Wishing Upon Bluebirds

I awoke to Eastern bluebirds singing before first light this morning. Wonderful sound. You can't hear them without smiling.

I think they have an established nesting territory across the street.  But they come into both the front and back yard to visit berries, drink water, check out my nest box, and chatter and sing!  I love it.

Later I happened to look out the window and saw the nesting phoebes chasing away a male bluebird.  He landed on a limb that is the male phoebe's preferred perch while he guards the female's nest building activity.  I hate that.   I do wish we could all get along so the bluebirds could settle into the nest box that is near by.

Eastern phoebe female, above, holding nesting material as she pauses before rising to the gazebo shelf where she is building her nest for the second year in a row.  

I'm still wishing.

Brother's Plant--Part III

This sketchbook spread started out as a field sketch practice, an attempt to sketch a subject that will be still, unlike the birds I enjoy painting.  It gave me much more.

In addition to the memories that unfolded, it pulled me deeper into this prolific and hardy plant, its beauty, shape, shadows and color.  I still wonder how it manages to withstand the cold winter.  I learned that this has something to do with its ability to store water and a unique metabolic process that happens when the temperature drops.  But in my brief research, I didn't learn enough to explain it to anyone.

I am often drawn to the visual detail of a subject, so much so, that it is sometimes hard for me to shift my focus out, allowing the loose sketch work its magic.  I love this aspect of art, especially in watercolor.  It is a challenge for me to hold on to this awareness as I paint.

When I added detail to the left group of flowers, I wasn't happy with the result.  It pulled my eye away from what I found to be the most captivating part of the sketch, the top and right group of flowers that spilled over the side.  The overall effect was "too busy".

So for this occasion, I pulled out my soft scrub brush and "erased" the added detail.  I liked this area much better flowing loose with just a hint of shadow and shape.

Above you see the area after it's been scrubbed.  And below, the same area with replacement color added.  I couldn't recapture the freshness of what was there before, but I did restore some subtlety.  

The final sketch gives me a lot of information for future reference.  Below you see the original sketch created on the patio on the left, the final sketch on the right.  See what you think.

For more information about using a scrub brush visit:  Sketching a Limpkin.  For more about negative space visit:  Search for a Swainson's Warbler.  The first post on this sketchbook spread is:  My Brother's Plant

Brother's Plant--Part II

My unfinished sketch of the pot of hen-and-chicks is moving forward in interrupted increments, as in, whatever time I can grab before and after office hours.  

I discover as I paint, what kind of mood I'm in.  Sometimes I'm satisfied with a very loose and undefined result, other times I want to see more detail.  Most often I like a combination.  In this case, I was drawn to the rosette shapes of the flowers and the spilling over, the cascading of the rosettes as they multiply.  So I printed a black and white copy of one of my photographs and sketched some rosettes in pencil on the sketch page to get a better feel for their layered petals.

Next, I wanted to reclaim some of the rim of my pot from the too-wet wash that spilled over the edge, as well as, the edge of the lower opening of the pot.  Above you see the small size scrub I used.  For more about this scrub brush and the process of scrubbing see the link at the end of the post.  Below you see the result of lifting out some of the paint with the use of my scrub brush, water, and a tissue for blotting.

I created some loosely defined rosettes in the top of the pot with negative painting, that is, painting the space around the petal rather than the petal itself.  This is fun.  I believe negative painting and softening edges are two of my favorite approaches to painting.

Below, you see the page spread as it looks today--still unfinished, but becoming more of what I want to see on the page.      

For more about using a scrub brush visit:  Sketching a Limpkin.  For more about negative space visit:  Search for a Swainson's Warbler.  The first post on this sketchbook spread is:  My Brother's Plant

My Brother's Plant

I believe the commonly used name is "Hen and Chicks", a rosette shaped succulent that reproduces miniatures of itself, looking like many off-spring.  Though not native to North America, this is a hardy little plant. 

We've had more days of sub-freezing temps this winter than I remember in a long time.  As the weather has warmed, I set the pot of hen-and-chicks out in the garden so it could receive some of the rain we were expecting.  On Thursday, a falling tree missed it by inches. I was stunned. With branches curling up all around it, it sat upright and unscathed. I brought it back to the shelter of the patio.

Early in the afternoon today, I took my journal outside and wrote:
"Gorgeous day. The sky is gray, full of moving clouds made invisible by the rain. Thunder keeps rumbling from the west and the light changes frequently, the sun breaking through a high layer.   I couldn't be more content. I'm on the patio listening to rain falling down the gutter, pattering in the trees, titmice singing, a bluebird in the distance.... I'm comfortable in a double layer of long sleeves, no coat, no shivering. Three windows are open in the house and I have successfully made a home for my cedar chest treasure. It is a great relief to have it no longer the center piece in the living room [while I decided where to put it], to have an open floor again....Mother always called it the cedar chest.  She gave it to my brother. My brother has now given it to me."

When I walked outside again later, I had the urge to sketch this plant.  For one thing the outside air was so inviting.  But I was also marveling at the plant's hardiness, thinking about my brother, feeling a wave of sadness wash over me, and noticing once again, the simple texture scratched into the clay, the loveliness of the piles of rosettes in their container.  Suddenly, I realized why I had been feeling so sad.  March has all but arrived.  On March 3rd, it will be a year since my brother died.

The unconscious is an amazing creature.  So many times it takes us where we need to go, whether we are paying attention or not.  I had not considered the date that is approaching, nor that my grief might have a reason for intensifying.  Nor had I considered why I was so drawn to this plant today.  It lived on my brother's porch and invited me to bring it home.  I am so happy I did.

After making a rough sketch, I wet the paper and added paint.  Getting the paint juicy enough was a challenge since my small kit had not been used in a while.  I didn't bring a spray bottle outside with me.  It's a little slower to shake water from a paint brush into the pans, but it works just the same.

I used the sketch as a guide and continued to apply color, wet in wet.  That is, adding color into color.  What you see below is what I accomplished while still outside.  

It is still unfinished, though I like the loose quality of it as it is.  I would like to study some of my photo images of the rosettes, and sketch one in more detail.  Then we'll see what happens next.  

To see all three post in the series click:  Brother's Plant

Wiki on Hen and Chicks

To see more patio sketching visit Seeing a Lantana.

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.