Creekside After a Flood

Camp chair on a sandy bank

in the shade of willows

cool air warm sun

musical waters

lulled

into complacency

oblivious of the reshaped watercourses

flattened saplings

and tangled debris

Cataract developed as predicted.

More surgery to come.

Trying to see is very tiring. 

Distortion, darkness, no detail, little color, on the right. 

Floaters on the left.

Stumpy Saguaro

Ajman Brahm speaks the trees in the forest, the most interesting and beautiful being so because of their imperfections. With that in mind, I present you with "Stumpy", a saguaro who was somehow beheaded at eight feet, and who compensated for this disaster by sprouting a multitude of arms. 

Another lovely Sunday afternoon sketching at Jewel of the Creek.

By The Creek

Sunday morning by the creek

after a night's rain.

This sandy bank

warmed by the sun

is lush with grass

and the music of running water.

The desert foothills

is a good place to be

 in January.

Sketching as therapy for vision - very uncomfortable and peculiarly disorienting when focusing on a scene with such a hodgepodge of objects. Palming was an effective way to rest the eyes. 

New Mission

In the past year, much water has passed under the bridge (one of my favorite painting subjects).

• I left The Taunton Press in Newtown, Connecticut
• I sold my home and studio of seventeen years in Sandy Hook.
• I drove west and moved in with my brother in Cave Creek, Arizona.

Starting anew - a new mission - I've been searching for a studio and home in Arizona and ways to make myself a useful part of the community.

In this search I've found the Cave Creek Unified School District #93, who were seeking a service worker to help maintain their Fine Arts Center. And so my evenings have been spent quietly cleaning this beautiful building while the sun sets, filling me with peace and inspiration.

But my search continues, for a studio and home, on which I can lavish the same attention as I did on my belovéd cottage back east. . . 

AZ Hiking Sketchbook 2015

AZ Hiking Sketchbook 2015

By Nancy Boudreau

Twenty-four watercolor sketches 

from the beautiful wilderness trails of 

Phoenix, Cave Creek, and Sedona.

Click on the cover above to see a preview of the full book, courtesy of Blurb.

Elephant Mountain North

Climbing the trail up the north side of Elephant Mountain, the trunk being the peak in the upper right corner, this is yet another page out of the travel sketchbook. 

Desert foothill hiking on overcast days is very comfortable, but the real treat is when sun breaks through the clouds* sending patches of light that scan across Earth's contours, as if an almighty being were seeking something with its celestial flashlight.

*"Sun Through Clouds" piano instrumental by Matthew Morgan - thank you for the inspiration.

Sketch of Solar Oasis

A sketch of the Solar Oasis at Spur Cross Ranch Conservation Area, where both humans and wildlife find relief from the sun, dust, and heat.

Elephant Mountain from Tortuga Trail

Today's offering is a sketch of the view of Elephant Mountain from Tortuga Trail in the Spur Cross Ranch Conservation Area. The Aravaipa Running club has two long distance events scheduled for these trails on February 20th.

Wilted Datura

Another page out of the Arizona travel sketchbook, this time portraying a wilted Datura blossom along a trail on the Spur Cross Ranch, a part of the Desert Foothills Land Trust.

Traveling Sketches from Arizona

Thanksgiving in Arizona, spending time with family and hiking in the foothills carrying camera, sketchbook, pencil, and watercolors. The first page of the book is a view of Spur Cross Road, traveling north into the foothills, where conservation groups and land trusts have managed to preserve some of the best hiking trails in the Phoenix area. 

Cave Creek Crossing

5" x 7" acrylic painting on matboard
housed in an 8" x 10" cream-colored mat

These planks cross Cave Creek at Jewel of the Creek, Spur Cross Ranch, in Cave Creek Arizona. This is a magical place in the desert, where water runs year-round. Cottonwoods and willows grow here because of, and in spite of, the water. 

This painting is up for auction until February 23rd. 

Sunset on Almeda Court

This is a view of the sunset as seen from my mother's front doorstep.                                                                       - Nancy Boudreau

Note: 

This is the 500th posting to my blog! 

Happy Birthday to NBoudreau.com!

This is a 5" x 7" acrylic painting on matboard, in a cream-colored 8" x 10" mat.

It will be available via auction through February 19th.

Return to Cave Creek

5" x 7" acrylic painting
comes in a cream-colored 8" x 10" mat

My first posting to the blog since July 16th 2011. This is a view of Cave Creek, as seen last week during my recent visit to family in Arizona. Again and again, I return to this oasis in the desert.

It will be available via auction through February 12th.

Crossing Cave Creek

Tiptoe across the stones to sun washed sandbars. This is the Dragonfly Trail on Cave Creek, Spur Cross Ranch Conservation Area in the Desert Foothills Land Trust, Cave Creek Arizona. - Nancy Boudreau

Check me out on Etsy. . .

This painting is about 5 x 7 inches and is acrylic on gessoed mat board, protected in a cream colored mat, and as with all these little studies, the text above is handwritten on the back of the painting, which is also signed and dated.

For comments and queries, please feel free to contact me directly at: nb@nboudreau.com

Other paintings for sale through Etsy. . .

Cave Creek Boulders

In the Spur Cross Ranch Conservation Area, Dragonfly Trail wanders along Cave Creek before heading up and away into the desert foothills. "Riparian habitat" - fancy words. No words are needed to understand that this is a sacred place to any thing that needs water to live - especially in the desert. As I record the scene, the creek flows tamely, surrounded by evidence of it's power: rounded, tumbled boulders, sandbars of finely pounded rock, willows lying flat in the creekbed, refusing to be drowned, new growth springing straight upward, vertically, from their horizontal trunks. The cottonwoods are lush green, tangles of tinder-dry flotsam caught in their branches six feet above my head. I can only imagine the roots that anchor these giants against such a flood. - Nancy Boudreau

Find this painting on Etsy. . .

This painting is about 5 x 7 inches and is acrylic on gessoed mat board, protected in a cream colored mat, and as with all these little studies, the text above is handwritten on the back of the painting, which is also signed and dated.

For comments and queries, please feel free to contact me directly at: nb@nboudreau.com