Henry David Thoreau and Polecat Weed

Wednesday April 6th. A walk in the wetlands along the Pine Creek and we come upon a lively patch of young Skunk Cabbage (Symplocarpus foetidus). 

I stop to sketch a spear and unfurled leaf. We move on and there before us is a poor soul, who, while springing up to meet the new year, was captured and bound by King Oak.

Again, I stop to sketch. This time I draw the prisoner of the Oak leaf. Margaret steps up and frees him! I remember what Thoreau wrote of the skunk cabbage "See those green cabbage buds lifting the dry leaves in that watery and muddy place. There is no can’t nor cant to them. They see over the brow of winter’s hill. They see another summer ahead."





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Breakfast (Not a) Bloom: Fiddle Heads

Another entry in the "Breakfast Blooms" or as some are calling it, the "Art and Oatmeal" series. This time it is oatmeal and fiddle heads. Applesauce and Cinnamon on the oatmeal. Fiddle heads in the sketchbook. Sketched, then inked with a Zig Writer. Practice watercolor glazing (per Sketchbook Skool Fakulty Felix Scheinberger) first using watercolors and then adding layers using Distress and Tombow watercolor markers (per author Joanne Sharpe). Done on Canson 140 cold press watercolor paper (inexpensive and good for practice) and pasted into journal. 

Text from around the picture: "What fern is this? The tightly curled fiddle heads are deceptive and it is difficult to determine which fern is which at this stage. The fern unfolds to its full potential. (circinate vernation) Our minds are shaped by our life experiences as we grow into our full potential. A fascination with the fiddle head of ferns. In the language of flowers, that is what the fern symbolizes: fascination. Older than the flowers, younger than the mosses, it is said that the fern only blooms once a year on Midsummer's Eve. It's a difficult quest indeed to find the seeds of ferns due to their being invisible.

 By chance if you do come across a fern seed on St. John's Eve, June 23^rd, it will allow you to travel unseen to a magical spot marked by the Will O' the Wisp wherein you will find a hidden treasure. After you have secured this treasure for yourself, let the world know that you found a fern seed and you will not only be rich, you will be famous because no fern has seeds. Ferns contain the deep wisdom of Mother Earth and are her symbol for transformation, renewal, and hope for the future. Ferns remind us that all life is reborn and continues on." 

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Illustrated Daze: un-yun snow

April 9, 2016 Cold heavy wet snow all day! Here in Pencil-vania we call it Onion Snow because it happens late March or early April which is around the time that onion sets are usually planted. The grass is green, the wild onions are tall, and with the high angle of the sun, the snow melts quickly. Tom calls this snow "poor man's fertilizer." 

I added some sparkle to the snow!

I remembered that I did a journal page about onion snow before! I found it on my Flickr page and copied it here. It is from March 23, 2011.

Sketchbook Pages bSe (before Sketchbook Skool era) and aSe (after Sketchbook Skool era)

Click on picture to enlarge.

On the right: journal page from 2011 depicting that year's onion snow.

On the left: journal page inspired by this year's onion snow.

Thank you Danny Gregory, Koosje, and all the SBS Fakulty!

Breakfast Blooms: Globe Thistle Fun

Oatmeal with blueberries and blue and purple Prismacolor Pencils for breakfast.

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Trees in Parking Lots While Waiting for Appointments: Oley Community Park

No time to draw a tree? Even if you only have a few minutes, you can still draw part of a tree! I picked out this part of the trunk of a tree to sketch because of the shaggy bark and unusual branch.

It just might be a Shag Bark Hickory.

Quick Sketch with a Pigma Micron 05 pen.

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The Last Seed of them all.

We are on the weather roller-coaster ride. Winter, spring, winter, summer, winter again. So I had put my hand into my pocket to get a glove and... What? I pulled out a seed! I couldn't remember where it came from but what I thought of was the last Truffula seed. It was the last Truffula seed of all and the Once-ler had put it in my pocket. And I needed to plant it, to treat it with care, to give it clean water, and feed it fresh air.

Then I recalled that during last Wednesday's botany walk, I had popped a bladdernut seed case into my pocket. Why? Who knows? Rocks, twigs, seeds, all manner of objects wind up in my pocket or in my journal bag. Anyway, the case rattled so there must have been a seed in it. What happened to the case? That awesome three-sided balloon, after which the tree was named, was last year's crop and very dry and fragile. It had disintegrated into a fine brown dust at the bottom of the pocket.

I was inspired by my thoughts to play with color on the pages of my art marker journal.

The Lorax is a fine book to read to persons of all ages. It has always been one of my favorites. 

Trees in Parking Lots While Waiting for Appointments: Nolde Forest Environmental Education Center

 I did not arrive as early to my appointment as I had planned, but I still had a few moments to draw. I chose the Rhododendrons next to the parking lot as my subject because I loved the way their dark twisted trunks and little green "umbrellas" looked in the rain. 

I was at the center to hear the author of Pleasant Valley Lost, Joseph J. Swope speak about the loss of his family farm to the Army Corps of Engineers. What was once his home is now under the Blue Marsh Lake. I can remember my Grandmother talking about losing her mother's strawberry farm in Benton Co. Missouri to the Army Corps' Harry S. Truman Dam project. She held out for more money when she discovered that the property would become a prime lakefront location after the reservoir filled. Family legend has it that after a multi-year court battle, she did get a little more money for the land.  

Eminent domain: When is it for the good of the people? The government? Private industry/business? Discuss.

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The Bog Plant and the Fly

A few of my favorites at the 2016 Philadelphia Flower Show were the ferns, the Cosmos, the fields of Lupines, and the bog plants. Yes! The bog plants.

Love the pitcher plants and their unusual leaves and flowers! 

Here I sketched a few from one of the exhibits.

I started by sketching the leaves of this "pitfall" trap plant. The leaves curl and form pitcher shaped vessels. The top of the pitcher is a "faux" flower that attracts insects. Be wary, Hungry Fly! Dum dee dum dum, dummm!

While investigating the "flower" for food, the unsuspecting fly falls into the plant's trap. There it encounters a triple threat. First, there is a pool of water containing a wetting agent that affects the wings of the doomed creature and prevents it from flying out. When the fly tries to climb the walls, as flies tend to do, the insect finds them coated with a very slippery waxy substance. Think soft socks on a kitchen floor that has just been waxed. Plop! It falls back into the water. The insect tries to scale the wall again and this time it meets the third threat. Like pikes protecting a castle keep, there are downward facing hairs blocking its upward climb. 


Exhausted, the fly expires in a liquid that has been laced with digestive enzymes thanks to the bacteria that live there. And finally the plant can feast! HeHeHe! (evil laugh). 



This pitcher plant, which is a Northeast US native, has an outstanding deep dark red flower. Some scientists say that it mimics raw meat to attract flies, but I think it is quite lovely. I was in luck that day as the plants at the flower show were blooming, so I made a quick sketch of them after drawing the pitcher-leaves. (Color was added at home using Prismacolor Verithins.)


The petals and sepals of the flower hang down, but if you get a chance look underneath to see its most unusual star- shaped umbrella-like style that is designed to catch the pollen from the anthers above it. (See sketch above.)

These pitcher plants are in their native habitat in a bog on Hog Island, Me. 


If you want to learn more about nature in the Northeast, I would recommend Mary Holland's book "Naturally Curious." The information in her book is organized by month so you can flip through to any section and see what's blooming, buzzing, hatching, or otherwise! 





More from the Flower Show:

The Ant and the Lily:

Trees in Parking Lots While Waiting for Appointments: The Nature Place at Angelica Creek

How apropos! While waiting for a meeting on tree planting, I got to sketch a parking lot tree. It was gray and raining and I didn't have but a few minutes, but I set about to work anyway. Because of the colorless day, I chose a Stabio All pencil. It's nice and black, writes on many surfaces, and will take a small wash, which is about all that this light weight sketch paper will handle any way. 

Sketchbooks are awesome, no pressure, lots of experimenting. Sketch fast, draw slow. Doesn't matter. Practice, practice. Pick something out from your picture that you like the best - Right now I'm loving this little bit circled in red. On this enlarged version, you can see that there are some black pen lines, I was doodling on the drawing when I should have been taking more notes.

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