Dreaming of Rain

"Dreaming of Rain," 8 x 10 watercolor, 140 lb. paper

I dream of rain these days.

Unrelenting heat, and it's not even August yet. Much is still green, but if this "dome: doesn't dissipate (geen wanting to use that word), brown will be the dominate color across the Great Plains.

Can't do much about it, other than pay an air conditioning bill. 

Or, paint some of my dreams, in "water"color, of course, live giving fluid in a hot, arid land.

Today's small effort.

Grapes of Wrath weather

"Grapes of Wrath weather," 5 x 7 watercolor

 
August bears down on Oklahoma tomorrow like the glaring sun and 100 degree heat do have done for several days, with more to come.

Water and air conditioning consumption soars with the heat, and yet, we're soft and comfortable compared to...

Weather like this reminds me of the classic opening chapter of Steinbeck's Grapes of Wrath. I used that to teach descriptive writing a few years ago, because it is not fiction, but specific, sensuous fact, garnered from detailed observation.

You're supposed to paint what you feel, your reaction to what you experience, not what you see, and today, the heat, the sun all made me think of those lines in Steinbeck's novel.

So here is the last watercolor of the month, my feelings, inspired by the heat and those lines.

Time slips away as August fades into September

"Time slips away, August to September," 5 1/2 by 8 1/2, 140 lb Fabriano Artistico extra white cold press paper

Another month slips away in a tumultuous year of pandemics in virus, racism, political chaos.
I started thinking about the country song as I tried to paint my last watercolor of August, "Funny how time slips away."
This was a slower month painting for me, as the times took their toll mentally, spiritually and creatively. In previous months, I'd averaged almost one a day, but not this month. I think today's is number 15, but I've been painting some larger ones.
If you scroll back in the blog, there seems to be a theme in most of them, a common connection though the subject varies. Can you spot it...linked to the toll of the times?
Back to that plaintive country song, written by Willie Nelson for Patsy Cline,  that haunts me:
"Hello there, my it's been a long time
How am I doin'? Well, I guess that I'm doin' fine
It's been so long now but it seems now it was only yesterday
It ain't it funny how time slips away...."
Funny how those words, that mood seems to fit these days, isn't it?
How do you paint August slipping into September in a year like this.
I've tried to paint color and subjects as a "balm in Gilead," without being trite, because we certainly need that.
But what came out of my brush today was decidedly abstract for the second time this month.
What's the story here? Just my reaction to time slipping away, where there is no certainty, no firm answers, where color and meaning bleed into each other.

(Yes, this one has been digitally enhanced, a little.)

August in Jefferson County, Red River Valley--Study in brown

"August in Jefferson County, Red River Valley." 5 x 7 watercolor, Fabriano Artistico cold press paper

Six months from now...late August, the season of dry heat.
Especially in southwestern Oklahoma, along the banks of the Red River where a month of 100 degree days turn the landscape, even the trees, and the skies, brown.
Called the Red River because it carries so much silt, it's really more brown, like its surroundings.
There's more sand than water, and you can literally walk across the several shallow channels, now just  trickles compared to the force of flood stage that has taken out highway bridges.
Long ago, some. of us, fathers and children from a church in Waurika, camped out on those sandy shores. We ran trot lines to catch catfish, built a campfire, ate hot dogs, joked, watched the stars through the dusty skies, heard the night sounds and the gentle ripple of water. There was sand in everything that night, and the next morning.
Today's watercolor, a study in browns, in earth colors, which are really mixes of red and yellow comes from those memories of that river, those days.
(This is the third of color studies--can you figure out what two characteristics are common to all three?)

Study in green, "When vegetation rioted..."

Study in purple, "Coming home to roost."

The greenest Oklahoma August

Green, as far as you can see, from top of Mount Scott, looking southwest

Green and August are opposites in Oklahoma, or they have been as long as I can remember...until this year.

One view from inside the visitor center

Instead of a scorched countryside withering under more than 30 straight days of triple digit temperatures, most of the state has had lots of rain, the temps have reached only into the 90s, and there is green everywhere.
A recent trip to the Wichita Mountains near Lawton brought that home even more. In a view from the top of Mount Scott, there was green everywhere. The farm ponds were full. 
It had been years since I'd been there, and I can only remember searing summer temperatures. This time the trip was pleasant with cool temperatures and green vistas.

Medicine Park street sign

The village of Medicine Park is artsy and humorous. A sign offered swimming for $2. The new wildlife refuge visitor center is  spacious and interesting, with artifacts, educational exhibits, a stone mural, and bit windows to look out at the countryside and herds of longhorns. The 97 percent-lean longhorn beef Meers burger is delicious, flavored with rustic decorations, old mining gear, non-nonsense cash-only service.
Coming home on back roads, there were green valleys surrounded by trees that made me think of Wisconsin, or some well-watered place. But no, it's Oklahoma, in the greenest August I've seen.

Part of mural in visitor center

Humidity, heat and haze--August

Today's clouds...humid, hot and hazy...August is almost here

August is almost here, and you don't need a calendar to know it. The day's humidity and heat is rising, especially after last night's rain. The sun covers everything with a haze that blurs sharp outlines. It's my least favorite month, even if the days are getting longer. there's supposed to be promise with the coming of the school year, but the heat just drains enthusiasm and spirits, soaking the world in sweat.
For the record, on common years, no other month starts on the same day of the week as August. On leap years, February does. August ends on the same day of the week as November.
It was first called Sextilis in Latin, as the sixth month of the Roman 10-month year in 773 BC, with March the first month. January and February were added about 700  BC, and it was given 29 days. Julius Caesar added two days in 45 BC. It was renamed August in honor of Caesar Augustus in 8 BC, the eighth month  marking the month of many of his triumphs, including the conquest of Egypt. That's more than you kneed to know. It's still one day off, but sine calendars are men's creations, the weather knows, it's just time to be hot.

The face of August

What thrives at 110 degrees plus?