Stork Update

I've been doing more work at home than the studio this summer.  But when I do get there I'm still working away on the stork drawings.  And still loving every moment.

Drawing in the Garden

Cedar of Lebanon

Thursday we went to Tyler Arboretum. Olivia and a friend were catching butterflies for the butterfly house and I was going to sit and draw. I left the girls to their work and walked out to the farthest tree in the arboretum. I spent a lot of time debating which tree, which place to sit. I found a great tree that was near a road the maintenance crews use but that brought back memories of almost getting run over sitting on a sand "road" at the Hubbell Trading Post. Sitting on an even rarely used road can be dangerous, especially if you are partially concealed behind a very large rabbit bush and the driver has NO reason to imagine anyone would be sitting on the road! Anyway, I finally picked my tree, unpacked my tarp, used my bug spray, and sat down to draw...only to discover I'd left my oil pastels in the car!! I had nothing whatsoever with which to draw. SO...I walked all the way back to the car and instead drew a tree nearer to the exit. This tree in fact. It's a stunning Cedar of Lebanon, about 180 years old.

Drawing as a way of observing

If you come to my gallery shows you won't usually see my observational drawings. The work I usually show develops from my drawings in a very loose and general way. The way all the information and knowledge that I have works it's way into my work. But I still consider observational drawing important or maybe necessary. These days I don't know if that need is so connected to art making. I think it's more connected to watching the natural world. When I sit in a place, a zoo, aquarium, forest, or wherever, I see things that I don't see when I walk through it. Sitting and drawing allows me to become part of the environment I'm observing. I learn a lot about the thing I am drawing- how it is made, how it moves, how it interacts with it's environment- but I also learn a lot about unexpected things.

Last summer drawing at Canyon de Chelly and the Hubbell Trading Post National Historic Site I saw a lot of beautiful things that went by too quickly to photograph. Quick glimpses of how much we generally miss in the world.

Victoria Water Lily Pads

I haven't drawn much, or once, since we got back from Arizona. It's kind of funny to draw everyday for two weeks and then go a whole month without drawing. In fact it's kind of amazing to me that a whole month has already gone by. Today Olivia had a vacation day so we headed out to Longwood Gardens. I've been wanting to draw those lily pads since our last visit when I took lots of photographs. They were working in the ponds, cutting out the lotus plants and generally shaping things up. We got to see the bottom of these huge lily pads. They have an amazing support system. I wish I'd had my camera. But alas, you'll just have to trust me. The first chance you get flip one of these guys over. Just watch out for the thorns.

Desire

I get two urges every spring. Well, not so much Spring as the last part of winter before spring actually starts. The first is to look at flowers. The second is to draw. Let me clarify. I always draw. But this urge is to draw things, not in the studio, not from photographs but outside and close enough to touch them.

Yesterday, driving around in my car, I was overcome by the desire to drag this canvas I’m working on outside, into the wood. But guess what. IT”S STILL COLD OUTSIDE. Argh.

Another trip to Longwood Gardens to see the orchid show may do the trick. Then I can look at flowers and draw them!