The Pleasure of a Soft Pencil
Though I typically pick up a pen and watercolor when I have time for art, I just really felt like drawing this weekend. A soft pencil, smooth paper, and loose lines were just what I needed. I’ve got 30 bulbs to plant and though each one seems unique and interesting, these five will have to do. The spade is waiting. Tips and Techniques- Sketched with a Staedtler Mars Lumograph 3B pencil on Canson Bristol 100lb paper.
The Beginning of Something Beautiful
The great promise of the amaryllis begins as soon as you open the box and take out the naked bulb. The fact that this thing, this ball of a plant, will produce a huge red flower is remarkable. But it seems to me that it is also beautiful right now. Maybe it’s just that I like drawing tangled roots. Or perhaps it’s the papery peeling skin and ghostly stalk that intrigue me. Maybe it’s all that potential holed up inside such an unlikely package. In any case, it’s the beginning of something… Read More
Painting instead of planting
I could have titled this: How one thing leads to another and I end up with this painting. Or: How my failure to plant bulbs leads to a small success in learning to paint light. Either way, I had intended to plant 80 daffodils this fall, but only 60 went into the ground before an early freeze thwarted me. The thought of those 20 unplanted bulbs sitting in my basement has been nagging at me, so I bought an amaryllis in hopes that it would lessen the disappointment. Unfortunately, the amaryllis had… Read More
The Beauty of Bulbs
What amazes me about amaryllis is the fact that a homely brown sphere the size of a softball can contain within it the potential for bold red blossoms to burst forth from its interior with a minimum of effort on my part. How incredible! I realize that onions and garlic are capable of similar feats, but it’s hard for them to compete. This is the last day that this particular bulb will fit on an 8-inch page at full size— it’s growing at about a half-inch a day— but you can be… Read More
Jean Mackay
The Nature Explorer’s Sketchbook
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