Time for Spring
March is such a tease. One day it’s 50-F degrees and you’re outside with jacket unbuttoned. The next, there is seven inches of snow on the ground and you’re scraping ice off the windshield…again. Daylight lengthens, blackbirds reappear, but that’s pretty much it for evidence of a changing season. What really shifts in March is the anticipation. You’re closer to spring now. You know that soon salamanders will be moving to breeding ponds, that the woodcock will wing its way to the neighbor’s field, that you’ll find skunk cabbage opening along the stream when the snow melts. And it’s all worth the wait.
Tips & Techniques– This piece was inspired by Welsh explorer-artist Olivia Tonge (1858-1949). At age 50, Tonge set off alone on multiyear trips to explore India and Pakistan. She filled 16 sketchbooks with an assortment of birds, amphibians, reptiles, insects, and plants, juxtaposed with jewelry, food, people, and cultural objects. My takeaway is not to shy away from including a variety of subjects in your sketchbook. Paint what strikes you, especially if you are traveling! Push yourself to paint different textures and arrange different elements on a page. You’ll learn and improve your skills when you do and you’ll come away with an engaging record of your experiences.
Fleeting
Just a few quick bird sketches to wish you a good day and thank you for the many kind notes of condolences shared last week. Life is fleeting; capture what you can of it.
Tips and Techniques– When sketching birds, start with a line for the angle of the bird’s body and then hang the body shape on it. Do the same for the angle of the bill and head. One you have these lines, shapes, and proportions down check for accuracy and refine your sketch. Don’t add detail until the end. The hummingbird sketches here were done in 1-minute and I painted the rufous hummingbird and tufted titmouse in about 45 minutes.
The beauty of ordinary things
My father-in-law died this week at the age of 88. A gentleman always and a stalwart family man, Roger lived for the last 10 months in a nursing home following a serious fall and head injury which left him with significant memory loss. On a recent visit, my husband encouraged me to bring along my sketchbook, hoping that it might spark conversation that had nothing to do with the past or the future. Indeed, it turned out to be one of the loveliest visits we shared together. The pages – whether butterflies, birds, ice, or dried up weeds – brought the outside world in. Roger understood that I was trying to capture the beauty of ordinary things, which, after all, is ours for the taking if only we look. It was to be my last visit. I’m so grateful for the gift of that simple insight and to have known an extraordinary man who understood it.
By the Numbers
Quick quiz: How many species of birds are regularly seen in the U.S.? Butterflies? Moths? How many can you name?
Answer: There are about 800 regularly occurring species of birds, 575 species of butterflies, and a whopping 11,000 species of moths! While I can identify hundreds of birds, I can name fewer than 15 species of moths, a paltry showing considering the amazing diversity of night and day flying species. Assuming you may be as unfamiliar with moths as I am, let me share these three with you and, hopefully, spark an interest in learning more.
The top two are underwing moths in the family Noctuidae. There are many species of underwings (Catocala sp.), characterized by forewings that are perfectly camouflaged to blend in with tree bark, but whose hind wings are generally brightly colored in shades of orange, yellow, or pink. The bottom one is an Io moth in the family Saturniidae. The Saturniids include some of large and more recognizable moth species, including the Luna moth, Polyphemus moth, and Cecropia moth.
Sorry you have not seen a post from me in a few weeks. I’ve been juggling my regular work with planning and developing new art workshop content. I may continue to be less consistent in the weeks ahead, but I hope to be back in the saddle soon.
Butterflies and Chocolate
Stepping from 4֯ F outside into a 75 ֯ F conservatory filled with flowering plants and fluttering butterflies is a wonderful treat on a winter day. I met up with two artist friends at Magic Wings Butterfly Conservatory for an afternoon of sketching, followed by a visit to Richardson’s Candy Kitchen in South Deerfield, Massachusetts. What a winning combination: friends, art, butterflies, and chocolate.
Painting in the conservatory was more overwhelming than I had imagined. Butterflies were everywhere, in nearly constant motion, and the place was crowded with visitors. Although the butterflies themselves were the main attraction, I found a case of chrysalises tucked in a quiet corner to be equally remarkable. Later, I decided to work on a beautiful flowering tree, knowing that it would hold still and, eventually, something would land there.
Tips and Techniques– When painting butterflies, establish the shape in pencil or pen and lay in a first wash of the lightest colors. You can also do this first step without pencil, simply brushing in a loose wash to establish the wing shape. Once this layer is dry, pencil in the pattern and paint a second layer over the first. Fine details come last, with paint or pen or both. You can spend many hours painting a single butterfly with great accuracy and detail or work more quickly for a sketchier feel. It’s best to decide which direction you’re going it at the outset.
Revisiting the Southwest
Can a painting evoke a place, a memory, a moment in time? On a cold winter’s day, this piece certainly gave me a chance to revisit a trip to the Southwest that my family took a few years ago. During a long day hike at Arches National Park, we were surrounded by towering sandstone walls and incredible rock formations. After the first two miles, the crowds thinned and the trail became primitive, with steep climbs and descents. At times, we were alone in that wild expanse of sandstone and sky. A rare gift. Of course, it’s cold at Arches at this time of year, too. But I can still envision it just as it was on that warm, memorable day.
Tips and Techniques– Using a grid is a great way to capture a sense of place. I typically grid my paper in pencil before heading out on a hike or travels to a new place. Then I fill in the squares as I go, combining boxes to suit the shape of my subjects. The grid provides a useful structure that holds the smaller sketches together. Find more grid pages here and here.
HEADS UP! Registration for Arts & Birding at the Hog Island Audubon Camp, July 10-15, 2022 opens February 1. This program often fills quickly so take a look and register soon if you are interested.
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 light fixtures into the kitchen. Ah, ice! In all its beauty and destructiveness. I am sharing only the interesting forms and sparing you the mopping up.
Fledglings Forever
This weekend’s freezing temperatures sent me packing my sketchbook and paints and seeking shelter in the natural history collection at a nearby museum. Amidst a long wall of bird specimens, I found these four fledgling Eastern screech owls. Most collections typically display adult birds, so it was unusual to find an entire set of young siblings. I was grateful for the chance to study these common, yet elusive owls up close. And yet, they haunt me, too. Their life in the wild was so brief, their time behind glass so long. My goal with this painting was to try to bring a bit of life back to these young owls and to share a glimpse their wild, wary beauty with you.
Tips and Techniques– When you have a lot of detail in your subject, it’s easy to get lost. Start with bigger shapes and values first. Once you have established larger structures, you can work on refining the color, deepening the values, and then adding smaller details. This holds true whether you are painting landscapes or buildings or birds. After sketching the owls, I did a wet-in-wet wash of cobalt blue and burnt sienna. Once that was dry, I began deepening the values and refining the larger feather groupings. I added the detailed barring on the feathers last, paying the most attention to the faces.
Screech owls are common throughout much of North America. Learn more about them at The Cornell Lab of Ornithology’s All About Birds.
New Year’s Bouquet
The New Year is ushered in by overcast skies and a misty dampness hanging over woods and fields. I go out in search of something interesting to sketch, hike along a wet meandering stream, up through an old grove of white pines, and wind up in a field of waist-high goldenrod. By this time, the mist is beginning to spit, and the bleak daylight is fading. That’s when I see the New Year’s bouquet stretched out before me. Tight flower-like goldenrod leaf clusters, the result of tiny fly larva that stunt the plant, dot the field. I’m drawn to their curled leaves, twisting every which way; each with its own personality. They’re not much, but they’ll have to do in wishing you a Happy New Year.
Simple Joys
Amidst the hustle of holiday preparations and merriment, I stole a few minutes of quiet out in the neighboring field on a sunny afternoon. A chattering flock of juncos were my only companions as I made my way around the grove of white pines that are slowly taking over the tangled meadow. I appreciate these moments for the simple joys they offer, and I wish you the same this holiday season and throughout the year.
Tips and Techniques– Although the sun was shining, the wind made 30֯ F feel like 20֯ F. I brought only my sketchbook and a pen outside, determined to find something to draw, but with no idea about what that might be. The sense of discovery is part of what makes heading out fun. At times like this, look for something simple to sketch; something you know you can capture in 10 minutes or less. I roughed in the white pines and some basic shapes for the birds, knowing that I could add details later from the comfort and warmth of indoors while watching juncos at my bird feeders.
Drawn In 