Chapter 17: Spring 2006 pen and inks

n the spring, of course, the river continued to capture the lion’s share of Mom’s attention. Of her numerous sketches in a variety of styles, I will pick out a small sample. They all continue her minimalist style, using as few lines as possible to convey a complete scene.

The big thing on the Willamette in the spring is the spring salmon runs, and boats turn out to see if they can snag a few while the fish are waiting to get above the falls. One sketch (20a) shows the boats against the I-205 bridge. The boat in the foreground is trying to get one in his net:



Here is another, where she used a thicker pen (20b):



She does not leave out the people on shore, either (20c):



On weekends at the peak of the season, boats even tie themselves to each other to form what is called a “hogline” in mid-stream (20e):



My sister Martha, using Mom's camera, took a photo one weekday in April that shows a milder version of this phenomenon (20d):



People also fish from the bank. Here Mom does her signature move of drawing someone from the back (20f):



As spring turns slowly into summer, Mom focuses on essences even more strongly. One sketch gives us the essence of river, all eddies and cross-currents (20g).



I call the next “Boat leaving a Large Wake,” as it seems symbolic of Mom’s own journey away from us into the unknown a couple of months later (20h). We put it on the back cover of the printed program for her Memorial Service.



In the next one, the point of land on the left is recognizable as the southern end of the Clackamas River bank (20i):



In the same style, what I think is the line of a road forms a nice composition (20j):