The Easter Robin

Sketch on mix media Canson sketchbook, 11" X 14"

His Peeps have been keeping me company, 
right outside my windows.

Three, four Robins, sometimes more.

Since the heavy snow, 

they come close to the house. 

Hop hop, walk walk, peck peck. Stand. 

Hop hop, fly fly, walk walk. Stand.
Peck peck. Catch a worm. Walk walk,

Stand. 

Early this morning, 

he stood very still, staring at me.

"What??"

"Come on, sketch me! I'm posing!

It's a gift. Take it!

Sketch me in this little patch of light.
And, SW, I'm here to tell you,
you can find your own patch of light,
instead of that dark place you were in yesterday."

"I'm here for you.

I am The Easter Robin."

Sketching Small & Fast: Boston

Train trip to Boston. View from the window.

I've been longing to go for many months,

with my Midori Traveler's Notebook, 4 X 51/4 "

The Italian North End. 

Dense with cafe's, restaurants,

& pastry shops.

Bricco • Cafe Bella • Ristorante Fiore

Cafe Paradiso • Ristorante Quattro

Trattoria il Panino • Ristorante Saraceno

Lucca • Dolce Vita Ristorante

And 19th century churches. And Sunday church bells.

 A distant view as we walked 

from the North End to North Station.

 Museum of Science. The Butterfly Garden with 

a hall of terrariums outside their giant room

is alone worth the admisson.

I mean, have you ever seen insect eating plants,

or a Stick Insect (that looks just like a twig/branch!!)?

Science, nature, art, enchantment, magic

as colors sparkle and flutter through the air. 

Knowledgeable & eager student assistants

are like butterfly encyclopedias.

Better than Google~ the real thing!!

It's like we were in a giant tropical terrarium.

And you had to check yourself before exiting

to make sure a butterfly hadn't landed on you! 

Butterflies on a city view window

with the Charles River right out back. 

Exhilarating day, indoors & out!

Sketching made it more so!

Draw What You Love: My New Neighbor

I have fallen in love with my new backyard neighbor:

A big hanging nasturtium. 

(En français, capucine. Po polsku, Nasturcya) 

Each day it grows new buds & blossoms. 

 There are at least 45 at this moment!

 This was not my usual very quick sketching. 

Slower, more left brain consciously accurate. 

I chose only one part of the abundant plant~ a vignette. 

You might call this a study-sketch.

I used pencil, even erasing & re-drawing. 

I was deepening my understanding of individual blossoms & leaves

and how they related to one another. 

My eyes were feasting on the colors.

By the time I finished the sketch, a gentle rain had fallen,

and configurations had changed.

I started with a preliminary contour sketch to help me focus.

I knew I couldn't draw the whole plant. 

The contour in ink was the introduction, a greeting. 

My gaze danced in & around blossoms & leaves, 

getting a feel for rhythms, lines & forms. 

While painting, I absent-mindedly tried out some colors

on this page as it was the nearest paper in sight.

And near the bottom, I seem to have been exploring 
some initial lines of nearby lupines.

The wonderful effect of drawing, 
beside the visual & tactile pleasure, 
is the concentration, the focus, the calm that occurs in me.
I always go back to my early guiding principle,
as presented by Frederick Frank, The Zen of Seeing:
Seeing/Drawing as Meditation, back in the early 70's.

The Full Moon Rising

I made a point of watching the moon rise, 

the last night before Spring officially turned. 

I sketched quickly from the upstairs window.

This gorgeous ball,

moved quickly as she rose.

Forget science, forget tanky machines & flags 

on the moon, THIS was the poetic moon 

of childhood wonder & awe!

A sketch, once she was higher and...

again, color was added from memory. 

 

I prefer to sketch & write notes.

But sometimes I'm grateful for my little camera. 

 

She is called The Full Worm Moon,

March being the month when earth worms begin to appear.      

   (Well, maybe not in Maine.)

Also The Sap Moon, when maple sap begins to flow...

 Below: Same place, the next morning.

The sun was now taking the moon's place, 

rising in just about the same place, to the East. 

 And while we had slept the night before,

that old moon had worked her way 

across the southern night sky, toward the West.

I went out to see her before she set behind western tree tops.

She was the same size as the night before, 

but she had on a misty, softly lit robe,

instead of her dazzling nightime party dress.

Springtime! A new awakening!

Back to Acadia, Autumn, 2018

Excursion to Acadia with an art friend. 

I got to add another panel to my Moleskine accordion book.

The 1st panel created in June, 2016 

The one before yesterday's: Last May.

To see some past posts re. Acadia, click HERE. And here.

From the path down to the (large) Pond, 

from the Jordan Pond House,

where lunches, popovers & views are divine. 

The left shore. Some years ago I hiked the trail 

around the entire lake.

The shore nearby, the carmines & corals 

are waving, Look at us!

Rather than hike we walked gently along carriage paths.

 

Design, color, dancing lights & shadows, 

translucence, luminescence, 

sparkling, shimmering, glittering leaves!

In the woods a stream that flows into into Jordan Pond...

...My friend, who takes gorgeous photos, 

captured my physical surroundings: a dark shady pocket 

in the midst of sunny, brilliant color.

What she didn't know is that she had also captured a mood.

I was remembering happy times spent with a childhood friend 

with whom I used to play in our woods by the creek.

I was grieving, because

I learned of my childhood friend's death last week.

Eagle Lake, how different 

from our explorations around Jordan Pond.

Places, flora, time of day, weather, mountains, bodies of water, 

changing light, so many varied images... 

I said to my friend, 

"Sometimes the beauty seems unbearable in its immensity."

A National Park like this, open to the public, 

is one of America's treasures.

It's an enchanting glimpse of Mother Earth 

for us town & city folks.

  On the way home, a Maine Blueberry field, at sunset...

That was yesterday...

Autumn is passing through Coastal Maine.

Filling the Air With Christmas

 

 Greetings 

during the season of long nights

when we fill our coastal villages with

Colored Lights, 

Santas, 

Wreaths All Red and Green, 

Decorated Evergreen Trees, 

Fake Candles and~~ Sales. Lots of Sales!

Music on the radio and in shops 

fills quiet air with songs

 Jingle Bell Rock and Silver Bells,

White Christmas and Winter Wonderland...

Meanwhile I take a break,

stopping for a cup of hot soup  

in the back café of 

Beyond the Sea at Lincolnville Beach. 

I stare out the back window and sketch...

Only quiet colors here,

 of a low tide 

where the sand meets the woods beyond...

Those are ducks...

They are slower and quieter than people 

at this time of year...

May you have a serene holiday season...R.

At the Scenic Train Ride Station

Field trip with the group to the local scenic train ride station.

Instead of focusing on the trains,

I was attracted to the scene across the street. 

Colors are fading, but the big old pine showed her vibrant greens. 

I heard that when she sheds her needles (leaves), 

they are from last year's batch.

 So wonderful to be with the other sketchers.

Each of their sketches, very different from mine,

taught me something, & each pleased me.

Diverse comments about each work enriched my viewing.

From seeing their art work 

I thought maybe we had shrunk down 

& found ourselves to be figures 

in a miniature toy train station.

This place is designed for us kids, young & old!

Photo: Dream Summer Winter Nightmare

Kathy, at her blog, Catching Happiness, always gets me thinking about how one has the ability to choose how to go through each day. Her recent post, about summer verses winter in Florida, got me thinking about these seasons here at the other tip of the United States. 

Last last winter I spent some time in a living nightmare because of some unlucky circumstances. But I experienced a phenomenon that I had known to be true from inspirational writing & stories: In the midst of fear & despair one can find fortitude, joy & serenity. With some hard work, & a little (a lot of) help from friends the nighmarish circumstances seem to finally be floating away.

And summer has drifted in like a pleasant dream. I first started living in Maine when I was in my late teens. I feel as youthful today as I did then when I am kayaking...(well, almost...) There I go, paddling gently into happiness...

Iris

Something there is about an Iris...in Spring.

(with a nod to friend S. and William Carlos Williams...)

The Zen of Seeing/Drawing

I'm looking back at my earlier drawing experiences.

Above, a simple drawing from the 80's.

From the 70's, drawings from old sketchbooks. 

I had not intended at the time to show them to anyone.

 I was in a state of wonder,

observing & drawing what was in front of me, 

learning revolutionary ideas that enhanced my pleasure.

My cats provided endless opportunities for focusing on

changing forms & wondrous poses,for enjoying their "catness".

(The brown spots are from aged non-archival glue.)

I've been sketching less lately, but making a lot of notes 

in my Art Learning Journal. From books, museum visits, workshops.

 Early on, Frederick Franck was the influence that changed my life. I learned that I could savor the experience
verses be conscious of what the drawing looked like. His philosophy & methods were perhaps different than a lot of approaches to sketching & drawing, the "How To's". He stated that his drawing process was not about "sketching" to record an image, it was a deep, sensitive, spiritual, Zen experience, an empathetic response, a focused state of being in love. I suspect some Urban Sketchers integrate some of this approach. My best experiences happen when I'm free of thinking too much...But technical learning, such as perspective and proportion, also enhance my experience of drawing/seeing.

Paul Hogarth's Creative Pencil Drawing (1964) was another strong influence on my drawing, back in the late 60's, early'70's. I loved his loose "interpretations" of his reactions to nature & to man-made phenomenon. 

So: I'm reminded: 

If I'm drawing with only the end goal to show my work, or to sell my work, I can lose the "Relaxed Fluency" that Hogarth talked about, & the wonder of seeing that Franck spoke of. 

Not everyone who shows & sells loses this fluency, & the best art retains the influence of the heart & soul.

Conclusion: Studying various approaches to any discipline 

makes that discipline richer.

An Old Autumn Tree

Time away from the blog has told me: 

I needed to get back to my true purpose:

To remember why I draw.

I had gotten distracted, 

starting to think that it was 

about showing others, forgetting

my internal need for 

observing, recording, reflecting,

When I'm in my personal process,

knowing that I'm not obligated to show everything,

then I can also choose to share.

Phew! 

I sketched the tree out the window during breakfast

at my favorite bed & breakfast in Bar Harbor.

After, I had a lovely sketch walk 

along one of the carriage roads, 

with a friend,

a friend who is more familiar 

with what's happening in nature

than I am. 

We would stop, she would point out

what she was seeing,

give explanations,

while I sketched & wrote down her quotes. 

I too was in the mode of stopping & noticing.

Very very wonderful, a gift,

at this time of year when there is so 

much variety & change.

Nature Sketch Journaling

Inspired by some books about Nature Journaling which I had brought to our Sketchers' Group, I found myself recently drawn to a chaotic, even junky field of "weeds" during a foggy morning walk. The fog moistens colors & guides my eyes to objects up close, the books remind me to observe small  things. I was astounded by the Queen Anne's Lace, & by the changes she is going through as we move increasingly quickly toward autumn.

Having my portable watercolor set-up more figured out, it is easier to stop spontaneously to sketch. The water bottle hangs in a bag at my side, the small watercolor box rests on the book. As I walk, the book & pen stay out of the bag, prepared for sudden stops. 

 In Season: A Natural History of the New England Year states that the myth that New England has 4 distinct seasons is not true, because there are "as many seasons as one wants to make of them, innumerable happenings that run into each other". Changes are varied: matings, bloomings, migrations, emergences, hibernations, deaths...The Queen Anne's Lace was showing a number of simultaneous changes: One disc was slightly curling in like an upside down umbrella, others were closed up in round cage like forms with dark burgandy seeds arranged in round patterns...

Clare Walker Leslie's Keeping a Nature Journal is a "bible" on nature sketch journaling. 

All of her books are artistically & scientifically pleasing & inspiring. 

Hannah Hinchman is another guru of the nature, or illuminated journal. Leslie was one of her mentors. Hinchman talks about the magic transformation that occurs while walking & observing in A Life in Hand:

"In the early stages of a walk, colors seem only pleasant & ordinary. 

If I am outdoors long enough...all the colors begin to become more brilliant & distinct..."

Frederick Franck, in The Zen of Seeing:

"For the awakened eye, nothing remains a mere thing. It reveals itself to be, 

instead of an object, an event, in the timeless abyss of time. " 

Queen Anne's Lace, on my foggy morning definitelly became a magical event!

 Welcome to New Zealand, meant for young readers, is super inspiring with various "walks" & ways to organize observations. Lovely, colorful handlettering is an integral part of the pages. 

Clare Walker Leslie:

 "Nature offers us a thousand simple pleasures~plays of light & color, frangrances in the air, the sun's warmth on skin & muscle, the audible rhythm of life's pull & push~all for the price of merely paying attention."