Watercolor Painting--A Reflection of Life

I've been approaching painting one-hour-at-a-time lately.  This is not my favorite way to paint.  I much prefer to dive in and lose my sense of time, enjoying the painting as it unfolds and remaining in that trance-like state for hours.

Of course, you can create the same effect in a smaller amount of time by making "smaller" decisions.  What you do next is on a smaller scale, covers a smaller area, or simply consists of fewer strokes of paint.  And there is an up side to painting this way.  You have plenty of time to think about what you want to do next, loading your library of options so they'll be ready the next time you sit down to paint..

Besides time, there are a couple of other things that enter into this dance we call painting--mood and inspiration.  My mood has waxed and waned tentative lately.  It is easy for me to identify one reason.  I have been actively participating in a conservation effort over the past few months, one that required many hours of research, writing and consideration--an effort underway to hunt the eastern population of sandhill cranes, a population that was nearly extirpation just 70 years ago.  Conservation controversies are intense, full of conflict and, inevitably, cause us to dig deep into our inner resources. 

All of the above stimulates changes in mood, from concern to fear and hesitation, to anger, back to tentativeness, and finally to the boldness and determination that leads to decision and action.  Now that's a bouncy ride for any person's mood.  It is hard to paint with all that going on.  But painting can add balance, a quiet introspection and reflection that can be very beneficial.

As the conservation issue was unfolding, the above sandhill crane image that I took in the waste grain corn fields of Bosque del Apache National Wildlife Refuge in New Mexico kept coming into my mind.  A male crane was boldly displaying to another male, establishing his family's feeding territory.  It's hard to imagine there are territories with so many cranes in the same field, but once they are established, these carefully claimed boundaries provide order while families feed together.

This behavior and this image gave me inspiration.  It symbolized the attitude that I needed to go forward with conservation efforts.  And partially because it contained that kind of meaning, I've approached it tentatively.  I've said to myself many times, how are you going to do this?  What are you going to say about that background?  (The image has little variation in light and values.)   How are you going to enhance the subject with these colors?  And, as I have observed to myself many times while working on both the painting and the conservation issue, I don't know the answers.  I just know I need to show up.  One decision at a time, one hour at a time, I'll move forward and the painting will happen.  So, also, the conservation.  

A Restaurant, An Endangered Blue Butterfly and a Life Bird

The conversation went something like this, "Where do you want to go today?"  It was my son's day off and we were in his home town, Los Angeles, CA.  I had given it no thought, but my instant reaction was to check a local birding website to see what hot spots for birding were recommended.  There, I read about a field trip that had taken place the day before at Rockweiler Beach where Snowy Plovers had been seen.   

I asked my son if he knew where this beach was located.  "Its under the LAX runway."  I had to consider this.  A beach under the runway?  

The next thing I knew we were headed for El Segundo, a small community adjacent to LAX (Los Angeles International Airport).  But first we stopped in a local coffee shop called the Blue Butterfly Coffee Company. We all like coffee!  It was while visiting this shop that our butterfly discussion began.  My son explained that the restaurant was named after the endangered El Segundo Blue butterfly.

El Segundo is both a community in Los Angeles, and the name of the coastal dunes that border the Santa Monica Bay.  It is on these dunes that the native Seacliff Buckwheat grows, the host plant for the El Segundo Blue butterfly during every stage of its life-cycle.

When very astute observers discovered that this butterfly was disappearing, it became one of the first species to be listed as endangered in the 70's.  The reason for it's decline?  It is a specialist species that relies solely on one plant throughout its entire life cycle.  And that one plant was disappearing, crowded out by an exotic ice plant species.  The butterfly itself only appears from late June to July, nectars on the Seacliff Buckwheat, and mates and lays its eggs on the plant's blossoms.  Its larvae feed on the flowers, burrow at the base of the plant to form pupae, and re-emerge as butterflies the next season to start the cycle all over again.

Our next stop was nearby Rockweiller Beach and it actually is located in the flight path of airplanes coming and going on the LAX runway system, flying low over your head as you walk the beach.  

The shorebirds don't seem to mind and neither did I once I spotted them.  Marbled Godwits, a life bird for me, and Willets were foraging in the tide.  The godwits were probing in the wet sand, the willets chasing the ebbing tide and running back to higher ground ahead of the next wave to eat their prize, sand fleas.  I couldn't have asked for a better wildlife morning.

Marbled Godwit

Long-billed Curlew at El Matador Beach--Malibu, CA

Located on the west end of Malibu, El Matador is one of three beaches located in the Robert H. Meyer Memorial State Beach, an area of cove or cliff-foot strands, also known as "pocket beaches" because of their isolated accessibility.

To reach this beautiful view, I had to navigate a series of dirt paths and stairways that zigzagged down the cliff face until eventually, if you desire, you arrive at beach level.  I stopped two levels short of the shore because I didn't want to flush the shore birds I spotted foraging among the rocks.  The one that attracted my attention the most, was colorful and tall, with a very long bill--a new bird for me.

It's funny.  Even though I had never seen one before, "curlew" immediately came to mind.  As we browse through blog posts and bird books, our mind obviously absorbs more than we realize.  The names and shapes of other birds we encounter along the way get stored in the "library" too, whether we're paying attention or not!

This sketch was created in a Moleskin sketchbook.  Described as heavy Italian stock pages for "fountain pen, charcoal, tempera, acrylic, etc", it contains paper unlike any I've used before.  And this was the first time I've tried painting on it.  New paper, especially non-watercolor paper, is just about as challenging as trying an entirely new medium.  In this case, you basically have to use less water and keep the paper dryer.  Though I have other sketchbooks, I wanted to try this one to see how I liked it for field sketching.  I've seen it among the supplies of other artists.  The verdict's still out for me.  I have to practice with it more to give it a fair chance.  This book  is for sketching, after all, not painting.

Bird Banding Sketches--Savannah Sparrow

This is the time of year when sparrows move south and settle into wintering territories, Tennessee among them.  The Savannah Sparrow is one of those beautiful birds, often blending right into the pale dried grasses in its habitat and appearing "brown" at first glance.

But when you see sparrows up-close at the banding table or even with good binoculars or camera, you find that instead of being non-impressive gray or brown, their back and wing feathers are exquisitely beautiful with contrasting patterns of black, white, cream, brown and rust.    

The sketchbook page above is one that I created in preparation for my bird banding article published in Nov/Dec issues of the TN Conservationist magazine.   

All of these birds were new to me last fall.  All of them are now imprinted in my mind through close-up views, photography and sketching.  Sweet, sweet sparrows!

TN Conservationist Magazine, Bird Banding and Sketching!

The November/December issue of Tennessee Conservationist magazine features my article on bird banding,  and I must say, it is a thrill to have my research, writing, photographs and art all featured in one place in one publication!  And the bonus of this project--the subject is birds and conservation, a subject dear to my heart.

The article, entitled Tracking the Birds of Seven Islands Wildlife Refuge, focuses on the bird banding activities of the refuge, a 360-acre preserve bordering the French Broad River, that is jointly managed and operated by the Seven Islands Foundation, a non-profit land conservancy, and the Knox County Department of Parks and Recreation.  And what's unique about this refuge?  Its primary habitat is grassland that is being reclaimed from agricultural plantings of non-native fescue and restored to native warm-season grasses that support grassland bird populations.

The article represents more than a year of research and collaboration with the bird banding team, and my own participation in bird-banding, which has been a joy unto its self.  Sketches, like the one you see above, and photographs taken represent incredibly intimate moments with birds, allowing me to see their detailed beauty and enjoy their personalities in a very special way.  Add to that, the wonderful friends I've made during the year's activities, and you have a very satisfying experience!

Painting a Loggerhead Sea Turtle--Part II

A fun painting to create, but also one that offered some challenges.  For one thing, I didn't know I would be away from it for an entire month and failed to write down the pigments I had initially chosen.  The second was my unfamiliarity with creating sea foam on the beach--uncharted territory.

The pigment challenge I resolved fairly quickly, glancing over my palette and selecting my likely choices (listed at the end of post).  The beach foam was a journey of trial and error, an exploration into suggestion, knowing that I had my scrub brush and gouache to back me up.  I did not create a separate sketch which would have been a good exploration alternative.  Sometimes I like to just jump in and move through confusion until what I want to see begins to emerge.

A first attempt at creating the sand beneath the sea foam

Life seems to be like this sometimes, new experiences push us to reach beyond what we know.  In the process we learn something new, often with gratifying results.  And its not always that the outcome is beautiful, its that we did it despite uncertainty.  I tackle many things this way, but I also turn to books for suggestions and practice.  Not only did I order a seascapes art book, prompted by this painting (that hasn't arrived yet), but I also bought Blair Witherington's gorgeous book, Sea Turtles, An Extraordinary Natural History of Some Uncommon Turtles.  Unfortunately, this book is out of print, but can be found on the secondary market (with patience) at affordable prices and in my case, brand new condition.

While I described researching new anatomy terminology in Part I of this painting series, Blair's book brought me the beauty, heart and elegance of this mysterious creature, a species that has its roots in the Cretaceous period, 110 to 65 million years ago.  True ancients.

Above I've turned to my scrub to smooth out the hard edges and reduce the clutter in the sand.  The turtle is where I want the eye to go and since I want to enhance her detail, I want the sea and sand to stay smooth and suggestive rather than detailed and distracting.

In the two images immediately above, you see the results of me thinking about and playing around with the beach and foam.  I'm moving back and forth between the turtle's shell and the beach, both requiring a bit of thinking and building.  The turtle's back is partially covered with sand, slung by her flippers as she covered her egg chamber.  By moving back and forth, from one area to the other, I relieve my tension while I'm working on an area of uncertainty.  But it also has a painterly purpose.  It allows me to keep an eye on the unity of colors as I watch the emphasis on the subject change with each color application to the background.

Above, I've added more detail to the turtle's back and sandy areas in the sea.  I laid an initial variegated wash of gray using a mixture of ultramarine and burnt sienna to form the background of sand above the turtle. As I added more details to the turtles body, I realized her golden and rust features would be better enhanced with a bluer shade of gray.  Below, after the area was completely dry, I used a large flat brush to glaze over the top of the painting with a light application of a bluer shade of gray.   To my pleasure, this had the dual affect of enhancing the turtle's shell and popping out the area of light yellow that brings the eye to the center of interest, her face.

To complete the painting, I softened some of the edges of the foam with my scrub brush, used a little white gouache to lighten foamy areas, enriched the appearance of sand on her back with paint splatter using a toothbrush, and darkened shadow details.

And some of the new fun things I learned about sea turtles, sparked by the curiosity that painting this one stirred?  Each species of sea turtle, seven altogether, has a characteristic number of large scutes (shell plates) on their hard carapace (shell), as well as a characteristic arrangement of scales on their head.  They have more flexible shells than land turtles, with the carapace and plastron (under shell) being joined by a bridge of supple cartilage, allowing for more speed and maneuverability as they navigate through many miles at sea.

Watercolor on 9 x 12" Arches 140# cold pressed paper.  Pigments used:  WN French Ultramarine, WN New Gamboge (yellow), WN Van Dyke Brown, WN Burnt Sienna, a touch of DVP Permanent Rose as needed, and WN Permanent White Gouache.  Most of my grays are a mix of ultramarine and burnt sienna.

Sketching Birds in the Backyard

Sounds easy enough.  But there is definitely a shift between photographing birds and sketching them.  And another gigantic shift between sketching from a photo and trying to capture birds while they're moving around!  So what you see below is today's attempt.  My solution for everything that doesn't come easily....practice!

Whey all my busy hummingbird activity ended earlier in the month (last observed visit October 11th), I took all but one hummingbird feeder down, hung a suet basket with homemade suet, a sunflower seed feeder and put out a plate with a mix of each.  The bird-y word got around fast.

It is such a joy to watch these birds--cardinals, mockingbirds, chickadees, titmice, wrens, downies, nuthatches--at the bath and the feeder.  If you sit and observe for a while, you can tell which are the juveniles by their behavior, especially at the bird bath.  I had the joy of watching young chickadees trying to figure out how to drink without getting wet.

My bird bath sits crooked.  No matter how many times I straighten it and pile rocks around it, it always shifts. On this occasion a cardinal was perched drinking and two chickadee juveniles, one after the other, ended up in a spot where the water had shifted away from the edge.  It was a chuckle to see them stretch, nearly tip over, and flutter to upright themselves and keep from falling into the water.  They next landed on the opposite side to drink.  I mean, you bathe only when you want to, right?  

And I got this special mockingbird treat during another time I sat on the patio to observe.  What a hoot, to watch this mocker grab the back ball shaped tops that hold the feeder together.  At first I thought he/she was after an insect.  But then when he tried more than one angle, and moved on to try each one, I realized it was a juvenile trying to see if that big, fat, black, berry-looking thing was tasty!

My response to that stare, "I promise, I didn't do it!"