Tiny Signs of Spring
I began this page in late March when the first daffodils began to poke from the ground and a few green buds appeared on the lilacs. I thought I’d capture spring’s tiny, tentative first steps: woodcocks calling, the phoebe’s return, flowering red maple. I hope you’ve noticed these things too and can make time to get outside to watch the great unfolding of the new season. Tips and Techniques-I find doing a composite page that evolves a little bit each week really helpful in early spring. It motivates me to get outside… Read More
Lured in
Enticed by folds of foliage and dark pools, I get lost in painting pitcher plants. All those reds blending into greens and purples. Tiny hairs leading downward into open mouths. It’s not hard to see how these plants work their magic. Once lured in, leaving is difficult—and for some, impossible. Tips and Techniques– When you are working with a complicated subject, take time to study it closely and record enough information in the drawing stage before you start painting. This is especially important if you will be painting it later. I spent… Read More
At last!
Finally, it’s warm enough for me to make my way through the woods to the muddy edge of a creek where the skunk cabbage thrives and sketch. For weeks, I’ve gone out scouting good locations, watching the maroon spears push up through frozen earth, watching the ground give up its ice as the spathes open. I’ve been waiting for a day when work, wind or fading daylight wouldn’t keep me indoors with an empty sketchbook…and here it is. You might think forty degrees is awfully cold for sketching outdoors, but with a… Read More
Warblers in my Sketchbook
Spring is here! Well, not really. It will be a few weeks before things start to green up and another six or seven weeks before the warblers show up in New York. In the meantime, it’s 40°F, raining, and gray, and the only warblers I’ll be seeing for a while are the ones in my sketchbook. Tips and Techniques– You can see from my color notes that I used very few pigments to paint each of these birds. When choosing colors for a subject, experiment with a few mixes and see if… Read More
Ink: Dry and Wet
I recently bought two bottles of Diamine ink—one ochre and one chocolate brown—to use in my fountain pen. I was hoping to find a warm, sepia-toned color reminiscent of the inks used by Renaissance drawing masters. Both inks flow beautifully, and when wetted they can be pulled into light washes. Unfortunately, neither color was quite right. The chocolate brown was too cold and dark, while the ochre shifted toward an orange rust when wet. That led me to start mixing the two, carefully noting and testing different ratios in search of something… Read More
Collecting on Paper 2026
One of my favorite things to do at this time of year is to fill my sketchbook with specimens from a nature center or museum. There are always so many fascinating things to discover, and I enjoy the challenge of arranging them together on a single page. If you’ve followed me for a while, you’ve seen similar pages before. Here’s this year’s collection, plus a few selections from prior years. Tips and Techniques– Sketching in museums and nature centers is a defining part of my work and I can’t recommend it highly… Read More
Pre-Flight Checklist
Sketches. Maps. Curiosity. These travel essentials are just as important to me as airline tickets and a passport. These pages are part of my preparation for a workshop I’ll be teaching at Sofia in Monsaraz, Portugal, June 3–8, 2026. This region of Portugal is a landscape of wide skies, ancient olive trees, cork oaks, vineyards, white-walled towns, and birds I hope to see. I’ve never been to Portugal, so my preparation also includes brushing up on Portuguese history, reading a few poets; studying the work of Portuguese artists; and learning about the… Read More
Tools of the Trade
Wishing you a good weekend filled with art, art supplies, or both. Tips & Techniques– I recently made a sketch of my art supplies using sepia ink. I was happy with the way it came out, but also eager to do it again in color. I always learn a lot from painting ordinary objects. They force me to figure out how to approach different textures or consider new layouts. Doing a page like this is sort of like putting together a puzzle– figuring out what the picture will look like as you… Read More
Unexpected Connections
A sudden flash of white-and-black wings lifts from the roadside and then vanishes just as quickly into the field. Only one bird shows so much white in winter: the snow bunting. In good years, I spot them at the edges of nearby agricultural fields where they forage for seeds. Snow buntings are birds of the high Arctic that come south to the northern U.S. and Canada in winter. After painting these birds, I went looking for images of their eggs to add to the page. I was delighted to discover a nest… Read More
Silver Lining
The silver lining of the past week’s snow and cold is the flock of juncos that are hanging out on our back porch every day. We put up an extra bird feeder there to help them through the freezing weather and heavy snow. Unfortunately, my perch for sketching by our back porch door has proven rather drafty— the birds are surviving the chill far better than I am. Sketched in pencil in a Handbook Journal Co. sketchbook with 140lb cold press watercolor paper, Micron 005 black pen for the text, and watercolors-… Read More
Drawn In 