Turkey Track

I found this track in soft sand ... and wondered what bird around here makes a track 5 inches wide?  The toes looked too fat to be a great blue heron and my first impression was 5 inches across was too big for a wild turkey.  Then I found the feather.  I was sure it was the breast feather from a tom (male).  Finally, at home, I looked up the size of turkey tracks.  It definitely could be a tom turkey's.

SEA HOLLY

 

As always on holiday I collected a few examples of the indigenous plants when we were at the tip of Finisterre in Brittany, camping by the dunes of Sainte Marguerite.  This sea holly is so pretty but very prickly!  Grey pen and coloured pencils on hand made paper.

Beach Rose

From my notes written at Bandon Marsh, about one half mile inland from the Pacific Ocean:
     As I sit here, finishing the inking on my sketch, the late afternoon sun and hot stickiness is being quickly erased by a dense bank of flog blowing in on a stiff breeze.   It feels extra cool to me because I'm still damp from the hot sun.  Was it only minutes ago that Dale and I were annoyed by sweat trickling down our backs!
     

Birdwatching in Hamburg

       
           Hamburg is full of canals and parks, and the waterfowl and birds are very trusting. They make wonderful models, and they are a delight to watch.
           The immature herring gull perched for a long time in front of me, while a young girl was finishing her sandwich. They know to wait for their snacks!
           I had just bought of drawing pens, the ones I used here are Derwent Graphik. They are smooth and the colour is great-

vegetable varieties

                  While in Hamburg recently I discovered zucchini can be bright yellow, as well as green. I couldn't resist and had to draw them in my sketchbook. I had already fallen in love with German vegetables, and started drawing a Kohlrabi, a kind of cabbage I first saw there. I never completed the sketch, but I like leaving unfinished parts, so here it is.

Summer holiday sketch: view of Monte Conero from Porto Recanati

During my recent holiday in Italy I enjoyed sketching on the beach of my hometown Porto Recanati, this is a view of Mt Conero as seen from the northern beach of the town.

The page previous to the sketch contains some colour tests and a bird list from a day spent bird watching in the countryside. My palette contains only my own hand-made watercolour paints.
http://matteogrilli.blogspot.com.au/

LILIES

 

What better way to spend a lazy summer Saturday afternoon than drawing some beautiful flowers in the garden, breathing in the wonderful fragrance while listening to the swallows chattering on the wires and the bees buzzing in the flowerbeds.

 

 

Two weeks and a lot of drawings later and I was inspired to try some textile art using my sewing machine and a handful of pretty fabrics.