Spring Begins with Yellow
Bright pops of color against a landscape of brown, gray, and increasing green, who wouldn’t be happy about yellow flowers in early spring? Not only are we heartened by the blooms, so too are the flowers’ pollinators. Flies are among the first insects to awaken in spring. It turns out that they lack color vision, but they can perceive bright blooms against a darker background. And although they add moments of annoyance while sketching, I have to give them their due in service of spring.
Tips & Techniques– If you want to sharpen your color awareness, choose one color and fill a sketchbook page with it. Test out different pigments to see which hue suits your subject best. You can do this at any time of year, but it always seems to work best in spring when shades of greens, yellows, violets, and pinks abound.
Painting the Colors of Spring, May 17 (Pinks and Reds) and June 14 (Greens), 10am-2pm. If you’re in New England, join me for the upcoming sessions of this in person workshop at the Berkshire Botanical Garden in West Stockbridge, Mass. Click on the link at the end of the individual session to register. The May session is waiting list only, but there are still spots for June.
A Welcome Sign
Today, I bring you Skunk Cabbage, Symplocarpus foetidus, one of my favorite spring plants. I love its hardy nature– poking up even through the cold ground in its eagerness to welcome spring. Its hooded spathe and hidden spadix are gorgeous, if perhaps overlooked or underappreciated. Its roots are also absolutely incredible: strong, deep, and grounded. And its unfurling green leaves, bright in sunlit wet woodlands, are a reminder to tap our own inner strength, push through the mud of adversity, and shine forth.
Low Tide Sampler
I’m continuing to explore tidepool life from our recent trip to California, while it snows on our daffodils here in New York. This Low Tide Sampler includes several phyla of animals commonly found along the coast. Species within each group share characteristic traits and, once you get to know them, it becomes easier to identify species that are new to you and to recognize features that resemble their relatives. The Pacific sand dollar, for example, is like a flattened sea urchin; its five starred pattern resembles its relatives, the starfish. I especially love the way exploration, art, and learning come together on a page like this. Pick any species in nature and you can enjoy a similar deep dive!
I’m hoping the weather warms and it stops raining and snowing here in the Northeast so I can return to sketching outdoors close to home. If you live in this area, consider joining me for Painting the Colors of Spring at the Berkshire Botanical Garden in West Stockbridge, MA, starting next Saturday, April 19. This series includes three Saturday sessions that you can sign up for individually or altogether: April 19, May 17, June 14, 10am – 2pm. It would be lovely to see you in person! (Note: click the link next to the individual session if you want to sign up for just that one in the series.)
It’s all about water
On our recent trip to California, we visited the Pacific coast near San Diego and the desert at Anza Borrego Desert State Park. In both places, adapting to life with and without water influences everything. On the coast, we explored tide pools, where twice a day species that live on the margin between ocean and land showcase a myriad ways of staying moist when the tide goes out. The area we explored is a designated marine reserve which helps protect the rocky and sandy intertidal areas these species rely on.
In the desert, plants and wildlife tap into what little water there is and hold onto it with tenacity. We hiked along a dry wash up to a small oasis where birds, insects, and other wildlife find water and are sheltered by California fan palms, the only native palm tree in the state. Hummingbirds buzzed everywhere and I was thrilled to hear Canyon wrens and see a pair of Loggerhead shrike.
For people, too, it’s all about water. While its hard to argue the attraction to sunny weather and coastal living, the cost is clear. San Diego imports 90-percent of its water from Northern California and the over-used Colorado River. Ninety percent of California’s coastal wetlands have been paved over and built upon.
We visited a restored wetland at San Elijo Lagoon Ecological Reserve, and it was a treat. More than 40 percent of North American bird species have been sighted here as they migrate north and south. I haven’t encountered American Avocets or rattlesnakes in many, many years. So, despite being rather startled when I nearly walked over the snake, I consider myself lucky to have seen both.
Our journey through aquatic and arid landscapes underscored the profound importance of water as a critical lifeline. As I sketched and enjoyed these preserves, the value of stewardship was ever present. Our adventure in California was a vivid reminder that every drop counts.
Tips & Techniques- There’s so much to learn when traveling. Lead with curiosity and use your sketches as an opportunity to explore more!
Winslow Art Center’s Spring Fling Festival is coming up April 10-13. It’s a great chance to sample instructors and take advantage of free classes. I’m leading Sketchbook Happy Hour on Friday, 4/11. Check it out!
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 collections and set up spaces in their labs for me to paint. I could have spent my entire vacation there, but then I would have missed walking the beach and poking in tide pools, birdwatching in coastal wetlands, and exploring the desert. Those sketches are coming soon.
The colors and patterns of moray eels, though faded out of water, remain spectacular.
I had no idea what this was when I selected it; I just knew I’d never seen anything like it. As it turns out, few people have, since it is a marine worm that lives in deep, cold Antarctic waters.
To learn more: Watch this video to go behind the scenes of the Benthic Invertebrate Collection or visit the Scripps collection website.
I have online and in person classes coming up– check them out on the Workshops page.
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 in 2024. This one is a perfect construction of grapevine bark and small twigs. Built by the female in about five days with the intention of lasting a season, this one is more than 125 years old.
Tips & Techniques– While I like the energy inherent in sketches where time is limited, I sometimes lament the sloppiness that can come with it. In contrast, I find it satisfying to work slowly and see what I can achieve by being more careful. This piece is clearly in the slow category. Try working both ways. It will give you options for picking the approach that suits your time and the subject at hand, and push you to become comfortable with both.
The Art of the Bird— If you’d like to learn more about sketching and painting nests (as well as eggs and feathers), check out my upcoming online class, The Art of the Bird. Starting Tuesday, April 1, this 2-hour class is every other week through the beginning of May through Winslow Art Center.
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 & Techniques- This journal page takes advantage of an add on flap to extend the view. I was really intrigued with the large chrysalises on the left, but didn’t know what came out of them until it was nearly time to leave the conservatory. Because there wasn’t room on the page to add the owl butterfly, I decided to paint it on a separate sheet to add it as a flap that would reinforce the concept of transformation. At each stage of painting this piece, I doubted whether it would come together. I kept adding and adding– another pupa, more leaves, another layer of paint, more text– until finally I could see its own transformation and emergence.
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 build a page while the clock ticks down. Closing time comes too soon, but I can’t complain. The museum has worked its magic once again.
Tips & Techniques- If you are looking for motivation or inspiration to sketch on location and need some help to get going, look no further than The Artist’s Guide to Sketching by James Gurney and Thomas Kinkade. Originally published in 1982, and now expanded and remastered, the book feels both timely and timeless. I received an advanced copy, dove in, and came out eager to try new materials and subjects. The Artist Guide to Sketching is part how to sketch and part call to sketch. There are plenty of tips for choosing materials and tackling challenges, as well as techniques for drawing people, capturing motion, studying nature, creating mood, and exploring with your sketchbook.
What I especially appreciated was the guide’s affirmation for those of us who already love to sketch but sometimes feel like it is an underappreciated art rather than fundamental to artmaking for beginners and masters alike. Find out more here.
Coming up! If you want to learn more about sketching bird eggs, nests, and feathers, check out my upcoming online class The Art of the Bird, starting April 1st at Winslow Art Center.
Perched
While the weather is frightfully cold and icy, I’m content to perch at my desk to paint. And speaking of perched, I’m having a great time teaching Birds and Words online at Winslow Art Center. Participants have been hard at work practicing lettering, layouts, and different ways to put birds together with words, quotes, and poems. This week we worked on perching birds on letters—a fun way to shine the spotlight on our avian neighbors and record what birds are hanging out and surviving the cold this February.
Tips & Techniques– Watercolor is notoriously challenging for correcting mistakes. Sometimes you can lift out paint, but it’s not uncommon to make things worse by scrubbing too much. I’ve also seen people try to paint over mistakes with too heavy a hand resulting in an overworked piece. So when I noticed that I had accidentally dropped a blob of blue on my “2025” I decided it might be best just to leave it. If you’re not sure what to do with mistakes, take a break and then come back fresh and evaluate your options: leave, lift, rework, cover over, or start again.
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 here I am, all these years later, revisiting my foolishness. I see starlings gathered at the edge of snowy and stubbled cornfields. And then they lift off in unison, dancing across the sky — “acrobats in the freezing wind” — extraordinary after all.
Tips & Techniques- Starlings look black and brown from a distance, but they have a remarkable variety of color up close, and especially during the breeding season. While you could paint them using black paint, you would lose the vibrance and variety achieved with color mixes that yield richer darks. I used masking fluid for the white markings and then painted several layers of alizarin crimson, ultramarine, burnt sienna, and veridian watercolor to convey the iridescent purples and greens. Once the masking fluid was removed, I toned down some of the whites on the underside with a pale and loose wash of these same colors, and used them again to suggest the murmuration across the page.
Drawn In 