Eucalyptus Trees in the California sun

I had the opportunity to visit one of the people in my International postcard exchange and have lunch with her. It was so beautiful outside that we walked over to the park across the street and sat under some trees to paint. The sun was shining through the trees creating wonderful shadows across the grass. There are many types of Eucalyptus trees, they grow very fast and some have beautiful blooms. Their bark peels off the trunks to reveal a white base creating wonderful colors up and down the tree. Living in California, along with palm trees, these are painted almost as often. This is a cropped version of my two page layout in my sketchbook painted ala prima.

Greetings from Australia..

Hello everyone, my name is Matteo Grilli and I have just been invited to join this amazing blog by Cathy.

I am originally from Italy where I was born, grew up and always drawn animals. When I started travelling my love for animal/nature art could only increase, first Ireland then California and eventually Australia, where I am at the moment and planning to stay permanently. My sketching from life experience has always been among my tools, joined by photographs, short videos and feathers found along the way, everything derived from that true and direct experience on  the field that we all love. If you wish to find more about my art you are very welcome to follow the link to my blog http://www.matteogrilli.blogspot.com

Until next time!      Matteo

Great Book

I recently discovered this wonderful book: Field Notes on Science and Nature
Pictures will tell you much more than words - so I am uploading a few screenshots - but this book is full of both - pictures and words. About insights on taking notes, techniques, reasoning, working in the field and working with notes after field work is done etc. I would recommend at least flipping through it to any sketchbook keeper, note maker, nature observer or anyone who reads and writes. It shows how many people think, look and note. It is also a book that is nice to hold in your hands :)

Crab Spiders

Oregon, United States

Crab spiders caught my attention recently. The first made me feel very sheepish. I was sketching a bumble bee that was obligingly sitting still (black and white bee on the left). I had nearly finished my quick sketch when I realized the bee was hanging in the jaws of a crab spider. … time start over and include the spider. Fortunately it takes a long time to eat a bee, so I had plenty of time.

Over the next few days I ran into several more crab spiders and did some reading. They are called crab spiders because their two pairs of especially long front legs give them a crab-like appearance. Instead of spinning a web, they are ambush predators, i.e. they wait for prey to come along and grab. Sometimes they wait in the same spot for days, even weeks. Some crab spiders gradually change color to match their surroundings. I soon find there are over 200 species of crab spiders just in North America, so there is little chance I’ll figure out exactly which spider I found, but I do know from the fat abdomen that it is female. The males are much slimmer.

Over the next few days we photographed several crab spiders and finally I found another opportunity to sketch one in the field. I sat on a rock only about three feet away from a hunting spider. This is my unfinished sketch – how far I got sketching while sitting on the rock. Finally the heat and too many flies got the best of me and I finished at home.

To see the finished sketch and others I did at home, go to www.elvafieldnotes.blogspot.com

Hearts from Maine

Counting Bees

August 2011: Hill, a photo by apple-pine on Flickr.

I spent some time next to giant bush which smelled like licorice and had tons of insects. First I was concentrating on the landscape behind it - and then I tried to count all the bees and lady bugs :) Pardon my thick lines and blurry ink - this is a new sketchbook which is full of surprises...

mystery bird

mystery bird, a photo by vickylw on Flickr.

I have long wondered why birds won't come to my bird feeders. This may be the reason why . . .

This mystery bird and his mate are living in a huge nest at the top of our old elm tree. Near as I can guess, it may be a small falcon or a Mississippi kite. But my bird book doesn't list the kite as a bird-eater --- this bird and his mate definitely eat other birds, the remains of which I find scattered on the ground now and then.

There is at least one baby in the nest. Its cries remind me of hawks but this bird is smaller. Any guesses?

Sketching birds in Cronovilla Oasis - Maria Elena Ferrrari (Italy)

Last Saturday with my children, my husband and a friend of mine I went to draw "en plein air" Cronovilla Oasis (Enza River) (Giampietro thanks for the valuable information!). This are some pages of my sketchbook (Fabriano) (colored at home), beautiful animals, beautiful place not too close but well observed with binoculars. Resting Little Egrets (Egretta garzetta), Little Grebes (Tachybaptus ruficollis) with chicks, the Great Crested Grebe (Podiceps cristatus) chicks with beautiful striped, the adult was often involved in underwater or "snorkeling", many coots (Fulica atra), and also Night herons (Nycticorax nycticorax), Grey herons (Ardea cinerea), Mallards (Anas platyrhyncos), Bee-eaters (Merops apiaster), Swallows (Hirundo rustica). The Oasis is a series of lakes derived from gravel pits now renatured and protected. 

Banksia & Grevillia - Alissa Duke

Grevillea and Banksia flowers

I picked these two flowers from a local area where weeds and imported species are being removed by the local Landcare group and the area has been gradually replanted with species indigenous to the Sydney area. See our Landcare website http://www.pyrmontultimolandcare.org.au/

Grevillea sericea "pink spider flower"
Flowers are this size. bush grows to 2 meters



Banksia intergrifoli. known as Coast Banksia - flower spikes are a bit larger than this size. The tree grows to 16 meters

Butterflies

Recently I visited this butterflies installation at a modern art museum here in Rome. A small glass house, full of tropical plants and butterflies, it turned out to be the perfect place for a nature sketcher.

Butterflies have beautiful geometric designs, have stunning colours, they build superb chrysalis and stand quite still for long enough periods of time. I used a home made sketching pad with hot pressed Arches paper, graphite pencils, black markers and an small outdoor watercolour set.
























For more info: http://en.macro.roma.museum/mostre_ed_eventi/mostre/are_you_really_sure_that_a_floor_can_t_also_be_a_ceiling

Sketching on the road ~ Elizabeth Smith

We had to travel from Florida to Alabama a couple of days ago, and to while away the hours as a passenger (9 of them!),  I did  some sketching and painting in the car.

Now, picture the scenery flashing by and the challenges of capturing a semblance of it!  My first tries were not very effective, but as I fell into a flow of observation and a combination of gesture and contour drawing, I made some progress.  I found myself remembering the large shapes and referring to similar landscape details to fill in.

What resulted were composite sketches and memory drawings.  I feel that these exercises really strengthened the way I looked at things.  That was my focus, rather than the resulting drawing.  I used a kind of "wandering pen" line, searching out shapes, textures, and values.

As we traveled from south to north, I found myself noticing subtle changes in the land and the foliage - things I had seen before, but now I connected to them more deeply.  I also found myself being more aware of the interaction of time, weather and distance as I wrote down details. 

When we stopped for gas, I had a little more time to sketch an oak tree (the sketch at the top of the drawing).  The sketch at the bottom turned into a composite of several majestic oak trees hung with Spanish moss that occasionally lined the highway.  When stopped at a rest area, I was able to collect a twig and leaves for detailed study. 

I know this type of sketching might not be enjoyable for everyone, but for me it was a wonderful chance to keep my hand in.  These were sketched with a Pitt artist pen (XS size) in my Aquabee sketchbook (6x9 inches).

~  Elizabeth Smith, Naples, Florida, USA  (on the way to Alabama!)