June Trails Book

The "book" is created by making plexiglass and wood framed slots and then arranging
the hand painted images on strips of paper and putting the strips into the slots. It
is a flexible process which gives it a narrative yet painterly look, not unlike -- although the
subject matter is very different -- the Sienese alterpeices that are the subject of
discussion in scene one of when the foreground and the background merged. But it is a
performative work in that the viewer follows the paths of a poet as she hikes
Northern California trails. I have to use crutches so the experience may reflect
my vision of the scene after the difficulty of getting there.

Walked (what seemed) a long way uphill on crutches to make this sketch of a
place where there was fog on the trees, yet the sun was beginning to create
patterns near the trail. I once made an office inbox that was filled with translucent
paintings of the woods on rice paper. It seemed like something that would be nice
to have on one's desk, recalling memories of hiking in the woods.

watercolor sketches of East Bay scenes

A few weeks ago, I had hiked quite a ways on crutches on a back trail through a
redwood forest without finding a place I wanted to sit and paint. I reached a main
trail that began four miles away to the West. It was a high ridge trail that
overlooked East Contra Costa. I could see Mount Diablo through the trees, but there
were quite a few hikers, and there was nowhere private to sit and paint.
Finally, I arrived at a small glade with a view to a forested ridge. I sketched
for a while, thinking that sometimes you can be walking along and suddenly there
is a place where there is a view to remember. It might not always be be spectacular
like the mountain lakes or the coastal range, but it is a place where you can spend a
pleasant hour, looking at the view, painting.

hiking in the hills - watercolor sketch of the East Bay hills

I set out on a familiar trail that I hadn't hiked for a while. While I was walking up the trail,
I remembered that some years ago, I had been struggling with walking with a disability on that
very trail when from somewhere in the distance, I heard the sound of bagpipes.

And for a moment I thought I was walking the hills in Scotland.

Took a trip to the mountains last week. Was disappointed when it began
to rain, just when I reached my destination, but nevertheless the
trail was beautiful in the soft gray rain. Patches of snow on the mountains,
and there were brief moments of sunshine. The rocky path along this lake is
quite challenging on crutches, but I very much miss hiking this kind of trail,
and as I was walking along, I was thinking about Snowshoe Thompson
going up and down these hills in winter, delivering the mail on skis.
It was a few days after the Middlebury College reunion in Vermont. I can't
usually travel that far, so didn't go but was remembering the downhill
racing course my freshman year at Middlebury when I was on the ski team.

I made my way -- with difficulty on crutches -- down towards the lake, where I painted this
watercolor, until it began to rain harder. On the way back, I was able to make three pen
and ink sketches.

Spring Bay Area trails visual book

The walking in the hills on crutches with my paintbox the way I used to do,
is a kind of bringing back of lost freedom. It has been more than fourteen years
since a car ran directly into my leg on a very hot day in Arizona. Still remember the
feeling that I would never again be able to lead the life I had led before. So
it is with pleasure that I have resumed the making of artists books.

I use watercolors in tubes, a paint tray, and a selection of brushes that I carry in my
backpack along with watercolor paper and small bottles of water. It is not easy to walk
with crutches and carry things in my hands, so I attach the painting to the backpack
when I hike back down the trail. I can use a cane for short distances but need crutches
if I'm walking more than a few blocks.

Saturday. Cold dark day. Hiked up a steep trail in the Berkeley Hills.
Sat down in the grass to paint the flowers and trees beside the trail.
As soon as I got out my brushes and mixed paints in the paint tray,
it began to drizzle rain. Holding the paper vertical, I managed to paint enough
so that I could continue to work on it at home. It was a kind of a nice walk back
through the wet woods.

Brief trip the mountains. There was still snow at the small lake at
about 7,000 feet where I had intended to hike and paint. I have devices
to attach to my crutch tips to walk in snow, but I hadn't brought them with me,
and the parking lot wasn't plowed, so I went to a lower elevation, walked in
to a lake, had a picnic, painted the lake and snow covered mountains in the
distance. I now have five or six images for a new visual book that are almost
finished but still need some work.

But it is April, and I began painting panels for a new trails book.
I took a couple of hikes on narrow, steep trails -- challenging on crutches.
Painted a meadow with wildflowers, grass, and pine trees......

At this time of year you can walk down almost any trail in California
and see fields of blue or yellow lupine, fields of white daisies,
yellow daisies. California poppies. And the forty shades of green in
Johnnie Cash's song: "I'd walk from Cork to Larne to see those Forty Shades of Green".

It is difficult to imagine the wildflowers if you do not live here.
On my home trail, I painted a row of white flowers along the trail,
and before I put in all the details, they looked like snow spread out
beneath the pine trees. In my visual books, I like to intersperse
the wildflowers and green hills with darker images of pine forests and fog,
approximating the experience of hiking in Northern California.

Often while hiking and painting in the Sierras, a scene is so beautiful that I stop
on the trail or beside a lake to make a watercolor sketch. I try to
remember the colors, the way the pine trees looked across the water,
so that I can work on the picture when I get home.

detail of a watercolor sketch of a favorite place in Marin

The trail goes through the woods, past a stream. There is a long
uphill climb that is strenuous on crutches, and then suddenly I am
at a meadow.

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words and images are copyright 2009 Judy Malloy