Watercolor Bark

I was so taken with the textures and color of the American Planetree bark in yesterday's blog post that I tried a sketch of the bark in my art journal today.

I used gouache watercolors (Prussian blue, Naples yellow, spectrum red), a Pigma pen, and Caran d'Ache watercolor pencils (yellow ochre, greyish black, sepia, black).

The art experience was interrupted several times by experimentation in the kitchen with a sourdough bread recipe, so my concentration was broken.

The sketch is so-so. The bread was better.

Copyright 2013
Wanda Hayes Eichler

Artsy Bark

I have always been an admirer of the great and wondrous trees on the campus at Michigan State. This close up of the scale-like bark of an American Planetree outside of Dem Hall has an artful quality.

Ed and I spent part of the afternoon on campus where we stopped by Dem Hall to see Peter and Clay. I had my first opportunity to walk through the galleries at the incredible Broad Museum, too. We needed a day to "get out of Dodge" and State is a good place to visit.

DROID photo -- cropped, enhanced

Copyright 2013
Wanda Hayes Eichler

Sycamore Tree at Adams Field

We walked across the MSU Campus on Sunday. There is a huge steam plant renovation underway so lots of West and East Circle Drives are closed.

Adams Field, where the Spartan Marching Band plays before football games, is partly torn up. Our family always meets at Adams Field under "the tree." So, we walked to the tree to view the construction and get an idea of what things might look like by this fall. The photo gives a good idea of how big the tree really is and you can see some of the construction in the background.

The tree is actually an American Sycamore or Planetree.  We saw lots of planetrees in London earlier this month and were delighted to learn that the London Planetree is a relative of the American Planetree. So the MSU trees have cousins in Great Britain. Pretty cool thought.

Copywrite 2012
Wanda Hayes Eichler