PLANE TREE BARK

 

I love trees and I love fungus and finding the two together is a bonus.  During our trip to the Loire valley in September the weather was very windy and the plane trees were shedding their bark. I picked up a few scraps to draw and then I made this embroidery inspired by the patterns and beautiful colours.

a bit of lichen

With so much excess rain we not only see fewer mushrooms --- there seems to be less lichen and moss. Which seems curious to me. Fewer dragonflies, with their normal habitat under the flooded lake, but we are seeing a few of them return now. Which is lovely since they eat mosquitoes.

Yesterday was Virtual Sketchcrawl Day and I had planned on going out to sketch something "urban". But we were busy getting ready for another road trip so I only managed to draw this bit of lichen.

colorful lichen

Last night I sketched another twig full of lichen, this time with at least 4 different types growing in muted, earthy shades of red and green. After discovering that gouache works well on this handmade paper (as long as it is kept very dry), I took another try at watercolor, using it more like gouache -- I kept it dry and mixed each color with buff titanium to make it more opaque.

ink sketch in progress

moss and lichen

This past week has brought thunderstorms through our area, breaking off bits of the local trees. I picked up a couple of broken twigs during a walk yesterday, wanting to sketch the odd moss and lichen growing on them.

Both types grow in abundance on the trees here, but I am not familiar with either one of them. I've been looking for a field guide of moss and lichen but have not found one as yet.

I especially like this tiny lichen that grows on metal boxes and rocks as well as tree branches. An odd shade of pale gray-olive green, it looks a bit fey.

Lichen and Pin Oak Leaf by Linda C. Miller

Photo

In my studio, I have a basket lined in this beautiful linen fabric holding my fall nature finds.  I live in Williamsburg, Virginia where we are "leafless"  from late November to mid April.  So this basket provides much joy in our winter months.

 
Here is this year's painting of a fallen branch with several forms of lichen and a pin oak leaf.   The cool tan and dark black were both made by mixing cobalt blue, permanent rose and lemon yellow.  I am always amazed by the range of colors one can achieve when mixing the three primaries together.  I no longer use burnt umber and raw umber.  I added Quinacridone red to create the rolled edge.     

Happy Painting, Linda


Linda C. Miller
Artist  Naturalist Instructor

www.lindacmillerbotancialarttoday.com

Winter in France

 

It's been a few weeks since I posted from my corner of Brittany, it's been windy, wet and cold so not a lot of outdoor sketching!

 

 

I take my walks to the beach when I can and today I found a few things to inspire me. The wild garlic plant was in the pavement growing in the crack between the boundary marker and the tarmac, these plants line the roadsides everywhere at the moment giving a bright accent to all the green and grey.

 

 

We had some amazing skies at dawn and sunset before Christmas but now it's just grey clouds and rain or snow!

Small Nature Objects

©2012 Carolyn A Pappas, Small Nature Objects. Ink and Colored Pencil in large handbook sketchbook.

A top of an acorn, a piece of bark with some lichen, and a pussy willow that I was lucky enough to come across. Normally, I've been sketching with just ink, but this time I added some colored pencil.

I have some exciting nature sketching excursions planned over the next few months. I am going to make an effort to add color of some sort to my sketches.

It's been pretty chilly here in Massachusetts, but I am excited that it is officially spring. I can't wait for the weather to warm up so I can spend some more time outdoors with my baby. She is almost five months old now.

March 2012: Treasures

March 2012: Treasures, a photo by apple-pine on Flickr.

Drawing Mosses and Lichens is something I can do for hours... but trail and companions cannot wait that long - so I grab my book and jump ahead. Sometimes it means colors running all over :)

Merry Xmas from Concetta-Rome-Italy

Hello everybody,
my name is Concetta Flore and I'm a nature shetcher/illustrator from Rome.
I've been kindly invited to join this lovely blog and I gladly contribute with this lichen, that I drew at home after picking up the broken branch from the ground.
The colours look Chrismassy enough...
If you put dried-up lichens into water they really refresh and come back to life!
They're so beautiful and intricate, aren't they?
Just to remind us how beauty can be found in  almost everything Nature creates !
Enjoy your holidays !

Why we like Lichen - Linda C. Miller

Linda C. Miller, Lichen
Originally uploaded by Linda C. Miller

During my Master Naturalist training, we spent one full day with Charlie Dubay and Hugh Beard, two of the most unique and gifted botanists you can ever know.  On that day, I learned so much and especially -- we like Lichen.  Seeing Lichen on our trees is a sign that our air is clean.  Lichen will not grow where there is air pollution!

Also this amazing organism is actually two organisms that live off each other in what is called a symbiotic relationship. Fungi are incapable of making their own food. They usually provide for themselves as parasites or decomposers. Lichen are composite organisms consisting of a fungus (the mycobiont) with a photosynthetic partner (the photobiont or phycobiont), usually a green alga. 



Lichen can live for many years and will actually go "dormant" in times of drought.

Hummingbirds use lichen to build their nests.

Deer and caribou eat lichen.

Lichen
Size: 7 inches high by 1.5 inches wide
Watercolor and Ink on 300lb HP Paper
Specimen: Williamsburg
copyright 2010

Have a great day with nature!
Linda

Linda C. Miller
Williamsburg, Virginia
Artist, Naturalist and Instructor