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 smaller sketches while traveling and hiking and participated in our annual Hour-by-Hour challenge. Here are a few bits and pieces of the week.
Tips and Techniques– When time is limited, try doing small sketches on a single page. When connected by a theme—travel, hiking, around the house, etc.—these small pieces can add up to tell a story that is worth recording.
And because I’ve only shown you bits and pieces, here are a few photos so you can see more of Hog Island.
Upcoming Workshops: I have both online and in person workshops coming up, including the Savoring Summer series at Winslow Art Center, Sketching and Painting Birds in Westport, Mass, and Drawn to Nature at the Adirondack Great Camp Santanoni in Newcomb, NY. Check the Workshops page for details.
Beach Chicks
Unless you live near the coast or visit frequently, there may only be a few times in your life that you will get to see hatchling shorebirds scampering at the surf line. I count myself fortunate to have visited the coast of Massachusetts last week at the perfect time to see piping plover chicks. Running around on stilt-legs, the tiny puff balls were foraging at the water’s edge, already managing to avoid getting swamped or stomped on by beachgoers. These birds were at least several days old, though piping plover chicks can walk and feed themselves within hours of hatching. As we walked, a new chick or family group appeared every 20 feet or so, as if they had drawn an invisible line in the sand to mark their territory. Other beachgoers strode right by and never noticed them. To be sure, birds the color of sand are not easily seen. So, if you are heading to the coast, take notice! There’s a lot more than surf to watch.
Tips and Techniques– I don’t always bring my sketchbook to the beach, but I had it along with me in hopes of seeing nesting least terns. I was lucky to see those too, but it was the piping plover chicks that really captivated me. I sketched the birds very quickly in pencil, making light lines to mark their posture and gestures. Back home, I fleshed out the bodies, refined the shapes, and filled in the details, using videos for reference. When I was satisfied with the pencil sketch, I inked the lines with a fine Micron 005 pen and then added watercolor. I didn’t actually see piping plover eggs, so I used a reference photo for a single egg and created the four eggs pointing inward as they typically are in a piping plover nest.
If you build it…
Since we moved to our house five years ago, we’ve been converting several areas that were formerly maintained as mown lawn to meadow. This is the first year that wildflowers and milkweed from seeds sown and scattered are blooming and it’s a delight to see butterflies, bees, and dragonflies take notice. A monarch caterpillar was our best resident to date, and I’m glad I sketched it before it either became a juicy meal for a lucky bird or crawled off and hid itself to begin its transformation. Alas, it has been a lovely June in the meadow. What will July bring?
Coming up in July: Sketching Garden Flowers, Tuesday, July 19, 3-5pm Pacific/6-8pm Eastern, online at Winslow Art Center >
The Promise of Summer
With the solstice officially marking summer this week, the season of plenty is here to celebrate. Many birds have already fledged one brood and are now sitting on a second clutch. Depending on where you live, songbirds may even have a chance to raise three broods. I say, thank goodness for second chances. Let the wrens try again after their first nest was disturbed by a bear. Let the robins lay perfect blue eggs and hope the jays leave them alone. Let all this new life surround and fill us during the brightest and darkest of days.
Slow Painting
There’s a bias in urban and nature sketching for working quickly. The idea is to get the subject down while on location and to capture the moment, place, or experience. It’s a worthy practice and many people do it well, completing sketchbook pages with lovely drawings and paintings in an hour or two. But there’s also a lot to be said for working slowly. Careful observation and allowing time for a subject to resonate gives you time to figure out how best to approach it on paper. Sometimes I build a painting over days, weeks, or even months. This was one of those slow paintings. Though relatively simple, it took me the better part of last week to complete it.
Before beginning, I mixed every combination of green from the yellow and blue paints in my palette, filling a large sheet to figure out which ones I liked best. Then it took me several sessions to create the depth I was l was looking for in the leaves. When I got stuck or lost a sense of direction, getting up and walking away helped me to return and see what I needed to do next. While working slow or fast is a matter of preference, consider setting your own pace and taking as long as you need to bring your vision to life.
I’m excited to kick off my Savoring Summer Sketchbook Series at Winslow Arts Center on the summer solstice, June 21. Learn more on the Workshops page or at the Winslow website.
Showstopper
The color of poppies is outrageous—so bright and red you can scarcely believe it. But there it is, once a year, a showstopper in the early June garden. When other flowers are just contemplating what kind of tune they might sing, the poppies belt out their solo. Confidently, they command center stage—knowing, perhaps, that a good rain will soon end their performance.
Tips and Techniques– Because I work during the day, I am often snatching time for sketching and painting in the evenings. I made several trips to the garden this week, fighting biting insects and fading sunlight each time, and that’s why this page looks as it does. I worked very quickly in the drawing stages, adding a few flowers, seed capsules, buds, and leaves over several evenings. I also added some of the values in ink and then I painted inside. This approach is quite different from setting up a single composition or completing an entire painting in one sitting. Doing a little at a time gives me a chance to watch how my subject changes, while building the composition. But it can be a bit of a race against the clock too, especially this week when I was one storm or windy day away from losing my subject altogether.
Registration is open for SAVORING SUMMER SKETCHBOOK SERIES, Tuesdays: June 21, July 19, August 2, August 23, 3-5pm Pacific/6-8pm Eastern at Winslow Art Center – Online. You can sign up for one or take all four of these watercolor workshops to capture the beauty and bounty of summer in your sketchbook. Class size is not be limited for this series. Hope to see you there!
Catch it while you can
Today, the allium. Tomorrow poppies. Coming and going, a garden is ever evolving, never static. A bee, a swallowtail, if I’m lucky, a hummingbird. Even now, one moment makes way for the next. Catching it while you can makes all the difference.
Tips and Techniques– Because I was away for much of May, I missed the flowering spring trees, many of the ephemeral wildflowers and bulbs, and the unfurling of ferns here in New York. When I got home the allium were in bloom but starting to fade; I knew I had to get painting before they too were gone. Sometimes it is hard to find time for sketching, but I’m always glad when I do. So, my tip today is to make time. Make time to look; make time to focus; make time to sketch while the subject is fresh. Resist the urge to snap a photo “for later.” When later comes, there will be a whole new world out there that you won’t want to miss.
New workshops coming up! SAVORING SUMMER SKETCHBOOK SERIES– Capture the beauty and bounty of summer in your sketchbook in this series of four online watercolor workshops. Choose one or sign up for all four. Tuesdays: June 21, July 19, August 2, August 23, 3-5pm Pacific/6-8pm Eastern. Details on the WORKSHOPS page.
Travels in Italy- Part 2
While you may have heard of or traveled to Italy’s famed Cinque Terre— five colorful villages built into the steep hillsides on the Ligurian coast— you may have missed the lesser known sixth village of Porto Venere. Less crowded than the other villages, Porto Venere is charming and beautiful, with brightly painted villas, narrow streets, and steep stone staircases leading to sweeping views of churches, Roman walls, a castle, and the sea. I logged 13 miles climbing up and down over my two-day stay and bought a lemon to ward off a few apparent cold symptoms. Then I boarded a train for Florence and was ready to fly home.
That’s when a positive result on the required-to-fly Covid test at a local pharmacy threw a wrench in my plans. The following sketches and photos are from my brief stay in Porto Venere and the anxiety-ridden week that followed in an Airbnb in Florence. I allowed myself forays for food and visits to two gardens– as such, there are no grand sketches from that venerable city. After my Airbnb ran out, and not knowing when I would test negative, I booked four non-refundable nights at a boutique hotel outside the city. In the end, I tested negative and spent just one night there, thereby making my sketch of figs a rather expensive undertaking. I am thankful to be home.
Travels in Italy—Part 1
Buon Giorno…It’s been a while. I didn’t mean to be away so long. But sometimes travel leads to the unexpected. After a lovely week of teaching in Umbria and several days hiking up and down the steep hillsides overlooking the sea in Porto Venere, my trip to Italy took a wrong turn when I tested positive for Covid in Florence and couldn’t come home. You may be thinking that spending an unexpected week in Florence is a dream…but not so much when you have to find a place to stay during the height of tourist season, spend a small fortune on hotels and rebooking flights, isolate, and wonder when you might test negative so that you can finally return home.
But let’s start with the best parts of the trip. My workshop for Winslow Art Center, Sketching the Nature of Italy in Watercolor, brought a wonderful group of painters to Castello di Petroia, a medieval castle in the hills of central Italy. Spring was blossoming on the steep slopes, with yellow rape covering the fields, wildflowers tucked alongside rugged paths, and the gray-green of olive trees a striking contrast against a backdrop of oaks and chestnut. We painted, ate impressive multi-course meals, drank good wine, took a day trip to the medieval hill town of Gubbio, and were treated to an amazing introduction to falconry. This set of sketches and photos reflects some of the workshop week. More to come on part 2 of my travels in the days ahead.
I don’t typically share photos, but it’s not every day that you get to visit a medieval castle and I thought you might enjoy these views.
Just the Essentials
So many lists. Still a lot to do. My trip to Italy is a week away and I am nearly ready…but not quite. There’s still paring down and packing and final workshop preparations, but what else can I manage to cram in? A bit of gardening? A few Italian language lessons? House cleaning? Another pre-trip journal page? Alas, this will be my last blog post for a few weeks as I like to unplug and immerse myself fully in a place while traveling and teaching. I’ll share my journey upon my return. A presto!
Tips and Techniques– I typically start a new journal when traveling, but I don’t want a big blank page staring at me when I arrive. Instead, I try to do some pre-trip pages to set the stage. This really helps me begin to think about letter styles, subject matter, color schemes, and materials. You can see that here on the opening page of place names. My initial idea for “Just the Essentials” was to sketch my shoes and my art supplies. But after struggling with the shoes, I decided to pull in the color grid element from the opening page and simply list the supplies. Who knows what will come next! Do you like to start ahead or do you wait until you are on location to begin your travel sketching?
Heads up: If you are near New York City and looking to celebrate spring, check out the New York Botanical Garden’s Colors of Spring and Plein-Air Invitational on May 14. I may be very jet-lagged, but I’ll be there.
Drawn In 