Pitcher Plant

I painted these carnivorous plants at the Nature Conservancy Preserve on Great Wass Island, Maine. This island is one of the most easterly parts of the United States on a coastline called Down East. This magical, 5-1/2 mile loop trail takes one through dense woods, heath, bog and a boulder coastline. The pitcher plant bog is about an hour's hike in from the gravel parking lot when going counterclockwise.

For a week in mid-August, my husband and I stayed at a cottage in Jonesport, a lobster fishing village on the mainland. We'd been to this area 7 years ago and had yearned to return. (It's very far from our home in Iowa and the airline connections are poor.) I had photographed these plants at this preserve then. This time, I was determined to draw on-sight. An 18" boardwalk (no railing) zigzags a foot above  the muckiest part of the bog where these plants grow profusely. I stood, my feet unmoving, for the 45-minutes if took to do this drawing in my Moleskine 5"X8"watercolor sketchbook, using my smallest  portable watercolor set. I was planning to put more of the surrounding vegetation, but the effort of balancing in one place had caused my feet from the balls out to go numb. So other then labeling the page upon my return to the cottage, what I captured while at the bog is what you see here.

I did other drawings while in Maine--mostly crayon seascapes. If you'd like to see them, too, go here.