Sketching Druid Hill Creek Part 4

By the end of March the season and the calendar match more closely but it's been a cold and wet couple of weeks. The first day of Spring was the 20th but any sunshine has been intermittent. Rain and even a bit of snow have kept the ground damp and cold and kept me out of the garden. I did plant some peas but the ground is too cold. The cooler temperatures have meant little change in the woods, although you can see a hint of green here and there. Across the creek naturalized daffodils are up perhaps three or four inches and if you really close you can see greening buds on the honeysuckle.

The creek hasn't been frozen over for weeks now, flowing three or four inches deep most of the time. Once in a while, though, depending on the intensity of rainfall the water starts to run faster and deeper and in truly heavy downpours can reach three feet or so. But so far we haven't seen the torrents that happen as warming air brings thunderstorms. That's for April. Meantime, the skies stay grey with clouds then clear for a few tantalizing hours. March in Iowa.

During part of this month I was away from the studio and couldn't sketch the creek, but the last two weeks have been more productive. This is the view downstream on March 24, just after sunrise. The sky was clear that morning, reflected in the near surface of the water. The yellow morning light enhanced what color remained in the nearly white grasses from last year.

The clear sky was brief, though, and the world greyed again as clouds and rain and snow moved through the plains again, the night after I painted this view of Druid Hill Creek in the sketchbook. The sky was the color of lead and the creek more like tarnished steel. The leafless trees were shades of warm grey against the sky. Even though the weather felt bleak there were a few yellow promises on the distant creek banks.

In like a lamb, March is going out unpleasantly if less than leonine. Snow kept on coming even into the final week of the month. T.S. Eliot claimed April was cruelest, but March certainly deserves to be second-worst. The prolonged pause before grasses begin to sprout and new foliage covers grey branches has been difficult. One person told me that she felt March is more "pre-spring" than "post-winter," which is certainly a positive and useful attitude. The sketch from the day after the late snow shows some hints of warmer weather, because at just past sunup the remaining scraps of snow were melting.

Here is the final sketch for March, done on the warmest day of our new spring. The sun was out, and so were all of the formerly hibernating Iowans. I finished just at sunup, before the light penetrated to the creekside very much. The light was bright, and more yellow, and at last it seemed that true spring has arrived.


April is in the offing and perhaps some early flowers will be out soon. Daffodils and other bulbs are awake and green spears point skyward in spite of the raw wind and grey sky.

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Previously:
Druid Hill Creek Part 1
Part 2
Part 3