lovely sycamore has its crown at eye level as one drives over the bridge, which I often do. The tree’s shapely form never fails to catch my eye as I pass under its spreading branches. How does it survive all those exhaust fumes, I wonder?
Variety of contrast and scale is the secret sauce that makes a drawing interesting. The contrast between the organic shapes of the land and the strong bisecting lines of the man-made bridge creates a certain tension. The greater density of the trees compared to the open lines of the river boulders in the foreground also serve to break up the composition and allow it to breathe. It’s hard to resist filling everything in to the same level of articulation all over a drawing – but worth resisting. A little suggestion goes a long way.
As we sat and worked on our drawings and listened to the sounds of the river, I plied my students’ ears with this sort of talk. They listened, but how much sinks into their 11-year-old brains, I do not know. After a while, they both got up and started skipping stones in the creek. The weather was perfect, and sitting still had reached its limits. That’s okay – I want art to be a positive experience. And it gave me a little extra time to finish my own drawing.
Any day that includes outdoor drawing or painting is a good day by me.
A good week to all!
D. Yael Bernhard
https://dyaelbernhard.com
Have you seen my other Substack, The Art of Health? In addition to being a visual artist, I’m also a certified integrative health & nutrition coach with a lifelong passion for natural food cooking and herbal medicine. Now in its second year, this illustrated newsletter explores cutting-edge concepts of nutrition. I strive to make relevant information clear and accessible, and to anchor essential health concepts in unique images. Check it out, and if you like it, please subscribe and help spread the word. Your support keeps my work going!
Wonderful! They're so lucky to have you!!!