A Day in the Wichita Mountains - Laura Gillis

Last Friday was a beautiful day, so we took the day off and went for a hike and a little sketching in the Wichita Mountains Wildlife Refuge in Oklahoma.

The weather was perfect for humans and sunbathing lizards!

Boulder Canyon View
The little bird in the lower right corner was a tiny Blue-Gray Gnatcatcher.
There were several fluttering around at this stop.
(Ink and watercolor in Iona Journal on handmade watercolor paper)

 A Collared Lizard (male) sat with me a while as I sketched.
(Ink and watercolor in Iona Journal on handmade watercolor paper)

The Collared Lizards (or Mountain Boomers) were enjoying the warm sun.
Female (left) and Male (right)

Baby Bison with their mammas.

The entrance to Post Oak Falls. 

Post Oak Falls didn't have much water on Friday.
After the storms we had last night I'm sure it looks a whole lot different today!

A Weed By Any Other Name... Laura Gillis

I know it is technically a "weed" but it's a really pretty weed when you get down and look. Right now our yard here in North Central Texas is covered in a thick purple carpet of Henbit or Lamiun amplexicaule. I had thought about mowing it but when I saw that Henbit is an early source of nectar for bees and small insects I changed my mind. Bees are some of my favorite insects so I do hope they get busy before the farm-boy hubby shows up with the herbicide!

Ink and watercolor in a Stillman & Birn Beta Sketchbook.

Black Witch Moth - Laura Gillis

Black Witch Moth
Page 31 in my "Beetles, Bugs and Insects" Journal
Ink & watercolor in a Moleskine Watercolor Journal

I don’t really know why this is called the Black Witch because it’s not black at all.... it’s dark brown with some black details. It’s also got iridescent blue and pink there too. The lighter line that goes across the wings marks the female of the species. 

If you Google the Black Witch you will find all kinds of crazy stuff... In the Caribbean and Mexico it is believed that if the Black Witch flies into your house someone is going to get sick and die. (So glad I don't live there!) Another story is if the Black Witch sits above your door, you will have a winning lotto ticket. (Won't hold my breath on that happening!)

This is a huge moth with a wing span of 5.25 inches. It is mostly tropical but wanders far north, sometimes reaching Canada. (This one made it to North Central Texas.) 

Large numbers of the Black Witch have been known to travel in the eyes of hurricanes. Then, when the hurricane hits the shore, the moths fall out. To have survived this, the moths would have had to been flying continuously for several days! Amazing.

Cicada Killer - Laura Gillis

I have noticed several of these BIG wasps flying around here (North Central Texas) lately and I finally got one to draw! After I caught this one, I saw another one flying around with a big cicada in it’s grasp. She (or he) landed in a tree and proceeded to stun or kill the cicada before flying off again. (Or, maybe she was just getting a better grip on her cargo, I don’t know.)

The Cicada Killer is a big, heavy bodied wasp (the body is 1.125” long or 2.9 cm) and she makes quite an impression when she is flying around your head. I assume that she packs one heck of a sting but thankfully, I don’t have any first-hand information about that to share. (Not yet anyway.)

This wasp excavates her nest in the ground. You will see a mound of soil left by an entrance hole which is about .375” or 1 cm wide.

This was just a quick little sketch for now... a tighter sketch is planned for the “bug journal” soon. She really is a beautiful insect.

Plains Lubber No1 - Laura Gillis

Jiminy Cricket! That is one big honkin’ grasshopper!

Ink and watercolor in the Moleskine Bug Journal

This is the Plains Lubber Grasshopper. And, yes, he really is THAT big. The body is almost 2 inches long. His thorax is .5 an inch wide and .5 an inch deep. Add those big, long legs and this guy makes an impression when he comes at you.

I found two of these bad boys munching on grass in the pasture the other day. There seems to be quite a bit of variation in the coloring on the Lubbers -- I loved the pink and green on this one.

I wonder how much grass this guy can consume in one day, or in his lifetime? I would think a few of these put together would do some serious damage to a pasture already stressed by drought. How many Lubbers equal the consumption of one mama cow? I bet somebody has done a study on that somewhere.

In the meantime, I will keep drawing them. This makes page 30 in the “Bug Journal” and there are still lots of bugs out there. 

David and Goliath - Laura Gillis

Ink and watercolor in the Moleskine Watercolor Journal

Are you ready to rummmmmmmbbbbbllllllee??!!

In lower left corner, we have the challenger, the little, cute, sorta-fuzzy Checkered Beetle measuring only 3/4 of an inch long.

And in upper right corner, towering above the competition, we have the big honkin’, root boring, Pironus Beetle, measuring a whopping 1-3/4 inches (not including the feathery antenna).

Ding! There’s the bell.

I never would have guessed it, but in my research to identify these two, I discovered that the Checkered Beetle attacks and eats the Pironus beetle at all stages of their life cycle. Eggs, larvae and adult.

This is a good thing because the big beetle is a root borer and the larval stage of this beetle can cause much damage and grief to hardwood trees.

I found both of these beetles within hours of each other. The Checkered Beetle was in the front yard, but the Pironus had come into the garage and was lying in front of the washer with his feet up in the air.

He was down for the count.

Ding! We have a winner!

Killdeer Egg - Laura Gillis

First, I want to apologize for my long absence from this blog. I let life get in the way and I have missed being here but I have enjoyed seeing your posts! So, here’s a little sketch I did in my nature journal. I’m so happy to be back in the journal and on the blog. 

I found this Killdeer egg in the driveway yesterday and at first glance it looked like a perfect egg... just far from any nests and in the wrong place. Then I realized that it was broken. 

We have several Killdeer around our place this spring and I am always looking for their nests and they are hard to find. About the only way I have found a nest is to see mama bird dragging her wing and trying to lead me away from the eggs. These crazy birds like to nest in the gravel along side the road - a pretty dangerous place to be out here.

Sadly, I think it is highly probable that Shorty or one of the neighboring dogs had an omelette for yesterday’s breakfast.

Wood Storks

We are fortunate to have an active rookery where I work.  A visit to it the other day was a feast for my eyes and ears.  In the lower vegetation, egrets are nesting while the wood storks cover every available branch in the upper canopy, clapping their bills in a courtship ritual. 

I'll always remember the delightful sounds of this moment when I see this ever so basic journal page.

Weekend in the Mountains

This past weekend was the opening of the first Western Trail Art Association art show at the Museum of the Western Prairie in Altus, Oklahoma. Since we were going to be there on Friday and Saturday nights and since we hadn’t been anywhere in a while and since the Quartz Mountain Lodge was giving the artists a special break on the rates we decided we would take the weekend and get away for a bit. 

Saturday the weather was perfect for hiking so we got up and had a good hearty breakfast at the lodge and then went to find the trails. (In my opinion, they could stand to have better maps.) 

Our first “hike” was on the Twin Peaks Trail. It was not my idea of a trail (it was a very nice sidewalk) but at the end of that trail I did a little sketch of Lake Altus-Lugert.

Early morning sketch of Lake Altus-Lugert

I had always heard that if you were out on the lake and knew where to look, you could see the foundations of the town of Lugert that was flooded when they built the reservoir. Sadly, the lake is at 20% capacity and you don’t have to be in a boat to see the foundations.... they are close to the trail and high and dry after this past drought.

After the Twin Peaks Trail, we finally found a “real” trail with dirt, rocks and weeds. (My favorite kind of trail.)  We climbed rocks, watched deer and turkey vultures and just generally lounged about soaking up as much clean air and nature as we could before we had to go back to town. 

On the ridge above the Quartz Mountain Lodge

Thankfully, they have had a bit of rain up there so there were a few wildflowers on the trail. Lots of Texas Toadflax Nuttallanthus texanus and Spring Beauty Claytonia virginica (both of which are much more beautiful than my sketches!)

Spring Beauty Claytonia virginica

Texas Toadflax Nuttallanthus texanus

All sketches in ink & watercolor in the nature journal with hemp paper.

Scavenging - Laura Gillis

Well, it’s another new year and time again to get back in the groove. One groove I am trying to get back into is eating right. No more chocolate cake, sugar cookies, holiday dips and snacks. So, I while I was scavenging through the freezer, trying to find something good to fix for supper, I found this fabulous water scavenger beetle that I had forgotten about! No, I didn’t fix him for supper. (You will all be relieved to know that we had chicken cacciatore.)

But, back to the beetle. Not only is he large and shiny with feathery legs he is pretty interesting also. When you look at him from the underside he looks remarkably like Darth Vader and he has a keel-like spike that runs down his middle. When I looked this one up, the Kaufman book says that they swim by moving their legs alternately and surface “heads-up,” using their short antennae to channel air to a bubble on their belly. I don’t know if the center spike has anything to do with that or not. They also say that not all of the Hydrophilidae family are aquatic, nor are they all scavengers. I find that interesting because I found this guy in the parking lot of our building at work.... not near water at all. I don’t know what he was doing there or how he got there but I was a lucky girl to find him!

In other news, a few members of the Western Trail Art Association and I took a trip to Altus, Oklahoma to meet with Jennie Buchanan and check out the gallery space at the Museum of the Western Prairie. The Association will be having their first show there on March 24th, 2012 and we are all pretty excited about that. (This is a really nice museum – if you ever find yourself in Altus, you should stop by.) I will post more about this show soon.

I hope everyone is having a good new year! I think I will go clean out the freezer.....

Bear Tree

I've been walking by this interesting Live Oak, Quercus virginiana, for a year and a half, and finally, just the right day arrived to sketch it! I don't know if I achieved the look of a bear face in my drawing, but in real life it really does resemble one :)

The tree stands along a sidewalk in our neighborhood. I had to set my chair right in the middle of the walkway to capture the entire tree.  When I stood in front of the bear face for the close up, a delightful Fox Squirrel, Sciurus niger, peeked from behind the tree. It was quite curious about the human standing there. At one point I thought it was going to leave the tree and inspect me up close!

Our lowcountry weather has been so absolutely balmy this November and December as compared to the last two years.  We really need a freeze. Our early spring wildflowers are thinking it's time to bloom!

Balanced Rock - Laura Gillis

On our first day of hiking in Mueller I saw this group of rocks and I wanted to sketch them. Unfortunately, I didn’t get back there for a couple of days and when I did, one of those thunderstorms that they always warn you about came up and over the mountains behind me. I could hear it coming and I thought about waiting it out until I saw the lightning bounce across three peaks to the south and I decided that maybe I should get out of there.

I had some light pencil work done on this when I packed it up so I stood and looked for a couple of minutes more trying to memorize the color, light and shadows but I knew that if I didn’t hurry up and get back to camp I would have to deal with my sweet, adoring, and very worried husband who had been listening to the same thunder that I was hearing. (For those who know me, you won’t believe it, but I was actually hiking without a camera.)

I think it is a fairly close rendering but someday I want to go back and try it again and do some other angles. The rock on the top left is actually a balance rock and every year I go there I like to go and see if it has fallen yet.

This isn't my favorite sketch ever but it was a good practice for me... I would like to do better landscapes faster and I definitely want to work on sketching from memory!

Ink & watercolor on hemp paper

Homestead Trail, Mueller State Park, Colorado

Aspen Leaves - Laura Gillis

The Aspen leaves were just beginning to think about turning colors while we were in Colorado last week. There were a few trees that had turned bright gold and then there was this small tree whose leaves were turning in a pattern.

The leaves on this tree were green along the veins with an edge of yellow surrounding reddish-orange blotches. It was a very pretty effect and reminded me of a map but I wonder what caused it.... it didn’t look like something good. Along the edges and in some spots, the leaves had started turning black and were brittle and dry.

I only saw this effect in one small tree. I don’t know if it was diseased or had an insect infestation or maybe it was just being a non-conformist, artistic tree. What ever it was, I don’t think it was good for the tree and I hope it isn’t something that will spread through all the Aspen.

ink & watercolor on hemp paper

Getting Ready for Winter - Laura Gillis

We didn’t see much large wildlife at Mueller State Park this year... I think there were too many camping dogs and the barking kept the wilder things away. I was very interested to see the number and the variety of dogs in the camp this year. My favorites were the dogs and people with the matching vests & jackets. (Are those from the Eddie Bauer Collection????) I don’t really understand dogs in people coats -- don’t they already have their own built-in coats?!

Anyway, the wildlife that we did see was mostly birds and ground squirrels busy getting ready for winter. I really enjoyed watching this Golden Mantled Ground Squirrel.

This little guy climbed up in a tree and cut down two pine cones to take to his den. The problem was that the cones were still attached to the end of the branch along with a large clump of needles. Evidently, cones are stored as singles and there is no use for the needles in a ground squirrel pantry. So, that meant that he had to get those cones off of the branch.

He worked and worked on this branch, and being from a pine tree, the branch and the green cones were full of sticky sap. When the sap got too thick on his face or front paws, he would scamper off a few inches and take a dirt bath and get “cleaned” up. It must have been really sticky because he had to stop and bathe quite a bit. He never went very far or took very long to bathe.

It took him between 30 & 45 minutes to get the cones, branches and needles all separated but he finally got the cones in the pantry. Then, he was right back out looking for more. While we were there, a storm came through with rain and hail and snow. It looks like it might be another long winter for the ground squirrels.

ink & watercolor on hemp paper

Trinidad State Park, Colorado - Laura Gillis

Just got back from a nice cool week in Colorado -- It was nice to get away from the heat here in Texas and relax a bit.

We went camping at two of our favorite Colorado state parks - Trinidad Lake, near Trinidad, and Mueller, west of Colorado Springs near Divide. We usually take two days to travel to Mueller -- At home our altitude is just under 1,000 ft. and our camp is at 9,600 ft. so it takes us a bit to adjust.

We got to Trinidad early in the day so I had time for some sketches.... first, was the rabbit brush, the park’s plant of the week. We had a pretty little cottontail come visit our camp but ironically, she showed no interest in the rabbit brush.

The park had lots of grama grass (misspelled in the journal - only one m). I thought it was Black Grama but when I looked in my Colorado flora book, they didn’t list Black Grama but they did list Hairy Grama so that is what I am calling it for now. I will have to see if I can find the difference in one of my other grass books. Either way, I do like grasses. I just need to learn more about how to tell them apart!

A Gamble’s Oak was also in our campsite and covered in galls. When I got to looking, there were several different shapes and sizes both on leaves and on the branches of the tree. I saw one wasp that was very attentive to one particular gall but I never saw the wasp chew on or try to pierce the gall in any way. It seemed to be going around the gall in circles and smelling it. I don’t if maybe the wasp was protecting it by leaving some kind of pheromone or maybe it was getting ready to parasitise the gall. (It is nice to be so easily entertained.... ha!)

The day ended with a full moon over Fishers Peak Mesa that was really spectacular.

There are more sketches to come... I thought I would spread them out a little and not overwhelm everyone with one long post!

All sketches, ink & watercolor on handmade hemp paper.

The Checkered Whites - Laura Gillis

This is Mr & Mrs Checkered White. The male was painted quite a while back and I just did the female. When they are fluttering around they look solid white. I thought it was interesting how much more color the male had... kind of like how the male birds are many times flashier than the females. Life is so interesting when you stop and look.

It is nice to stop and look again. It’s been a while since I have posted but I am over the hurdle of getting my sculptures ready for the Kemp Center and I even have an entry ready to go in their Mystery Art Fest.

The sculpture show has been very well received and the reception was wonderful thanks to my mom who did all the finger foods and all the people who came to visit. The show will remain on display through October 8th at the Kemp.

I am also going to take the time to get back to nature.... that is if there is any nature left after this summer of fires and drought. And, of course there will be.... the greenest grass grows in the blackened remains of a pasture and life returns in full force. I am sure looking forward to some lower temperatures soon. The weatherman says it will only be 98° on Sunday! We will see.....

Ink & watercolor

Flies, Flies, Flies -- Laura Gillis

This is my first post from home on my new internet service! Now I won’t have to go to the office early to post or wait until lunch to post! I am finally rid of the dreaded dial-up connection and I am not sure how I ever survived. Ha!

I have a few summer flies today... first is the Mayfly (which is not really a fly at all). These are such pretty little insects. The thing I find most interesting is that this Mayfly was at my house the other night. They are usually found close to water and water is getting pretty scarce around this part of Texas right now. We have been so long without rain that all fireworks were banned this year and only 9 Texas counties are not in a burn ban.



Sorry, I got off track.... back to the Mayflies.... trout love these insects and when I was up in Yellowstone a few years back, I bought several flies for fly fishing that look like various insects. I have still never been fly fishing but I just love the flies. They are just as pretty as the real thing! (The one on the top left looks like a Mayfly -- the others represent other insects that I have long forgotten...)



And since we are talking flies.... we were at a Fourth of July party and this giant, massive guy flew in for the festivities. He is by far the largest fly I have ever seen. Unfortunately, even with my new high-speed internet, I haven’t been able to identify him!



His body is 1.625 inches long if you don’t count the wicked looking mouth parts (that honker is a full .125 inch by itself -- add that in and he is almost 2 inches long!). He is a dark brownish black with huge emerald green eyes. He is a big bad boy and was just a little bit scary when he invited himself to the party. I will keep looking to see if I can find out what he is but if anybody knows, let me know! Thanks!

Ink & watercolor

The Caterpillar Hunter - Laura Gillis

These are one of my favorite ground beetles. The iridescent colors are just beautiful and these look like big jewels on spindly legs. (Maybe one of these days I will figure out how to paint those colors.)

I wonder if these guys like owlet moth caterpillars? I was working out in the shop fairly late last night and when I quit and looked around, the shop was swarming with hundreds of moths! When the eggs from those moths hatch it should be a grand buffet for the Caterpillar Hunters!


Ink & watercolor in the Moleskine Watercolor Journal

Wasps - Laura Gillis

I think there is a line in a John Wayne movie where it is said that everything in Texas would either “bite ‘ya, sting ‘ya or stick ‘ya.” (Or it could have been Henry Fonda or Jimmy Stewart that said that -- I don’t remember now.) Well, here are a couple of those things that might sting ‘ya...


First is the Scolid Wasp. This pretty black and brown wasp has a furry abdomen and the darkest black body and wings. She is a regular sized wasp (not quite an inch long).


This other brown wasp is quite a bit bigger (well over an inch if she wasn’t curled up). I think this is a Paper Wasp Polistes carolinus but I am not totally sure. I found her lying by the water faucet one day, dead as a door nail as they say. We do have lots of wasps around here and I think I will start paying more attention to them.

Ink & watercolor in the Moleskine Watercolor Journal

Moth Fly - Laura Gillis

I know it has been a while since I have posted but I have been intent on getting some new pieces done for my show in August. I am way behind on my sculptures so I have been letting the sketching and blogging slide. I will try to do better!


These pretty little heart shaped flies are in the ladies room in our office building. I have never really thought about why you always see these in bathrooms, but one of my insect books says that the larvae of some species feed on the gunk in your drain trap (yuck!!!).... so that is why the adults are hanging out in the rest rooms. (I guess it's also little lesson that nature is everywhere!)


I have no idea what this other insect is... it looks like a large flying ant or a smallish wasp. I found several of these in some grass but even though I didn’t see an ant hill any where nearby, I am leaning toward the large flying ant.