vegetable varieties

                  While in Hamburg recently I discovered zucchini can be bright yellow, as well as green. I couldn't resist and had to draw them in my sketchbook. I had already fallen in love with German vegetables, and started drawing a Kohlrabi, a kind of cabbage I first saw there. I never completed the sketch, but I like leaving unfinished parts, so here it is.

Canadian wolf

This is a new exhibit at the Natural History Museum. The species is gray wolf, Canis lupus, but I don't know which of the four existing subspecies present in Canada it belongs to. Does anyone? Id' love to know.
The color of wolves' fur varies from white, white and tan, to reddish, gray or brown mixed with black. But does the fur's color serve a camouflage purpose? I found this interesting article on the subject and would like to share it with you: http://www.world-science.net/othernews/090206_wolf.htm

Royal Botanic Gardens Sketchabout, Sydney

Yesterday was the first day of the Sydney Royal Botanic Garden Sketchabout, where all of Sydney is invited to come and sketch in the Gardens with us .

The gardens cover 30 hectares in a spectacular setting in Sydney, right next to the CBD. It was established n 1816 and has a huge variety of plants and trees. Our little bit if nature in the middle of the city!!!

Sketchabout is happening each Satuday afternoon for the next six weeks as part of their Autumn of the Arts festival. We are encouraging people who attended to upload their drawings to the blog

We had over 40 people turn out on a beautiful sunny afternoon. After an welcome by Kerry from the RBG , Liz Steel gave an introduction and then we spread out through the Gardens, meeting up at 3pm to share sketchbooks and experiences. This is the first time that this has been held and we were very unsure as to how it would go. But the day was fantastic . It was especially wonderful to see the sketchers all chatting amongst themselves and members of the public at the end. Everyone found different parts and things in the Gardens to draw and explore - and that was what the Gardens wanted to achieve.

As I was involved in the event, I spent a lot of the time chatting to sketchers, but managed to draw a Moreton Bay Fig and also the fruits of the same tree. These were on the ground around me. They are eaten (half eaten) by the fruit bats that live in the gardens .

Moreton Bag Fig: Ficus macrophylla. Large spreading tree, epiphytic and strangling in early stages, trunks becoming massive with large buttresses. Distribution and occurrence: In coastal rainforest of all types,NSW Qld Vic

Looking forward to next week !!

Gulf fritillary ~ Elizabeth Smith

Gulf fritillary, originally uploaded by Elizabeth Smith.

It’s not often I get to draw these handsome butterflies up close – a chance glance at the ground, and I knew this was my next subject. Gulf fritillaries seem to be everywhere right now; usually we see the brilliant orange to chestnut top parts of their wings as they nectar or rest. Although this butterfly was somewhat battered, the bottom surface of the hindwing was in excellent shape. It’s hard to see this in my drawing, but the white-gray spots are a metallic silver. Beautiful!

Gulf Fritillaries use passionvine as their larval food source, which also happens to work well as a nectar plant!

You can click on the image above to view it on my Flickr photostream.

~ Elizabeth Smith, Naples, Florida, USA

Jarvis Creek Park - Pam Johnson Brickell

Jarvis Creek Park
Originally uploaded by PJBee

Jarvis Creek Park is a lovely little spot on the north end of Hilton Head Island. There is a pond that attracts Osprey, Wading Birds, Anhinga and Cormorants.

I was sitting on the fishing dock (can't swim or feed the gators here) while sketching the far shore. A Cormorant joined me at the far end of the dock. Just for fun, I sketched him with a Koh-i-noor Magic pencil. These pencils are so much fun as they have many colors of lead in one pencil.

Another view of the dam - Maree

Will Kitchen once put it this way:
"The reason I like working outdoors is that you get to live your life while you are painting it."



Another view of the dam on Spring Farm - yesterday I took a drive to Magaliesburg to do some grocery shopping, choosing to take the gravel road short-cut again, but this time with the intention of stopping and doing another couple of sketches in my "Keeping an Artist's Journal" which I used during Kate's on-line class. I drove around the dam and chose a couple of locations, mostly sketching from the car, with the door open. This is done with my Derwent watercolour pencils.