Sermons in Stones

And now I know what subalpine means: in the foothills or lower slopes of mountains, below the treeline. Which seems to imply that alpine trees grow above the treeline. This dendrology stuff is complicated.

Anyway, tree research can wait. This took a long time because each needle was outlined or shadowed by another. It was hard not to keep moving along from one to the next until I had drawn the whole twig and its hundreds of leaves. I just had to stop in the middle.

A.k.a. “Christmas tree.” The needles are closely packed and mostly grow upwards. Another one whose leaves are liveliest en masse, but I can’t always draw a whole twig’s worth.

Will you look at this California red fir?

I just about wept looking at it: for the beauty of those curving needles, as graceful as dancers; from the desire to spend lots of time with them and try to put some of that beauty on paper; and from exhaustion. I don’t know why I should be so tired at 8:30 pm, but I am, and tomorrow is an early-rising morning despite its being Saturday. I just can’t spend an hour drawing.

So I tried to make it simple. Maybe I will come back to these needles one day. And I’ll keep an eye out for the well-named Abies magnifica in the wild. It’s not so common here by the coast, but it grows abundantly in Yosemite and all along the western slopes of the Sierras, the guide tells me.

Native but rare. The “weeping spruce” grows near the treeline in the Siskiyou Mountains, and the droop of its branches protects them from breaking under the heavy snows of these high elevations (3300-7500′).

As the name suggests, this species is not native to California or anywhere in the United States. It is commonly cultivated here, but doesn’t live nearly as long as it does in Europe, where it can live to be 300 years old. These trees thrive at higher altitudes, and one variety that grows in the Alps was used by Stradivarius.

Also, it was really fun to draw. I didn’t sit down to it until after 9:30, and I was dragging. Then I didn’t want to stop. But that is so often the way.

Trying to draw fast but not messily. One out of two . . .

[Carpenter Shih said of the enormous oak in the village of Crooked Shaft]: “It’s a worthless tree! Make boats out of it and they’d sink; make coffins and they’d rot in no time; make vessels and they’d break at once. Use it for doors and it would sweat sap like pine; use it for posts and the worms would eat them up. It’s not a timber tree—there’s nothing it can be used for. That’s how it got to be that old!” — Chuang Tzu (in Burton Watson translation, Chuang Tzu: Basic Writings)

“Black Spruce is one of the most widely distributed conifers in North America. Uses are similar to those of White Spruce; however, the small size limits lumber production.” –The Audobon Society Field Guide to North American Trees, Western Region

Another greatly magnified cross-section caught my eye, so I promised myself I would draw it fast and finish it tonight. Skipping over detail and still capturing the feel of a thing can be a tough challenge for me.