Sandhill Cranes and Art

My crane observations go back a long way.  In fact, the experience of hearing and seeing my first sandhill cranes staging at the Hiwassee Wildlife Refuge in 1999, marked the beginning of a major change in my life--a change that moved me into my passion for wildlife conservation and creating art. The two are now inseparable.

Early gourd art pieces created in 2001-2002 and inspired by sandhill cranes and whooping cranes.

What's so special about cranes?  As Aldo Leopold put it in his book of essays, A Sand County Almanac:  "Our ability to perceive quality in nature begins, as in art, with the pretty.  It expands through successive stages of the beautiful to values as yet uncaptured by language.  The quality of cranes lies, I think, in this higher gamut, as yet beyond the reach of words."

Above, you see a painting I created in late November 2011 using one of my favorite sandhill crane reference images.  Two sandhill cranes with their "landing gear" down are floating in for a landing at the Hiwassee Wildlife Refuge.  I have always loved this posture.  The cranes hold their wings like parachutes and dangle their legs as they float down in preparation for landing.

I also selected this image as my cover illustration for my new children's activity book, the Discover Birds Activity Book.  A fun project!

This twelve-page booklet is sponsored by the Tennessee Ornithological Society (TOS) and will be available for the first time at the Tennessee Sandhill Crane Festival in Birchwood, TN this weekend, January 14th and 15th.  The idea of creating an activity book for the kids that attend the festival was conceived by friend and TOS member, Cyndi Routledge, who also secured the funding and arranged for the layout and printing.  I had the pleasure of creating the text and illustrations and I am delighted with the beautiful results.

The book includes bird illustrations to color, fun facts about wintering birds and conservation, and a challenging crossword puzzle to test what you've learned.   My hope is that we can expand this book in coming years and continue to inspire children and their interest in birds and bird conservation.
More about this book click here.

A Peek at One of My Current Art Projects

I have several art projects underway that have demanded my attention and caused me to temporarily disappear from blogging.  But this is only a pause and means I have lots to share with you soon, including new paintings, new note cards, an exciting book review that I've been eager to share with you, and a children's activity book that I am creating in cooperation with the Tennessee Ornithological Society.

Below is the two-page center spread illustration for the activity book compiled from my many experiences observing the majestic sandhill crane.  I loved creating this illustration!

The booklet will be introduced at Tennessee's Sandhill Crane Festival sponsored by the Tennessee Ornithological Society and TN Wildlife Resources Agency.  The festival will be held at the Hiwassee Wildlife Refuge and Birchwood, TN, January 14th and 15th, 2012 and promises great entertainment and thousands of sandhill cranes.  Mark your calendars for this event!

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.