Central California Coast

These are a few of the things I found during our week staying near San Luis Obispo, California. Before packing my bags to fly home to Iowa, I gathered my treasures in one place.

Central Coast California Treasures

Hiking along the craggy coastline of the Point Buchon Trail was a highpoint of our trip. It was a calm and sunny day. I drew from the edge of the cliff, the roiling surf glistened below and the barking of unseen sea lions serenaded me. This is a place I yearn to return to, again and again. 

Point Buchon Trail, Again

From the house where we stayed, soft morning light washed over the sparsely treed hills.

Hills Above Edna Valley, Morning

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.

The Prairie is Blooming

White Wild Indigo
Baptisia Lactea

                                                        

 On my morning bicycle ride, I circled Big Woods Lake. The trail took me through the 10 acre Rotary Prairie Reserve. The Wild White Indigo was the most showy plant in bloom. This one stood about 2-1/2 feet tall. Mosquitos (the summer scourge for plein air sketchers in Iowa) haven't arrived, but the gnats have. I found a spot with enough breeze to keep them off me to set up my folding stool. 

 Iowa, in the middle of the United States, is part of the Great Plains. Before it was tilled and became some of the planet's most fertile cropland, it was prairie. I have lived much of my adult life in the Great Plains and have come to love and appreciate the delicate beauty of the prairie. Only patches of it have been preserved and restored. This prairie is a joint project with the Rotary Club, The University of Northern Iowa, and the Black Hawk County Conservation Board.

I love this plot of land. It gives me a sense of peace and calm each time I come. Watercolor and ink on 140lb hot press. May 22, 2012. Cedar Falls, Iowa.

Buggy about Bugs: My First Post

I love to closely examine natural forms. Nature objects, picked up on walks, are scattered about my house. Sometimes I'm moved to draw them. I have followed and admired this blog for quite awhile, enjoying what other nature lover/artists focus on. I am excited to have the opportunity to share my apropos work here.  I post all my work, as it comes forth, here.

I found this bit of wasp nest on a trail that borders the Cedar River, not too far from my house, in Cedar Falls, Iowa, USA.  It prompted this drawing, done in a collaborative sketchbook for  moly_x_international. It's in Masha Kirikova's, theme book, Those Who Live. Masha (from Moscow) is also a contributor to this blog.

pencil and colored pencil in a Japanese-fold Moleskine

In my basement, I found an old collection of insects my daughter had put in a shadowbox for a junior high school science project. (She's now in her 20s!). It was fascinating to examine what specimens were still intact and to draw them.

watercolor and pencil in pocket-size watercolor Moleskine