DANCING WITH THE STARS

Some of Mrs. Trowbridge's journal pages were quite whimsical. This is such a page. You'll notice that she used a line and wash technique in this painting. It seems quite appropriate at present, since the finale of Dancing With the Stars airs in three days.

Wherever she went, and whatever would cross her sight, Mrs.T would write about it and sketch life as she saw it in the rain forest, In this sketch she captured the dashing Phinneas Toad and his lovely wife and dance partner, Lily Paddington. Every year Phinneas and Lily are the stars of the Frog Hop, a grand even that it attended by hundreds of frogs that hop in from far and wide.

Don't forget to check out my other blog, Bron Smith's Flights of Fantasy. 

MRS. FERNWOOD'S GARDEN

Mrs. Fernwood lives just down the lane from Mrs. Trowbridge. She grows wildflowers and herbs in her garden, then sells them to the market in Huckleberry Hollow. On her way into the village she often stops by Mrs. T's cottage to give her a bag of Cat's Claw, which helps ease grandma's arthritis. 

The flowers growing in Mrs. Fernwood's garden include Douglas spirea, Foxglove, and Olympic Rockmat. The Rockmat are the little white flowers growing in the window box to the right of the door. The Olympic Rockmat are endemic to the Olympic Mountains, found nowhere else on earth. I saw my first Rockmat clinging to life on the summit of Mount Townsend. 

I decided to include a detail (above) from Mrs. T's painting to show you her delicate and subtle brushwork. 

All of the flowers that you see in Mrs. Fernwood's garden can be found in the Olympic Rain Forest, except for many of the herbs that she grew, some of which were native to other areas. I found the Olympic Rockmat that you see below in full bloom on Lillian Ridge, near Obstruction Point.

Check out the Little Beasties at my other blog, Bron Smith's Flights of Fantasy.

EVENING PRIMROSE DOWN MATTRESS

This page from Mrs. Trowbridge's journal includes a touch of romance. I was a bit surprised when I first read it. Shrews and pink nighties? Somehow I just can't put the two together. But I'm not a shrew, so what do I know?


Mrs. T liked to paint flowers on the vases in her cottage. Painting flowers seemed to send her into great heights of joy. I put this page under my magnifying glass and identified the flower on the night stand pitcher as an orange honeysuckle. That's a monkey flower on the large vase behind the bed. I wish you could better see the small details.


She usually did a tight pencil drawing, then painted a watercolor wash on top of it. But sometimes she would let her pencil drawing stand alone, as you see in the drawing of her bedroom above.


If you would like to see my other illustration blog, where you'll see my work, not Mrs. Trowbridge's, go to bronsmithart.blogspot.com

TO THE SEASHORE

Mrs. Trowbridge wrote and sketched many pages in her journal documenting her trips to the sea. She was very vocal about her love for the seashore. On this page she sketched one of the many games that they played on the beach. If you can find a map of the Olympic National Park in Washington State, you can actually follow the route that Mrs. T and her family traveled from Wild Rose Creek, down the Quinault River, across Lake Quinault, to the ocean. Unfortunately, Google Maps doesn't provide an adequate map of that area. Huckleberry Hollow is the village where Mrs. T once lived on Wild Rose Creek, just a short distance upstream from where it meets the Quinault River. 

If you enjoyed The Trowbridge Chronicles, you might like to check out my other art blog, Bron Smith's Flight's of Fantasy.

AND SO WE RETURN...

And so we return to where it all began...

Here they are...the Trowbridge Chronicles.  After several years of keeping this illustrated journal secretly hidden away in my attic, I have decided to post the pages in bite-size bits over an extended period of time for the whole world to enjoy.  

About five years ago, while on a solo hike in the Quinault Rain Forest in Washington State, USA, I happened upon a tiny gold box on a mossy ledge beside Wild Rose Creek. I placed the box in my back pack and opened it later that evening back home in my studio. I was stunned when I lifted the lid of the box to find a tiny ledger, smaller than a match box. The title on the cover read:  The Trowbridge Chronicles. It was the personal journal of Violet Trowbridge, a tiny Trowbridge shrew who lived over 200 years ago in the Quinault Rain Forest. I was up most of the night reading through the hand-scribed journal pages with a magnifying glass, each illustrated with lovely soft watercolor paintings (as seen below). From reading Mrs. T's journal, I have learned a lot about what life was like in the rain forest village where she once lived with her family so long ago.

I chose this page first because Mrs. T spoke often about how her husband's teas and cakes had so much flavor.  I wish I could have sampled them.  You won't find fiddle fern tea at Starbucks...only in Huckleberry Hollow.

Don't forget to check out my new blog, Bron Smith's Flights of Fantasy