Rustling up some corn

If you read my newsletter “The Wheelbarrow” this week, you might have seen this little value sketch I painted. It was a quick study for a painting I had in mind of a cornfield that I saw when I was out on a drive in my area.

I just finished the painting, and thought I’d post it here. It was a bit of a crazy subject to paint: all pattern and texture but no central focus. I wanted to convey the waves of horizontal movement that I saw on the swaying corn that day, as well as the dried corn stalks that still had bits of green on them.

I introduced a few colours to my palette for this one, inspired in part by the incredible Andrew Wyeth watercolours that I saw last month at the Farnsworth Museum in Maine. I used lots of Raw Umber, Yellow Ochre and Payne’s Grey — colours that don’t have a permanent spot on my 18-colour studio palette but that were well suited for this almost monochrome subject.

Before starting the painting, I made myself a colour chart so I could decide in advance what mixes I wanted to use. As you can see, Raw Umber creates a very mottled effect on the paper because of its large pigment particles. I wanted to make sure that the texture was not too distracting in my mixes so I tried it on its own as well as mixed with other pigments. I also did a little swatch for the blue sky.

Here’s the final watercolour. If you’re wondering how long a painting like this takes, the answer is: many hours! To keep all of these shapes separate, my pencil drawing is fairly detailed. And then it takes some time to paint all the positive areas and then the negative shapes between them. I painted this on a 20″ x 16″ sheet of Arches CP 140 lb paper.

Sketching Retreat: a FREE 6-day online event

When I was teaching in Rockport, MA, this summer, I spotted this little red shed on a quiet side street. Several of my students drew it on location and, I have to admit, I was a little envious. I even took a picture of it. So, when I was invited to be part of this year’s Sketching Retreat, I had the perfect solution (and photo!), and chose the red shed as my video demo.

If you don’t know about it already, Sketching Retreat is a FREE 6-day online event with 50+ workshops (mine included!) focused on architectural sketching & drawing – using both analog (paper) and digital (tablet) techniques.

All the demos are free to watch, and the instructors include some amazing sketcher friends such as Paul Wang, Reham Ali, Darman Angir and Simone Ridyard, plus many others I’m excited to learn from. The dates for the event are October 28 – November 2, 2025, but registration is already open and you can sign up now.

In my Red Shed demo, I’ll show you all the steps I used for this sketch, from drawing to ink lines to watercolour. And, finally, how I treated the shadows on the red shingles. I hope you’ll sketch along with me!

I’ve had a look at what people are teaching, and you can be sure there’s a lot to learn from these brilliant sketchers. Hope to “see” you there!

Plants & Flowers in your Sketchbook: my first one-day in-person workshop, close to home

A few weeks ago, I posted that I would soon be offering some local in-person workshops. I’m excited to announce that the first one — Plants & Flowers in your Sketchbook — is now scheduled and ready to go (for dates and details, see below).

In this new workshop, I’ll share with you design techniques I use to create my sketchbook pages — techniques such as composition, hand-lettering, drop shadows and framing devices.

We’ll also work on strengthening your sketching skills for capturing the plants and flowers you bring to the workshop. This includes learning to mix a variety of greens for foliage, putting down large shapes first, and suggesting depth and volume through shadows — all in the service of creating livelier and more compelling watercolour sketches.

We’ll begin the day with my demonstration of how I design a page, filling it with a variety of flower and plant sketches, as well as hand-drawn lettering.

Following that, I will work with you to develop your own page. My goal is that, by the end of the day you’ll return home with your own well-laid out sketchbook page — and, I hope, with the skills to complete many more on your own.

Interested? Here is the date and details, as promised.

When: Thursday, November 6, 2025.

Location: 472 Main Road, Hudson, QC J0P 1H0

Cost: $175 CDN per person (plus applicable taxes). Materials not included.

Maximum workshop capacity: 12 participants.

Skill level: Some experience with drawing and watercolour required.

Note: You must bring your own plants or flowers to sketch. And, since we will be sharing large worktables, please ensure that your plants or fresh or dried flowers are modest in size, so we can comfortably accommodate everyone.

To register, drop me a line at: info@shariblaukopf.com

Hope to see you there!

Two urns and some sunflowers

I’m still scanning the last few pages of my almost completed Hahnemuhle sketchbook. Here are a few from my recent workshop at Hudson River Valley Art Workshops. You don’t have to go very far to find subjects on the workshop grounds of the Greenville Arms 1889 Inn. The gardens and studio buildings are beautiful and there are plenty of small subjects that you can compile to make a page of vignettes. In fact, my first demo was of the rusty urn just outside our studio.

It turns out that I am not the only one who found the urn appealing. A few days ago I received an email with the subject heading “The dreaded urn”. Sue, one of my workshop participants, sent me a scan of a very beautiful half-sheet painting of the very same urn, painted by Skip Laurence (one of my teachers) that she found in his book “Painting Light and Shadow in Watercolor”. I haven’t opened the book in quite some time but I found the reproduction and scanned it here. It is in fact, the very same urn, painted more than two decades ago! Thanks for this, Sue!

Two recipes

Every week when I drive out to Ferme Tournesol to pick up my CSA basket, I choose vegetables with both cooking and painting possibilities in mind. Beets are always a favourite because they come with their greens intact, and I love how the dark, velvety beets look next to the red stems and the green leaves.

My painting recipe for the beets is to use Holbein Umber along with Alizarin Crimson, Ultramarine Blue, Hooker’s Green and a bit of Raw Sienna. The stems are mostly Alizarin and Ultramarine (in the dark areas). The bright green foliage is Hooker’s Green, Ultramarine and Hansa Yellow. This was painted with a very juicy brush on a half sheet of Arches Rough paper.

My (abbreviated) soup recipe is from my favourite Deborah Madison cookbook “Vegetarian Cooking for Everyone”, page 203. It uses not only beets but leeks and turnips that were in my basket this week. Make a stock from whatever vegetable bits you have around plus the beet skins and onion or leek tops. Cook the onion or leek in butter, add chopped beets and turnips and a bit of salt. Cook for 5 minutes. Strain the stock (you need 6 cups) and add it to the vegetables, cooking until tender. Add the chopped beet greens and some lemon juice. Serve with chopped fresh dill, pepper, and a spoonful of sour cream or yogourt.