The Calming Power of Nature Journaling

Before I knew the term "self care," when my children were quite young, Sunday afternoons were mine to take my nature journal to the woods to sketch & create.  

Those afternoons freed me up to be an artist, and filled my soul with the peace of nature.

 I always returned rejuvenated and ready to get back to the intensity of being a stay-at-home mom.

These days, nothing in my life compares to that full-on work of tending to little babies, but I still lean on my nature journal in stressful times.

Recently, after having some dental work done, I took ten minutes in my car to center myself, and sketch this pair of trees across the road.

I could feel the jittery stress dissolve as I followed the lines of the locust trunk's grooved bark, and explored the arching limbs and craggy turns in the branches.  I purposefully slowed my drawing down, looking only at the trees for most of this ballpoint pen sketch.

Nature and the journal worked their magic, and soon I felt calmer, centered, and ready to drive home.

Later, I added color with Caran D'Ache Neocolor II watercolor crayons.

When you are in the practice of connecting with nature this way, you set yourself up for the calming power of nature journaling, knowing that it doesn't matter what your drawing looks like, only that you are drawing, and slowly connecting with nature's healing peace.

Copyright 2023 Betsy Bangley

Creating Nature Art When It's too Cold to Go Outside

The morning after the first big winter snowfall, I hiked around my farm snapping reference photos for painting and drawing projects.  Within days, I found I needed a snowy scene for my annual pen & ink calendar, and put this snowy Hemlock tree to use for the December 2021 page. 

A dear friend an talented wildlife photographer also shares his library of images with me.  I used his photos as references for the swan & the rose hips.

I select the images I want to include in my calendar page, then make a pencil sketch from the photo, and add the quotes.  I use the pencil version of the page to create the finished pen & ink work, laying a sheet of pen & ink paper over the pencil sketch on a light box. If I make a mistake, no problem -- I still have the pencil original and can start over.

It's not the same as being outdoors with the Hemlock tree in person, but as I draw, I still connect with the tree, the snowy day, and the healing power of nature -- without getting frostbite. 

And now I have a nature calendar to give family & friends.

Artist in a Snowstorm

 

I've been seeking enrichment -- something different in all the sameness of a life lived in this quarantine.  Nature cooperated and provided me with the beauty of a snowstorm.

Painting Grandmother Oak

At the foot of my country driveway I can see a massive oak tree I've long admired and wanted to draw.  I call her Grandmother Oak.  One recent summer morning, I toted my paints and pens down to the spot, sketching her first in my nature journal, and then trying to capture her with watercolors.  The gift of a painting done on a summer morning, aside from the experience of painting, is that you get to carry the memory of that time and place with you through the winter every time you look at your artwork.

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.

Hike with a Friend

The day was lovely, and I had a few hours open in my schedule, so I called my friend and we went on a hike, swapping stories , and making discoveries -- like the pile of little bird bones perfectly bare and white, and the Ringneck Pheasant feather with the clean-snapped shaft.  Crisply cut by the beak of a hawk most likely.  I scooped up samples and brought them indoors, where I could sketch and linger with them.

Creating A Pen-and-Ink Calendar

Every year about this time I am busily sketching out calendar pages for a gift I give family and friends.  I am lucky to have a dear friend, who is also a nature photographer.  He gives me free choice of all of his amazing nature pics.  Like a kid in a candy shop,  I peruse hundreds of photos and pick out those that speak to me, selecting quotes to mingle between the drawings. 

Here's a glimpse at part of my 2020 calendar:

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.

Pencil Sketches

Last week included travel, moving our daughter to college and moments to sit and sketch at day's end. 

I sat on the stoop of an Airbnb cottage the evening after a long day.  The shadowy woods in the dimming light of day drew me in.  

Back at home on my front porch.