The Forest Primeval

I took a walk half-way around Lake Waban this morning for no reason other than to enjoy a perfect Autumn morning. The trees were a blaze of color and the blue waters of the lake sparkled while the sun slanted across to illuminate the shallows where fish roamed. It was marvelously beautiful.

When I am not walking around beautiful sunlit lakes or sketching ducks and swans, I am making steady progress finishing the illustrations for a children's book. Several spreads of this book ("Over In The Wetlands" by Caroline Starr Rose, Schwartz & Wade publisher, 2015) feature forest and swampy bayou scenes.

Generally speaking, I try to keep my use of reference to a minimum in my illustrations for various personal reasons. But I'd been procrastinating on these forest scenes and deep down I knew I needed a jolt that only life drawing provides. It's so obvious!  So I spent a few minutes on my walk home drawing a small section of the forest. It was actually two drawings that were adjacent to each other --so I joined them into one wide image.

Whatever works! Now I need to stop blogging and get back to painting.

The forest around Lake Waban
10-10-14
ink, oil stick

"Over In The Wetlands" spread
watercolor 

work in progress
watercolor, charcoal

"Over In The Wetlands" finished paintings
mixed media

The forest around Lake Waban
drawing 1 (left side)
10-10-14
ink, oil stick

The forest around Lake Waban
drawing 2 (right side)
10-10-14
ink, oil stick

Some may notice and comment (please do) that these drawings are reminiscent of Lorenzo Mattotti's forest drawings (which I think he made in preparation for his "Hansel & Gretel" with Neil Gaiman, TOON Books, 2014). Yes, his work is amazing and memorable. --I met Mattotti at a book signing in Paris in 2009. What a memorable rainy night that was!

Bridge View

June 3, 2014
graphite
A view of a portion of the Pleasant Street Bridge. Vegetation is always a challenge to draw. The river flows downstream to the left in this picture.

I feel I have to add that at certain unpredictable times, other artists emerge in my drawings. In this case I was inspired by the one-and-only Benoît Guillaume who never fails to inspire me. He may have a few copies of "Montréal" his book of drawings done there. Guillaume is a native of Marseille, France.

The Forest Primeval

Elm Bank
10-18-13
charcoal

I draw scenes like this because I think they are beautiful and the act of drawing forces me to stop and enter a contemplative state of observation. I stood in the pathway for 25 minutes or so. People and their dogs passed by me. The sun pushed the shadows this way and that. A kingfisher noisily splashed in the river just beyond the line of trees. The yellow autumn leaves blazed like stained glass in a church.

What use is the drawing? I could sell it maybe. It could be visual research for a book that requires me to know something about forests. Mostly, these drawing go to sleep in my sketchbooks as I fill up the pages. But the experiences lingers and haunts me when I pick up my pencils and brushes far away from the actual forest. For example:

2010

Red Riding Hood
2009

"Owl & Tern in the Redwood forest"
2009

2008

09-03-09

11-30-08

Verdure

The Island
May 16, 2013
charcoal

There is an artificial island below the dam. I've watched it all winter get covered with water or snow and ice. Occasionally, taking shelter, mallards would curl up on the ice that formed around it. But now with summer so near, the island is a lush green oasis amid the rushing current. Grackles, starlings, robins and sparrows perch in the undergrowth and up in the branches.

The green color this time of year is stunning. "Verdure" and "verdant" are words that begin to capture this quality of bright rampant botany. All the leaves are new. Grasses grow 3-4 inches every few days and some trees are just getting their perfect, tender leaves. I suppose, when the temperature rises and the world gets used to summer, this green manic rush will slow down. Already, I can hear the caterpillars chewing and the lawnmowers growling. I sat under the trees this morning, drawing the dam and there was a steady sound of inchworm frass hitting my sketchbook paper. Eat and be eaten; the world is one big feast.

The Dam
May 18, 2013
colored pencil

Pine Forest

Snowy forest at Broadmoor Audubon Sanctuary
Valentine's Day 2013

Entangled

Life is a tangled affair!

Here are a few recent sketches of tangles or from tangles of vegetation.

Chances are, I think, if you find someone else in a tangle with you, you will have much to discuss and may find a deep connection with them. I would send notes abroad with the sparrows who call the tangle home. The notes might say "I'm not lost, I'm just spending time in this thicket. You're welcome to join me!"

The first thing I spotted was the bird nest in the honeysuckle bush below the tree trunks.

A woodland path near my house

In a tangle…

a misanthropic Wood Duck seen this morning at Broadmoor Wildlife Sanctuary

The Blue Coyote

I walked out into a steady mist two days ago and stopped at the field at the top of my street. The green grass was more vibrant because of the rain: it was yellow-green and there were scratchy areas of autumnal-sepia herbs and dried seed heads scattered on the tops of the swells. It was about 7:30 a.m.

I spotted a young coyote a few hundred yards away. It blended into the vegetation but once identified, it was plain to see and observe. Of course, it immediately sensed me and kept its distance. It then loped this way and that trying to determine if I was a credible threat. I had taken my sketchbook out and was jotting down the basic geometry. The charcoal and the blue pencil running in the mist and drizzle.

He trotted farther and farther away, sniffing, reconnoitering all the while. Never fleeing, the coyote made his escape firmly in control of his own reality. I stayed on longer trying to capture the moment and then turned to follow the path into the forest.

"The Blue Coyote"
10-14-11
charcoal, colored pencil, crayon, coffee

Could this be the coyote that absconded with my one year old cat this past summer? That's another story!

I tried to sketch the trees in the forest. Well, I didn't try. I actually did draw what I saw in the forest. Everything was so beautiful. The water droplets on my paper resisted the waxy black crayon and made it seem like I was drawing a snowstorm. Later, I added notes of different things I was thinking about. And what was that? Kitty Crother's wonderful illustrations for "Le petit-home et Dieu" that was published in 2010 by Pastel, a French publisher. Besides being a master story teller, she draws great forests too. So I was thinking about that.

the solo swan, a teen ager perhaps?

I've had the pleasure of observing a family of swans this summer on Lake Waban (accessible by this forest path and part of the Wellesley College campus). There are two adults and four dirty gray offspring. They mostly mind their own business and stay close together along the North edge of the lake. But on the way back home, I spotted this lone soul, an immature swan, looping around at the other end of the lake busily scrounging for the things that swans like to eat. Why was it all alone while the others were together?

Maybe there's a story in that?

A Modest Proposal

As I stood at the edge of the flooded woodland path drawing the trees and reflections, a small muskrat swam up under my nose and started to hunt for food in the shallow, frigid water. I stood motionless for 45 minutes in the cold, enraptured, and tried to record the overall scene.

I've frequently thought patriotic service to one's country (any country will do) should include the study of Nature (with an emphasis on field study) and if possible, the patient investigation of small life forms in their familiar surroundings. This could include insects and their fantastically foreign life stages, mosses, liverworts, amphibians, and muskrats. This exercise would cure many humans of the tendency to value life in abstract and theoretical terms and, more importantly would allow us to get to know our fellow creatures in a more sympathetic way. Think of it as a form of community service.

---

After drawing the scene above, I noticed as I walked home that it seemed as if I had stolen a large chunk of time and I was a little disoriented. Trysts are like that I guess.

A sunny, cold and damp start to an early Spring day

Does anything ever stand still?

We have it all: Snow, ice, standing water!
3/7/11 wax crayon in sketchbook

A few days of warm weather have unleashed the frozen snow. The river is very full as it rushes dangerously over the dam.
3/7/11 wax crayon in sketchbook

These were drawn yesterday during a short respite of warm, rainy weather. I know it seems crazy and surely, I'm asking for too much but I hope that Spring is slow this year. I want to document it :)