Deep Dive
I had the privilege of doing a deep dive into two incredible collections at Scripps Institution of Oceanography while visiting California last week. The Marine Vertebrate Collection contains two million preserved fish specimens representing 5,600 species. The benthic invertebrates include 800,000 specimens and 7,600 species. These have been collected over decades from diverse marine habitats, including coral reefs, seamounts, hydrothermal vents, hydrocarbon seeps, the abyssal plain, and deep trenches. If you don’t mind dead creatures in glass jars, it’s awesome. The curators of both collections gave me time to wander through the… Read More
Lasting Construction
The Eastern Towhee is a bird of forest edges and shrubby fields where they scratch around on the ground for seeds, fruits, grains, and insects. I see them occasionally foraging under our shrubs and I hear them frequently in spring and summer calling from the brushy field bordering our property. What I’ll never see is their nest in the wild, which is always well concealed on the ground. Hence, I put the towhee on my short list of nests to pull from the shelves when I visited the NYS Museum ornithology collection… Read More
Believing in Beauty
The transformation from caterpillar to butterfly is one of nature’s many small miracles. I was beautifully reminded of it last week during a visit to a butterfly conservancy, where fluttering wings in stunning colors and patterns flickered and floated around us. I found myself drawn to the stillness of the chrysalis display, where hundreds of jewel-like and homely pupa hung. Two butterflies had recently emerged. They seemed like a promise to all of us who have no idea where life is headed but still believe in the possibility of enduring beauty. Tips… Read More
Get Sketching!
It’s that time of year when I’m eager to put pen to paper, but cold, gray days dampen my enthusiasm for going outside. It’s the perfect time for my annual pilgrimage to the Pember Museum of Natural History in Granville, NY. Open just a few hours on Saturdays, I arrive and get to work quickly. There are so many choices amidst the wealth of specimens, but I’m always drawn first to the nests and eggs. From there, I branch out to birds and insects. I focus intently, keep my pen moving, and… Read More
Acrobats in the Freezing Wind
I remember the first time I saw a starling, now at least 35 years ago. I was in a bank parking lot and a small flock was strutting and pecking around on the lawn. I thought they were such extraordinary birds—as Mary Oliver writes, “chunky and noisy but with stars in their black feathers”—and I excitedly went home to look up my find. When I discovered they were ordinary European starlings, I felt foolish. If I was going to get to know birds, I was going to have to do better. Now… Read More
Holiday Baking
Most of my creative time and energy during the holiday season goes into gift making, wrapping, and baking, and this year was no different. As a result, my sketchbook comes up short. So as the year closes out, I thought I’d devote a page to remembering the recipes I enjoyed making and consuming last week. I do wish I could share my sublime toasted hazelnut coffee cake with you as thanks for following my blog all year long. Alas, it is gone, so I send my favorite wooden spoons and a photo,… Read More
Winter Flowers
Mop-topped goldenrod dance in the frozen field. I find them a fitting celebration of winter: stark and windswept, but still lively and lovely, especially when tinged with frost. I like walking out into the cold field and sketching a few right in place, feeling the same air and wind that chills and rattles their thin leaves. I also appreciate being able to take a few home to study and sketch without wind or gloves. On this first day of winter, I wish you a season full of new discoveries, unexpected gifts, and… Read More
Along the Roadside: November
If you were to walk along the roadside here, you would see a landscape of tawny browns, russets, and grays, mixed with pale ochres and faded greens. But every now and then, a pop of red hangs on, waiting for wind or birds to snatch it away. It’s late November’s palette. I appreciate its bright surprises, glinting in the cold sun. Tips and Techniques- Even when it’s cold, I often take my sketchbook with me when out for a walk. I stop to sketch what catches my attention and hope that a… Read More
Retreat
The sketches I’m posting today are from my weekend teaching at the Botanical Art & Nature Sketching Retreat at the Ashokan Center in New York’s Catskill Mountains earlier in November. Sixty-eight people from all over the country came for the weekend and it was an incredible convergence of artists. I was honored to teach alongside extraordinary botanical artists Wendy Hollender, Lara Call Gastinger, and GiacoMina Ferrillo, and to be in the company of so many warm, enthusiastic, and supportive people. Given my brother’s deteriorating health, I wasn’t sure whether to go but… Read More
I’ll Look for You
Losing a brother is like losing part of yourself– part of your childhood, your growing up, your everyday life. You grieve for yourself and for the future without him, but also for those who lost a friend, a teacher, an uncle. My brother Jim died last Monday night of a progressive and fatal lung disease. His decline over the last few weeks was precipitous and heartbreaking. I’m grateful that we shared many intimate and honest moments together, including on his final day. When I told him how much I would miss him,… Read More
Drawn In 