Finally Fall
The season of brilliant reds, oranges, and yellows is upon us here in the Northeast. While the changing foliage of trees steals the show, those same colors echoed in roadsides and fields are just as lovely. I’d better get painting– the season’s peak doesn’t last long. Step out and enjoy the colorful show while you can. Tips and Techniques– Don’t be intimidated by painting tiny flowers. They can be niggly, but keep in mind that you don’t have to draw every tiny shape and detail. Look at the overall structure of… Read More
Not the Last Afterall
Whatever happened to posts about birds or flowers or trees? There will be more of those to come, I promise. But first, just a few more mushrooms which, as you will see, were worthy of paint. First, the pear-shaped puffball, whose smoky spores release when gently squeezed. And then the inconspicuous tannish-brown clitocybe. Who would have thought lavender gills would be hiding underneath that unassuming cap? Tips and Techniques– Use your sketchbook to try a variety of artistic approaches. Part of what’s keeping me going on mushrooms week after week is not… Read More
Until Next Year (maybe)
Okay. This is it! The last of the mushrooms for 2022. I don’t think I can paint any more, try to identify any more, read any more. I must clean my desk and turn a new page! But then, who knows, I haven’t gone outside yet today to see if anything new has come up. Tips and Techniques– For this page, I thought it might be fun to try something different and just take a top down view of mushroom caps. This gave me a chance to look at patterns, texture, and… Read More
In the Shoal
The thrill of being at the beach is not only experiencing the ocean, it’s also about never knowing what you might find. While treasure hunting last weekend on the south coast of Massachusetts, I was hoping for perfect shells or shorebirds, but instead found beautiful purple and silver colored fish recently washed up on shore. The fish were small and not long dead, one here, two there, all told, about ten as we made our way along the beach. Later, while swimming nearby, huge shoals of these same fish moved all about… Read More
Full of Life
My garden is full of life this month! Butterflies, bees, hawkmoths, and hummingbirds are coming daily to feast on July’s main attractions: coneflowers and beebalm. I’ve seen swallowtails and skippers, fritillaries and whites. What a grand display! Mind you, my garden is not perfect. There are gaps here and overcrowding there, some plants didn’t come back this spring and others are looking meager. But it is enough for me to pick out a bouquet or a painting, or to simply enjoy the show. Tips and Techniques- I always find that adding wildlife… Read More
Bits and Pieces
I traveled to Maine last week to direct and teach the Arts & Birding workshop at the Audubon Camp at Hog Island. The workshop is an intensive five-day program that includes bird walks at dawn, a variety of art lessons, hikes, evening programs, and a day-long boat trip to see Atlantic puffins and other seabirds. We welcomed a wonderful group of artists this year who sketched, learned, shared, and produced beautiful artwork. Because my job includes teaching and ensuring that everything is running smoothly, my painting time is limited. Still, I managed… Read More
Coming Soon
Spring is just about to burst forth here in New York. It’s a time many of us eagerly await; the long winter months nearly behind us. Just a few things are blooming now, but the pace will accelerate in the coming days with a procession of spring ephemerals, migratory birds, flowering trees and shrubs, and colorful bulbs. I went looking for spring yesterday and was pleased to spend time with star magnolia and forsythia before the rain came and temperatures fell from 60-to 40-degrees. Here’s wishing you time to wonder and enjoy… Read More
Go to the Swamp
“If you are afflicted with melancholy at this season, go to the swamp and see the brave spears of skunk cabbage buds already advanced toward a New Year.” – Henry David Thoreau, 1857 I walk to the swampy margin of a nearby stream every March. It’s still cold. Still brown and gray. But I know that I will find there the first blooms of the year. Tucked inside a cloak of mottled maroon and green the tiny yellow-green flowers hide. The first waking insects will find them on warmer days than this;… Read More
Walking Among Cherry Blossoms
We couldn’t have picked a better weekend to visit Washington D.C. I didn’t realize when we chose the date that it would coincide with the blooming of the city’s cherry trees. After two years of social isolation, families, friends, and lovers strolled among the trees around the Tidal Basin, drinking in the beauty of pink and white blossoms in the sun. In a world with so much division and strife, what a gift to find the promise of hope and renewal still within our reach. The planting of cherry trees in Washington… Read More
Ice Cold
When temperatures have not climbed out of the single digits for a few days, going outside when it’s 10-degrees seems almost reasonable. And what more appropriate subject to focus on than ice? I walked along a nearby stream, looking at the variety of frozen formations. Though I had my sketchbook, it was too cold to open it, so I snapped a few photos and returned home to paint. How ironic then, when, sitting in my warm home office/studio, a frozen pipe burst upstairs, sending a cascade of water through walls, ceiling, and… Read More
Drawn In 