Tuesday, August 18, 2015

Drawing from the Bridge

ducks
8/16/15
ink
 Last Sunday, I was drawing from on top of the Pleasant Street bridge. Downstream was a pavement of preening, dabbling and squabbling mallards. They work through a limited series of positions like ballerinas: preening feathers, diving and bobbing, napping, etc. The result is familiar yet varied and interesting to observe.

Visible from the upstream side of the bridge was a Great Blue Heron who was an exhibitionist. I was able to make four drawings before I had to get back home.

my (bad) first drawing
brush & ink
8/16/15

my second sheet of drawings
brush & ink
8/16/15

My third drawing: a little better
(the "ink" is a witch's brew of various inks and paint of questionable origin)
8/16/15

the fourth drawing I did in pencil because the ink had to dry before I walked home.
colored pencil
8/16/15

Thursday, August 13, 2015

Late Summer

We have a very healthy mallard population this summer… just in case you were worried and the question keeps you up at night. I also counted a pair of kingfishers this morning. A solitary and generally agreeable swan and two hyperactive sandpipers round out the cast of characters that congregate at the South Natick Dam in late Summer. There, I said it: "late Summer." That makes me wince a little. You?

The farmer's field grows a granola mix of herbs now instead of lush grasses: chicory, dock, clover and crabgrass. If he bales it, will the cows and horses like it in January and March when the snow circles around like some wild stray animal.

I also hear the steady drone of crickets and at night, frogs and screech owls. My backyard badger looks quite fit. The garden has survived his presumed predations; we did see it eating a green apple the other evening. We said hello to the Perseid meteors last night. This reminds me of the pleasures of star and meteor gazing from a still-warm wooden dock in mid-August. Can you hear the languid water lapping, lazy slapping, dripping? We should save these warm memories for the cold nights ahead.


8/5/2015
paint stick, crayon

8/5/2015
paint stick, crayon

8/13/2015
litho crayon

Swan and two ducks
8/5/2015
ink



Sunday, August 2, 2015

Seven months

About seven months ago the blizzards started…

1/27/15



watercolor studies
8/1/15

Three mallards on top of the dam
7/31/15
green ink
dabbling mallard
8/1/15
ink, watercolor, conté pencil
swan and mallards
7/29/15
pencil