Anatomy of a Shell
How many of us have picked up shells on beaches, turning over a smooth and perfect whorl, or marveling at the pearly shine inside a clam or mussel? We owe our fascination, of course, to the mollusks that created and lived out their lives in these structures, and then left them behind for the sea to recycle or someone to find. I hadn’t really thought much about the anatomy of shells before, but it’s time I learned. This page illustrates some of the major features of both bivalve and gastropod shells, along… Read More
From Bulb to Bloom
I’ve enjoyed watching my amaryllis over the last month as it shot up out of the bulb, grew taller each week, and finally exploded in colorful blooms. I drew it each week and ran out of room on this page just as the blossoms emerged. When I tried painting the flowers on a new page, I found I couldn’t do them justice in the confines of my sketchbook. So, I started again, this time on a 12×16 sheet of hot press watercolor paper, and that did the trick. Tips and Techniques-… Read More
Simply Complicated
It was a banner year for the White Pine tree in our yard. Laden with green cones at the uppermost branches throughout the summer, the tree rained down pinecones throughout the fall. I decided to collect a basketful before winter, thinking I might find them useful as holiday décor. They did, indeed, look nice in an old metal basket on our back porch, but the more I looked at them, the more I wanted to draw them. The simplicity of this sketch belies how very challenging that was to do. My plan… Read More
Perfetto
In Italian, perfect. I am grateful to share sketches and photos of an extraordinary week teaching Sketching the Fall Nature of Umbria with Winslow Arts Center. The weather, the setting, the accommodations and, most importantly, the workshop participants were, in a word, perfetto. I thought I’d write a longer post to share the experience with you. Feel free to skip the details and enjoy the images if you prefer. 1. Friday- My husband Dan and I fly nine hours to Rome the day before the workshop begins, arriving at 1:30am Eastern time/6:30am… Read More
Finished – Unfinished
I found this Jack-in-the- Pulpit at the edge of our woods a week ago but it didn’t make last week’s Fall Collection. With its bright red berries and arcing leaf, it deserved its own page. Still, its three faded leaflets paled in comparison with the fruit, so I decided to let the berries get the attention. Finished? Unfinished? I think finished, especially after the moth showed up on our porch ceiling and made its way onto the page. Tips and Techniques– Decision, decisions! Right from the start of every piece, you are… Read More
Fall Collection 2023
My desk is littered with signs of the changing season. It started with a walnut and an acorn and quickly turned into a full-on collection. I love recording these small treasures, though I’m happy to clean up and have my desk back, too. Tips and Techniques– What treasures are you seeing as the season changes? Take a walk or a hike and see how many tree nuts, seeds, and fruits you can find. What’s nice about sketching things like this is that they are easy to bring home and work with as… Read More
Left Behind
What a treasure to find the shell of a northern moon snail, a perfect whorl nearly four inches end to end, decorated with a few barnacles. I love the heft of it in my hand. I love turning it over and over to study it from different angles. The huge snail that built it is long gone, but how nice that this was left behind. Tips and Techniques– I did this page directly with a Micron 005 sepia pen and a light wash of sepia watercolor, plus a bit of yellow ochre… Read More
Clamming
If you’ve ever enjoyed a clam roll or chowder or steamers, then you know the flavor of Mya arenaria, the soft shell clam. Before these mollusks reach your table, they eek out a life burrowed in soft mud or sand, filtering tiny plankton from sea water. Most clams today won’t reach their potential life span of 10-12 years, nor will they reach anyone’s plate, because they will be eaten first by highly invasive green crabs or other predators. Here’s a look at the ins and outs of clams and a few of… Read More
Painting Exuberance
If last week I praised precision, this week I extol the value of putting some exuberance on the page. Especially when it comes to sketching your favorite subjects, or new-found discoveries in nature or, even better, both—some loose pen and paint and a splash of spatter can help to bring energy to your page. I painted this as a demo for a recent class on mushrooms, a subject deserving of enthusiasm. I’ve since headed to Maine, where I stepped out of the car and found black trumpets and violet cortinarius mushrooms pushing… Read More
Drawn In 