Spring Nature Journal: Hiking in Raccoon Creek State Park

Isn't it a beautiful season to hike the woods and carry along a nature journal?  You never know what you'll find.

Stopping for a water break on a recent hike, I spotted this large and curious looking beetle resting on a stump.

It looked like a giant version of the familiar click beetle, one of those black, flat-ish beetles that flip into the air and make an audible click to escape when caught. 

An internet search showed that indeed it was an Eastern Eyed Click Beetle, and that its young eat an abundance of the wood-boring insects that damage hardwood trees. 

In my eyes, that makes this beautiful beetle is a hero!

We also found loads of Great White Trilliums blooming in the woods along the trail, and watched as a Scarlet Tanager warbled just 13' away from us in a sapling.  I didn't dare reach for my nature journal. I didn't want to scare away this magical bird.  

I've been keeping a nature journal for over 25 years, and it's still exciting to sketch and write about nature in my journal.

Would you like to learn more about keeping a nature journal?  I invite you to join me for a Nature Journaling class at the Community College of Beaver County in July.  You can read about and register for the class here:

https://ccbc.coursestorm.com/course/nature-journaling-washington-county2

Happy Creating! 

New Watercolor Techniques Video!

 

I'm looking forward to teaching a Nature in Watercolor Workshop for Beginners for the Osher Lifelong Learning Institute at Carnegie Mellon University.  In preparation for the workshop, I created a short video on exploring watercolor techniques.  

The workshop registration is currently full, but the video is publicly available on my YouTube channel.  I hope you'll check it out, and paint along with me!

If you'd like to join Osher at Carnegie Mellon University to have access to a wide variety of wonderful classes, you can follow this link:

https://www.cmu.edu/osher/about/index.html

Happy Creating!

Nature Journaling Class at Raccoon Creek State Park

At the end of April, I led a class in Nature Journaling for Beginners at the Wildflower Reserve at Raccoon Creek State Park.  We had a wonderful day -- sunny and warm with loads of wildflowers blooming.

When I arrived at the Wildflower Reserve before class, I warmed up with a quick sketch of Virginia Bluebells, and even watched a hummingbird hawkmoth -- a moth that looks and moves like a hummingbird --  drink nectar from the flowers while I drew!

It was so quick, and I was a bit flummoxed, but here are my quick sketches of this amazing moth.

During class, we found tons of different plants in bloom in the wooded outdoor classroom behind the nature center.

I also found a blister beetle, a large and beautifully iridescent beetle slowly crawling through a rotting log on the forest floor. When picked up, these beetles exude an oily substance that causes blisters.

After class, I walked through the floodplain area and found more gorgeous wildflowers like this Toadshade Trillium and some Jack-in-the-Pulpit.

What a magical day to find so much beauty!

If you'd like to take a Nature Journaling class with me, I'll be leading one at the Community College of Beaver County in July.  You can read more about it and register for class here:

https://ccbc.coursestorm.com/course/nature-journaling-washington-county2

Here are a few photos I snapped.  I hope they'll inspire you to make sketches!

And I hope you get a chance to take your art supplies outside to create in nature.

Happy Creating! 

Line & Wash: Apple Blossoms

Spring has been springing abundantly around here!  My favorite apple tree bloomed recently, and I snapped this photo with a Sony RX-10 IV.

I created this watercolor sketch from the photo above.

And finished up by adding textural lines and definition with a Faber Castell Pitt pen.  Sometimes when I create with the line & wash technique, I draw with the permanent pen first, then add splashes of color.  

If you feel inspired by the photo above, I hope you'll use it to create a drawing or painting!

Happy Creating!

Spring Details in my Nature Journal

I love to hike and pick up natural treasures along the way, then sketch them in my nature journal. I find that it's the details in the landscape, like those above, that appeal to my artist's eye and tell the story of what's happening.

I sketched with my Lamy Safari fountain pen, then added watercolors from my travel kit.

What stories is the land telling you right now?

I hope you get a chance to record them in your nature journal!

Happy Creating! 

New Watercolor Swatching Video

I'm looking forward to teaching a Nature in Watercolor Workshop for Beginners for the Osher Lifelong Learning Institute at Carnegie Mellon University.  In preparation for the workshop, I created a short video on getting to know your watercolors and brushes through swatching. 

The workshop registration is currently full, but the video is publicly available on my YouTube channel.  I hope you'll check it out, and paint along with me.

If you'd like to join Osher at Carnegie Mellon University to have access to a wide variety of wonderful classes, you can follow this link:

https://www.cmu.edu/osher/about/index.html

Happy Creating!

Watercolor Sketching in my Nature Journal

I have an artist friend who says of the mid-summer greenery, "It's all the same green."

That's not our situation now, with spring dawning, and the tree canopy changing daily!

I've been trying to capture this process in my nature journal with watercolor sketches. After the winter, it's endlessly fascinating to me to sketch spring progressing in the natural world.

What's developing in your world right now?  Can you track its progress in your nature journal with a sketch every day or two?  A progressive study of something you're fascinated with builds your sketching skills and helps to establish a flow in your creative life.

Do you ever feel like creating but lack a direction?  Finding some natural process -- seasons changing, seedlings growing, flowers blooming, birds raising their young, tadpoles developing -- can help set a creative course for you to relax into.  You learn more about what interests you, and generate more ideas about what to focus on with your artwork.

In sunlight, you can see the texture in the Canson XL 140# watercolor paper.  Because the paper in my nature journal is made for dry media only, I cut watercolor paper to fit my nature journal and tuck a small stack in my book.  I can clip a piece of paper on the front of my journal and paint, then tape it into the journal with masking tape.

Happy Creating!