A Stormy Start to a New Journal

Starting a new nature journal can feel like starting a journey of infinite possibilities, but also can feel like a perfect, blank book that you don't want to make the first mistake in.  Thursday afternoon, David and I went out on a hike and I took a brand new nature journal with me. About 2 miles in, we found ourselves slogging through a summer rain shower.  By the time we made it back to the Adirondack shelters in the park, we were soaked to the bone, and my brand new nature journal was no longer crisp and fresh, but soggy-edged and mud-splashed.  Somehow, this felt like the best of both worlds -- still open to infinite possibilities, but also not so precious that I couldn't make mistakes.  A great start.

Nature Journal Update: Day Lilies

I recently watched a YouTube video about adding a simple background to nature journal sketches of plants and animals to help capture the place and moment.  I thought I'd give it a try, and I love the added depth of the page.

Click here to see John Muir Laws' YouTube video that inspired me.

Nature Journal Update: A Stormy Afternoon

A stormy afternoon made me reach for my watercolors and gouache. I love how white gouache sits on top of the watercolor painting, allowing me to lift out highlights in the turbulent sky.

Nature Journal Update: Summer Thunderclouds

A summery afternoon built cumulonimbus clouds that didn't travel very far very fast, but rumbled and dropped curtains of indigo.  Tired at the end of a busy day, I sat on the front porch and sketched, blissfully.

Learning to Play with my Nature Journal

I've been watching John Muir Laws' YouTube channel lately and feeling inspired by his videos.  I have to admit, I resisted some of his advice, like Don't try to make pretty pictures.  Use your journal to explore, make discoveries and ask questions.  I thought, "But I want to make pretty pictures!"

This morning, I tried a value study of the view out of my window.  My goal was merely to try a new technique -- using a black Aquarelle pencil to draw a simplified landscape.   I can now see John's wisdom.  When you focus on "This must be beautiful!" you hamper your own creativity, trying to force an outcome.  When you approach the journal with the attitude of curiosity and exploration, you free yourself up to make discoveries and to reach a flow state. No expectations = maximum freedom and creativity.  Try it!

I sketched this with a Stabilo Aquarelle pencil, then used a waterbrush.

Forsythia Blooms & Inspiration

Though the human world seems to have ground to a halt right now, nature bursts with new life out here in the country around my home. Everyday some new flower spills fresh color into the landscape, and I want to capture it all in my nature journals.

I have been watching videos from John Muir Laws' website on keeping a nature journal, organizing journal pages, and using watercolor pencils to best effect. Inspiring!  Check them out for free here: https://johnmuirlaws.com/blog/

I have taken to carrying a journal with me on hikes with David, or even down the driveway to put a letter in the box. Here is a collection of recent findings in no particular order.

Nature Journal: Signs of Spring

I got the opportunity to get out for a hike to Doak Field in Raccoon Creek State Park today while the weather was warm and mostly sunny.  The songs of Cardinals, Rufous-Sided Towhees and Song Sparrows brightened the world.  Down in the lowlands, Skunk Cabbage spikes have risen from the mud.  Spring is coming!

Thrifted Art Supplies

On Valentine's Day, hubby and I went out to our favorite Goodwill Thrift Store, and in addition to finding a half-price scarlet sweater, I also turned up a box of brightly-colored chalks for $3.  I felt so excited about finding those vivid colors when I needed them the most -- in the depths of February!

As soon as we returned home (after dinner at our favorite Mexican restaurant), I busted into the box, and tried out my new chalks on some newsprint.  Luscious violet and magenta mingled with oceanic blue-green and cerulean.  Twenty-four of the most eye-popping colors were mine to play with.

In the morning, the sun rising through a clear sky inspired me to grab a piece of black mat board to capture the scene on.  Art is the most fun when we allow ourselves to play.

Reconnecting at Breakfast

This morning I woke up and this is what I saw out my kitchen window:



As I ate oatmeal and drank hot tea, I picked up a few Micron pens and my colored pencil set to sketch.




The holidays can take us away from our routines, and finding just a few minutes for a sketch reconnects us to nature, to what is deeply meaningful, calming and real.  As your pen travels down the contours of an elegantly twisted Black Cherry tree, you connect with the tree's essence and native beauty, and you are reminded that you, too are part of Creation.  This feeling of community with nature heals me, settles me, and lights that spark of joy in my heart that I am a living being on this amazing planet.

May you find a moment to reconnect through art today.

A Day of Sandhill Cranes and Sunshine

Today I had a rare day off.  And, serendipity granted me a lovely, sunny afternoon to sit outside on an old wool Army blanket south of my house and paint the scene before me.  The sky was clear as a Robin's egg shell, spanning ultramarine to cerulean blue, and I delighted in watching a half dozen Eastern Bluebirds hunting in the Staghorn Sumac shrubs around my home.  A gentle breeze made the dead aster stalks dance and nod, and I simply relaxed and took it all in.

This morning at just after 10 am, I stepped outside and was surprised to hear the trumpeting call of a hundred Sandhill Cranes flying high overhead.  How remarkable that I could hear their wild voices as far as they were from me.  I snapped these photos of the majestic birds on their migration, and offered up Palo Santo incense and a prayer for their safe travels south.  A charmed day.

Sandhill Cranes form two loose V's.

November Sunset

The days have turned suddenly cold; the autumn colors have been blown from the trees; and the more subdued tones of late autumn have overtaken the landscape.  A busy work schedule has kept me from hiking in the woods and painting, so when a friend sent me some sunset photos last night, I jumped on the opportunity to paint the beauty he captured with his camera.  I started with a wet-in-wet series of washes in the sky, and when that had dried, I sketched the wintry trees and shrubs in the foreground, inking them in with a small Sumi brush and India ink, and touching up details with an 05 Micron pen.  It felt good to connect with the landscape, even through a photo of it.

A Prairie Painting Day

My friend, Brad, and I visited Jennings Environmental Center yesterday on a gorgeous, blue-sky day.  Brad took his camera, and I toted my sketchbook, and we captured images of the wild sunflowers, coreopsis, thistles and other wildflowers decking the landscape. Hummingbirds buzzed in and out of view, joined by Goldfinches and a multitude of butterflies.  I was so inspired by our visit yesterday, I had to return today to plop down in the prairie with my watercolors.  Here's the result.

A Shingle Oak at Jennings Prairie.

A Sketch-potition

 My sister-in-law Dianne, once gave me a little sketch book for "sketch-potitions," or expeditions whose sole purpose is art.  I had a summer afternoon to dedicate to hiking and sketching, so I filled a backpack with supplies and set out on a watercolor sketchpotition.  My feet carried me down the trail to this charming Adirondack shelter deep in the woods in our local state park where I painted the view from the shelter.

Election Day Sketches from the Firehouse

I spent today as an election worker, writing voter names into a little book.  Because today was a primary election, not many voters turned out to my little country polling place in the township firehouse.  During lulls, I read Hannah Hinchman's A Trail Through the Leaves, chatted with the three other women working the polls, and made sketches of the state park woods across the road.  I struggled to capture the varying leaf textures of each tree species -- big and glossy like the cucumber trees, fine and light like the cherry trees, and dense and robust like the sugar maples.  Even on non-artistic days, I'm trying to squeeze sketching into my life to keep my hand limber.