Art and Oatmeal with Peaches: Winter Squash

It's the beginning of the fall harvest and the last of the peach harvest at the Farmer's Market.

I'm going to miss the fresh peaches but the HoneyCrisp Apples are ready to eat!

So much play with this squash it took 2 breakfast sessions to complete!

But Drummer Hoff fired it off...

Urban sketching at Gettysburg Battlefield with limited supplies: white gel pen, black Sharpie, green, blue, red and yellow Pitt artist pens and toned tan Strathmore sketchbook. The 4th Maryland Regiment reenactors fired off their canons. Kaboooom!!! It's hard to sketch with your hands over your ears. It reminded me of the children's book "Drummer Hoff fired it off." Each soldier had a specific job to do.

Quick sketch of Devil's Den from up atop Little Round Top.

Down at Devil's Den and up close, this huge rock looked like a duck. Diabase boulders tend to weather into amazing shapes. 

Every Rock has a story to tell... Listen carefully...

Every rock has a story to tell...

Listen carefully...

"Art In" at Mt Cuba

Mt Cuba is a wonderful native plant preserve that holds events where artists can visit without charge for the day. Any completed art work can be submitted for consideration to be included in the Mt Cuba program guide.

This year, the fall event was held on September 16th. The New England Asters were among the most colorful flowers in the meadow.

This side of the page was done with watercolors. The trees had not yet turned, but the fall blooms were gorgeous. Lots of Rubeckias and Joe-Pye-Weeds.

Loved the rustic wooded chairs set out by the pond. This side of the page started off as watercolor but morphed into gouache. Even with the gouache, the chair is wonky. Oh well, the weather and the day were "picture perfect"!

Fancy Shawl Dancer

Getting into a habit of not finishing sketchbook pages. I found this page from back in July when I went to the Hobby Horse Powwow. 

I decided to just put a dramatic monochrome to the page and call it done. Though, when it comes to a sketchbook, I guess done doesn't matter, right?

#139 little tree, big leaves...

What's on my mind?

Why do the littlest of trees have the largest leaves?

I looked out the window and this little tree had one yellowish-brown leaf. The next day it had two.

Tree #138

Because...

because... there was acrylic paint left over on the tray.

because... i like purple and pink swirling flowers.

because...  i just wanted to play. 

because... there's no better way to spend the hours.

A fun journal page.

UFOs? Pillows? What are these?

With T.S. Hermine a few hundred miles off the coast and a big H for high pressure in control, there must have been some interesting air currents aloft because when I looked up into the beautiful blue sky, I saw these. Pillows? UfOs? What? Every day is a Cloud Appreciation Day. This was September 6th.

A few days earlier, on September 2nd, when Hermine was down off the Carolina coast, all we had were high cirrus clouds. When all was said and done, we did not get even a drop of rain. 

Art and Oatmeal with Peaches and Elephants...

While at the Farmer's Market, I bought this repro of an old Apple Bitters bottle. Awesome gold colored glass with dimensional apples on the sides.

While sketching and painting the bottle at breakfast, I just couldn't get a conversation that I overheard at the market out of my head.

Tall woman, "Do you have any coloring books with elephants in them? I love elephants!"

 Vendor, "I love elephants, too!"

Tall woman, "I love elephants and butterflies."

Vendor, "I love elephants and dragonflies!"

So, I had to add these characters to the page!

Into the Woods... Tree#138/10,000

The first Sunday of the month is Open House at Nolde Forest Environmental Education Center.

Carol and I invited visitors to stop and nature journal with us.

Harvesting Paper Moons...

Grabbed a handful of Lunaria annua from the garden to sketch during breakfast. You may know this Mustard Family plant as Honesty, or The Money Plant or Silver Dollars, or The Pope's Money, or a variety of other names, but I call it Silver Moons after it's botanical name Lunaria. 

Art and Oatmeal with Peaches and Paper Moons. 

Went a little cray-cray with the watercolors.

Art Studio Supervisor approves.

More Art and Oatmeal with...

Caterpillars

Tomatoes

Magnolias

Pumpin' Up the Color Volume...

Art and Oatmeal with peaches and a purple bowl. I painted the plant on the bottom during oatmeal a few days ago.  Afterwards, while flipping through the journal, I thought that it looked a little too washed out for my taste. So I decided to pump up the color . Picture me dancing and gyrating about the kitchen with flailing arms to the tune of "Pump Up the Jam." On second thought, don't.

The two sketches are the same one. It's just that the one on the top was taken after I went over it with some Peerless Watercolors from New York.

This is Joanne Sharpe's Palette. Love the colors!

Art and Oatmeal with Peaches and.....Caterpillars???

A small piece of paper with the number 3 written on it was  bestowed upon me for safe-keeping by the Lancaster Entomological and Butterfly Society. Within days I had 4 tiny dark-colored Imperial Moth caterpillars. Everyday I fed them and cleaned their container.

A breakfast only a naturalist can appreciate!

And, no, I did not eat the caterpillars. Just sketched them during breakfast. 

They eat White Pine needles. The container had a nice piney scent.

Part of my "Possum Patty's Sketch and Release Program." These guys are almost ready to dig down into the ground to pupate and overwinter, so I put them out into our stand of White Pines. Blessings and good luck!

More Butterflies: