FALL LEAVES by Linda C. Miller

Clockwise

  Liriodendron tulipifera, Liquidambar styraciflua, Nyssa sylvatica and Cornus florida

I just love this time of year!  

Here are my new works painted in watercolor.  The leaves were traced but the dogwood or Cornus florida, was drawn from life.  I now tape my specimens to a white foam core board.  This helps with seeing the positive and negative shapes and with a little bit of tape you can create a pleasing composition too!

http://www.lindamillerbotanicalart.com
botanicalarttoday@yahoo.com

Cerulean warbler

The warm weather that we had in early to mid March has been replaced in NE Ohio with more seasonal temps and the cool weather seems to have frozen or at least slowed down their bud breaking process.  I have always been fascinated by the way leaves are packaged in buds and by the colors of the small unexpanded leaves.  Here is a sketch of tuliptree (Liriodendron tulipifera) breaking bud and hosting one of our most beautiful warblers - the cerulean warbler (Setophaga cerulean).  When tuliptree first breaks bud you can see that the leaves are packaged by perfectly folding the oddly shaped leaves in half and shrinking them. 

I am hoping that the cool weather sticks around so I have some time to sketch some of my other favorite trees breaking dormancy.

http://www.buroakbotanicals.blogspot.com/