The Ibis

The dam
colored pencil
2/1/2015

The weather has not been cooperating lately. We are under the lash and it's troubling. I miss these expansive moments of the river's white noise and my contemplative focus. Also, various projects have stacked up; moments spent on one task is time stolen from another. There are moments where dealing with the necessities of life are the most clear and rewarding: shoveling snow, cooking and other domestic chores, doing laundry… Even writing is a form of procrastination.

Such is life and it will change. Projects will be completed. And through it all I still hear ducks overhead and see life at the bird feeder. The snow piles up in last year's nests and interesting animal tracks are seen in the snow. These creatures who share their lives without calculation, illuminate a path for me.

I worked in my studio this morning (like all my mornings) and considered my reason to draw outdoors: to attend and be gently surprised and reminded of the basics of Life beyond my small intelligence. And this picture emerged:

two ibises in Old Egypt (detail)

2/6/2015
mixed media

It's not such a good painting but the sentiment is true for me: the imbalance between what the Egyptian feels about the Ibis and what the Ibis feels about the Egyptian. It brings me some peace in this very troubled world.
Bonne journée mes amis.

A Snowy Day

It was windy too. Hooray for binder clips!

South Natick Dam with ducks and snow
charcoal, watercolor
Jan 27, 2015 

charcoal, watercolor
Jan. 27, 2015

I skied to the dam this morning and did a couple of snowy views of the river.

The Mustard Seed Manual

Death haunts us but Life also continuously calls us to observe and celebrate the mystery of our mostly-conscious existence. I celebrate some of that by drawing pictures of what I can see and have experienced. Lately, I've been drawing with ink with a variety of brushes.

Klaus von Mirbach reminded me of "The Mustard Seed Manual" the other day and I'm almost sorry I looked at it again after so many years. The Mustard Seed Manual or Chieh Tzu Yuan Hua Chuan, 芥子園畫傳 "Manual of the Mustard Seed Garden" (facsimile) is an illustrated text of some of the methods and attributes of Chinese painting. It was compiled and printed in the late 1600's.

My use of it is superficial at best. If you like Asian painting and calligraphy or you are an artist, I recommend that you check it out. However, even a cursory viewing will affect how you paint. What happens next is your own story.

Education of any type is like a rock thrown into a river, it makes a big splash but soon the current incorporates the disturbance into its larger identity. Our job is to appreciate and nurture that identity. Making Art helps with me do this job. You could call it one's life work. 

Ducks & Geese

Suddenly, the dam is swarming with fowl: mallards (and ducklings!), Canada geese all in a row, a peripatetic Great Blue Heron, sparrows that capture delicate flying bugs, grackles that stalk, herky-jerky in the mowed grass and swallows that soar above it all. It is glorious summer, canicule and all.
Be well!

there are seven ducklings in all. I saw them again this morning.

Here's Mother Mallard and her little ones.

The Canada Geese line up on top of the dam and perform an elaborate toilette. There appears to be a waiting list!

Spring Cleaning

As the weather warms up, I get to the dam more. There's lots to see: flood waters, daffodils,  herons, ducks and grebes. Spring is here!

03-28-14
I'm standing on the far end of the Pleasant Street Bridge looking over to the island and the dam. This was done on a Friday; normally I draw from the bridge on the weekends when there is less traffic.

04-03-14
Early morning shadows across the swirling flooded river. The retaining wall is barely visible on the left side of my drawing

04-05-14
Stranded logs and high water

04-14-14
High water; the island is submerged

04-20-14
The old millstones are embedded in the asphalt. This view is downstream over the top of the dam.

04-20-14
View upstream. I ran out of my brown pencil and started working in charcoal on top of it.

04-25-14
Yesterday, just used a graphite #2 pencil. We're looking downstream over the dam and to the houses on the other side of the Pleasant St. Bridge.

Rainy Day

It's raining today but I found a few minutes to do a drawing of the dam after I drove my daughter to high school. I hadn't been to the river in a few days and I was feeling disconnected. As soon as I stepped out of the car, the drizzle started anew but I opened my sketchbook anyway. If you look closely, you can see faint spots and speckles in my drawing from the raindrops on the paper.

Later now, I'm stuck in the studio working on an illustration job. The door is closed to keep the playful cats out. It's cold and raw outside. The radio is on to local news. They're all talking about Kennedy. I have childhood memories of that day: it was cold and clear in the Chicago suburbs and there was this new thing between me and my perception of the world: the president has been shot. In the following days on a small television set the indelible images of the main aisle of a cathedral and horses drawing a hearse through the streets. The memories are dusty, desaturated and potent. It makes me think of memory as a growing land we pass by every day. Somedays a gate is open and we can go inside. But I'm too hungry in the present to make a meal of my memories yet. Soon…

South Natick Dam
Nov. 22, 2013
charcoal, watercolor

detail

detail

Catch and Release

The South Natick Dam: this one little place sustains my interest and is just the right size to explore with my pencils and chalk. I know, it's probably very repetitive to you by now. After all, I've made several hundred drawings of it. Perhaps you've stopped visiting my blog because, really, how many times can you see the same old birds and aquatic geometry? Of course, for me, that's the challenge.

I can't add water or wildlife or change the course of the river or the shape of the dam across it. But I can monitor my approach and keep moving forward despite mental blocks or my occasional lack of enthusiasm. You might agree that the real subject is not the mallards or the level of the water. I'm just an angler or lepidopterist trying to catch hold of something unexpected in my very own consciousness or the actual world. And then, catch and release!

A heron prowling at the dam
09-26-13
conté pencil

Mallards and a heron in the shallows just below the dam
09-26-13
charcoal

Seen through the railing, a mallard looks feeds on top of the inclined wall of the fish ladder
10-1-13
colored pencil

Low water on a chilly morning
09-30-13
charcoal

Dam-nation!

The river level has finally, consistently been receding and things are getting interesting again down where the Charles River goes over the South Natick dam. Ripples and riffles appear below in the shallows. Mallards dabble at the top of the dam and small armadas comb the current before it goes under the bridge. The great blue heron stalks everywhere in the process he scatters nonplussed ducks out of his way with his menacing beak.

The mallow, a hibiscus-like flower blooms above the dam and a small plover or sandpiper flits from boulder to boulder its tail constantly bobbing as it searches for small things to eat.

Fair weather is predicted for the coming week. I'll keep drawing!

Aug. 22, 2013

July 27, 2013

Aug. 5, 2013
the fishladder can be seen int he bcuase

Aug. 6, 2013

Aug. 11, 2013

Aug. 13, 2013

Aug. 19, 2013

Aug. 19, 2013 (detail)

Innuendo

From above the dam, South Natick
conté pencil
29 March 2013

And now I feel certain that Spring has arrived. Her limo is parked outside on the tarmac. She will emerge any minute. Relief and anticipation are evident in the expectant crowd. I see it in the way the leafless willow twigs sway and sparkle. It's absurdly obvious in the masses of crocuses which have been working quietly and selflessly on our behalf for weeks now (they sigh "now do you see?"). I saw a large fish swimming in the shallows in the low raking sunlight (can the fishermen be far behind?). I like the reality of Easter rather than the story of Easter. And these statements directly from the source drown out all powerful and comely mythologies that humanity has written over the ages.
The sun is out there: seek it!

Dealing

Low sun above the Pleasant Street bridge
15 Feb. 2013
carbon pencil

17 Feb. 2013
graphite

This view of the dam is from a different vantage point: from inside a car! It was so cold, I couldn't bear to get out and go through the motions of drawing in the frigid weather. The odd rhythmic shapes in the foreground of the drawing are snow-covered rocks in a stone wall. Some sere decorative grasses form a bit of a screen on the left.
The temperature is warm today and the sound of melting snow is everywhere. Try to enjoy the winter, what's left of it!

Dam Blog!

I draw the South Natick dam several times a week in all weather. So maybe I should rename this blog the Dam (or damn!) Blog. But today, I will not draw the dam. It's just too cold now. Winter circles near and its cold breath is on my neck today. The house is cold and it will be hard to concentrate on work on children's books that I must get done today. Anyway, here are a few recent drawings of the dam. The water has receded in the wake of the hurricane. No animals to be seen. I look through past drawings and I see geese and ducks; where are they now? They warm my spirits! On second thought, maybe I'll duck on over to the dam later this morning when I have a break.

I hope you are warm. Bonne journée dear people!

11-20-12
colored pencil

11-26-12
charcoal pencil

A view from June 2012
colored pencil

The Nub Of It

In my hand, I'm holding a colored pencil. You can see that the tip is worn down flat to the wooden sheath that surrounds it. I drew a picture and used up all the lead. I didn't have a penknife with me to sharpen it again.

It took one pencil tip to make the drawing below. It's a drawing of the dam and the bridge beyond it. I like the way the edge of the dam makes a clear horizontal break in the image. Ducks really did swim across the pool as I have drawn it. As the pencil gave out, I had to scrub hard to finish the water swirls in the foreground.

I'm not certain what the current income tax requirements are for calculating a deduction for donating art to charities. In the past, they've only allowed artists to deduct the cost of their materials. So in this case I've used one sheet of paper and about 3/8" of an inferior brand of colored pencil. I'm not complaining really but it ignores the intellectual poetry behind the entire effort.

There's something weirdly satisfying about using up art materials. I have to say (perhaps implying that it's not always true) that it is more satisfying than acquiring art supplies. My studio is full of materials and if all it takes is 3/8" of a pencil to make a drawing, I'd better get to work because I have a lot of pencils and paper floating around! And then there's the paint, magic markers, chalk, glue, crayons and the endless potential of the digital tools. It's daunting if you let it get to you. Better not then.

two lovely pairs of mallards

In this high contrast photo you can see the white incised lines of the wooden part of the pencil point

Water Over the Dam

South Natick dam
charcoal
© Rob Dunlavey 2012

I think it's been a one of the drier summers but when I look back through my drawings from previous seasons, I see plenty of views of the bare stones and gravel in the river below the dam.  At this time of year, the low water allows ducks free access to all that flowing water affords: mobility and lots of forage to sample in the swirling currents. They busily dabble in all places and attitudes. I've seen them wantonly follow their beaks as they inch down the dam's face surveying the passing water. At a certain point, gravity gets their attention and they scuttle upward or are forced to abort and fly away.

They are always earnest and good natured about these small predicaments. If only me and my kind could show such equanimity in the face of such inevitable slights! It's funny, ducks get aggressive and nip at each other's tails and napes but they quickly settle their feathers and get on with the business at hand. The emotional lives of animals seems so much less-stressful than humans. But this is a wistful digression!

Mallards at the algae salad bar
charcoal, ink
© Rob Dunlavey 2012

Rocks below the dam
charcoal, ink wash
© Rob Dunlavey 2012

Sandpiper
charcoal, ink, ink wash
© Rob Dunlavey 2012

This sandpiper has set up housekeeping at the dam in the last few weeks. It is fun to watch. He bobs and dips his tail and is in near-constant motion prospecting for little bugs to dine on. Don't you love his bright eye?