Book of Geese

An illustration student gave me a small sketchbook this Spring. I decided to dedicate it to several days of observations of geese.

Thanks to Julia Walters of the Art Institute of Boston-Lesley University. Julia got in touch with me several years ago after I'd shown my sketchbooks at the college. Over coffee I reviewed her portfolio which was full of heartfelt and astute designs and observations of Nature. She's currently exploring surface design and the cover of the sketchbook features a small silkscreen print of some flowers and leaves. I wish her the best as she embarks on her career!

Small is Good

A small sketchbook is good in cold weather: the drawings take less time.

I hope you are feeling well and finding ways to enjoy winter. Meilleurs vœux!

Sketchbook Pages

Recent scans of sketchbook spreads. All this work done at the dam in South Natick or Lake Waban in Wellesley.

A very humid day last Saturday; 7 cormorants were on their favorite perch.

two mallards investigating the cascade of water. This was in a light rain.

mallard stretching wings and trying settle his feathers

mallards walking up the sides of the fish ladder looking for things to eat.

mallard resting on a log (ballpoint pen, wash)

Last Sunday: a view of the island below the dam from the bridge.

A sandpiper

Sandpiper on top of the dam

mallard feeding atop the dam (charcoal, ink wash)

mallard plumage

mallards and sandpipers

looking for food

I love the sinuous bodies of ducks

preening mallard and flowing water

flying mallards

Novelty

I'm working in a smaller sketchbook right now. It's about 5 1/2 x 8 1/2 inches tall (rather than the larger black books). It's okay but it requires an adjustment; I tend to jot a bit more in it instead of making "compositions". For artists, scale is everything and sometimes it takes an effort to get the same creative flow at different sizes. Why is this?

It's because Art is made by fingers which are attached to hands which are attached to arms that are part of a human body. Each link in the chain and change in the kinesthetic causes different kinds of marks. The body becomes another medium and another tool. Did you know that?

It's good to try different approaches. I do this not just to keep loose but also because I like the surprises that a new method of working fosters. Some of my best brushes cannot be bought in store: they are old and decrepit and missing many bristles. My best paper is in an ever growing pile of castoffs and things saved from the garbage man. Paints come from yard sales and people too tired and uninspired to paint anymore. The downside of all this rag picking is that once I use some orphaned thing up, I can't replace it because its provenance is lost in the intertwined destinies of strangers, their attendant objects and my magpie self.

So there you have it: today's little quick sermon on what it's like for this artist trying to sort things out. And below are some mallards and things from the river that flows near my house. All done in that small sketchbook.

sketch of mallard and a heron

two mallards near a cascade

one lone mallard duck

Canada Goose standing on top of the dam, preening

an arch of the Pleasant Street Bridge

A hard-to-see example of my fanciful work.
See more on my posterus.com blog

Three Views of the Dam

06-09-12

06-11-12

06-14-12

Here are three views of the dam done in the past week. I never tire of studying it. Hope you can get out in front of moving water this week. Bonne journée.

One Fish, Two Fish

Spawning Bass, Leach Brook, Natick, MA
04-29-12
charcoal

detail

I own waterfront property! Well, I do when there's water flowing and this year, there has been enough flow lately can accommodates several spawning Large Mouth Bass (I'm not positive that's what kind of fish these are). I have to do a bit more research to determine the species but they are big and brown and very conspicuous in the shallow water where Leach Brook flows under the lane. The fish are a mottled brown color and are approximately 12-18 inches long. They thrash around in the shallow stream and then rest sometimes side by side with another fish.

The local kids are fascinated by them. The small bridge over the brook is kid-magnet and all the cars have to slow down as the children muck around or drop sticks on one side of the road and race over to see them emerge from the culvert on the other side. And then, voilà! there's this big prehistoric blimp of a fish lumbering along. It's all very exciting.

The fishermen are out by the South Natick Dam and Pleasant Street too. It's a real pecking order: there will be a hatch of some flying gnats, then the purist fly fishermen emerge like baseball players from an Iowa cornfield. Then the bait casters come down to the park early on their way to work or on a Sunday afternoon. Their families picnic while the anglers ply the waters. After all this there are the inevitable styrofoam bait containers, used tissues, malt liquor cans and the occasional young brown trout that wasn't released from the hook soon enough. Sad.

Brown Trout, South Natick Dam, MA
04-18-12
graphite