MOTHER TROWBRIDGE PASSES.

Mrs. Trowbridge loved her mother very dearly. She never completely recovered from the grief of losing her mother. It was Mother Trowbridge who taught her the art of calligraphy, as well as drawing and painting. We are indebted to Mother T. for the journal that her daughter, Violet, left for us to enjoy. It has given us a fascinating record of what life was like over 200 years ago in the Quinault Rain Forest.

Below is Mrs. T's sepia tone value study for her painting of her mother's grave site. The next post will be her full color painting. Check back soon for that.

Take an extra moment and check out my new blog and meet Skagway, a larger-than-life toad who stars in blockbuster movies from yesterday and today. You'll see the first Skagway movie poster where Skagway reprises Mel Gibson's role in Road Warrior in a new film called Toad Warrior. 

Coming up next on Bron Smith's Almost Amazing Blog: a send up of Sergio Leone's classic spaghetti western, The Good, The Bad and The Ugly. Skagway does his own unique rendition of Clint Eastwood in the role of Blondie. I'm still working on the movie poster, but I will be posting it soon.

BAGGING SOME ANTS

Though I'm separated from Mrs. Trowbridge's forest world by over 200 years, sometimes I almost feel like I know her. She seems like a long lost aunt that I knew when I was a child. When a tiny shrew darts through the tall grass near my berry patch, she flashes though my mind for a brief moment. Is this little shrew that lives in my berry bush one of Mrs. T's descendants? 

Then I snap back into reality. I'm content to know her through the record she left for us in her tiny illustrated diary. What if I hadn't broken off the North Fork Quinault River trail and hiked upstream on Wild Rose Creek eight years ago? I would have never found that little gold box on that mossy ledge beside the stream that contained her precious diary. What if... 

 

See my new Toad Warrior movie poster at http://bronsmithart.blogspot.com/

MOONLIT COTTAGE PAINTING

You may recall that I posted Mrs. Trowbridge's sketch of her neighbor, Mrs. Maberry's cottage for the last Trowbridge episode. In this, the 125th episode of Trowbridge Chronicles, I decided to show you her painting of the cottage. She always did value studies of her subjects prior to the painting, which is what you saw in the last episode. 

This was one of her "night paintings". In order to get the strong light and dark contrasts in her paintings, she would work outdoors at night, working by candle light.

MOONLIT COTTAGE CHARCOAL DRAWING

Fueled by inspiration from her majestic natural surroundings, Mrs. Trowbridge created an impressive body of work in her brief shrew lifetime. Most of what I have posted have been her wonderful watercolor paintings, but she also created a large body of sketches, such as what you see below. Perhaps on my next post I will show you the painting that resulted from this value study.

GATHERING STORM

During the summer of 2009 when my son and I hiked into the Quinault Rain Forest to explore the Huckleberry Hollow area where Mrs. Trowbridge once lived, we witnessed firsthand the destruction that severe winter storms can bring to a rain forest. The storm had struck the area the previous winter, bringing with it savage hurricane force tornado-like winds. Thousands of old growth trees in the rain forest were blown down. It appeared that much of the area had been logged off.

Mrs. Trowbridge knew well the force of winter storms, for she spent her entire life in the Quinault Rain Forest, on Wild Rose Creek. This page in her journal speaks of the first winter storm to hit the area one winter long ago.