Ink Drawings

Great Blue Heron

detail

detail

drybrush detail

mallard (detail)

two mallards feeding on the vertical face of the dam

mallard preening, getting ready for a morning nap

mallard feeding on the face of the dam

Ink Drawings

brush and ink. The wash is a mix of coffee and India ink.

These were great fun to do this morning. A small flock of mallards was feeding and minding their business in the river below the dam. They seemed so peaceful and dedicated to their own particular needs. They eat, preen, dabble and squabble and chase each other around. And they rest by tucking their heads under their wings and balancing on one leg. Can you do that?

Midsummer Waterfowl

Canada Geese
07-16-11
colored pencil

Despite yesterday's torrential downpours, the water level in the river is dropping. This creates more feeding opportunities for mallards and geese. Fish swim about in the pools forming in the rocky shallows below the dam but no herons have been hunting there lately.  These low levels seem normal for this time of year. These drawings were done in the last few days. It really feels like summer: hot and humid!

Canada Geese: 3 - Mallards: 2
07-17-11
colored pencil

Mallard feeding on top of the dam
07-18-11
colored pencil

Female mallard and two young
07-18-11
colored pencil

White Noise

The Charles River at South Natick
07-13-12
colored pencil

It's hot and humid but the blue color and white noise of the falling water feels cool. Bonne journée.

Invisible!

Canada Geese preening themselves on top of the dam
07-10-12

07-11-12

note: as I started to draw this morning, a view of some ducks through one of the arches of the Pleasant Street Bridge, a small raccoon came down to the river's edge to see what was going on. Don't bother looking for him; I'm not that clever: He's not in this drawing. If he was, he'd be on that flat boulder just to the right of the arch. The raccoon only stayed a half a minute and then ambled back into the forest. I suspect he was up past his bedtime!

Imagine all the things that are not in a life drawing! All the stories and miniature dramas, the comings and goings, the alignments and realignments and the movement of the wind and shadows.

I'm always interested in that first moment when a thing or face is recognized and named. I can be looking directly at something and it simply isn't there …not until my noggin recognizes it. The same goes for leavings too I guess. When was that last moment I beheld someone dear… what did they look like? Better in my memory than in a photo. Life's a mystery.

Students Island

calm waters at Mooslelookmeguntic Lake
06-22-12, Rangeley, ME
litho crayon

A family of Common Mergansers (a mother and ten young)
The ducklings were very antic and charming as they zoomed over the waves one moment and then huddled close to Mom the next. The odds of survival seem so low yet they seem to approach life with such vigor and élan.