Calmes Neck

Pawpaw flowers.

 

 Last Saturday I went on the Virginia Native Plant Society's (VNPS) walk at Calmes Neck, a tract of private land overlooking the Shenandoah River a bit north of Front Royal. This is a unique site that contains a good number of native species over varied terrain: limestone cliffs with ferns and Columbines overlooking the river, and hillsides carpeted in Virginia Bluebells and other spring ephemerals.

 

Pawpaw flowers (Asimina triloba).

We started our walk at the top of a hill that was covered with Pawpaw trees in flower. There was little evidence that these flowers had been damaged by a frost earlier in the month, so I presume these trees didn't begin to flower until after the frost.

Twinleaf plants (Jeffersonia dyphilla)

Seedpod of Twinleaf.

I had hoped to sketch the twinleaf flowers after our walk, and had brought my sketchbook and kit, but due to the recent heat-wave, the plants were done flowering and had gone to seed. There was not a single flower on the entire hillside covered with these plants!

I had to console myself with the native delphiniums (Delphinium tricornis) nearby. There were a few unusual pale sports growing next to the normally deep purple flowers in this small patch near the twinleaf plants. There were also some trilliums (Trillium sessile), near the Delphiniums.

 

Delphiniums (Delphinium tricornis) on the forest floor.

Close-up of Delphinium tricornis

A pale variant of Delphinium tricornis

Toadshade (Trillium sessile)

We walked down the hillside toward the river where Virginia bluebells (Mertensia virginica) grow in abundance. Among the bluebells we found plants of both squirrel corn (Dicentra canadensis) and Dutchman's breeches (Dicentra cucullaria).

 

The path by the Shenandoah River.

Virginia bluebells (Mertensia virginica)

Dutchman's breeches (Dicentra cucullaria)

Squirrel corn (Dicentra canadensis)

River floodplain filled with Virginia bluebells.

After a short stroll through the river floodplain filled with Virginia bluebells our group turned towards a high bluff overlooking the Shenandoah River. On the rocky ledges of this bluff grew a number of lovely and unusual plants: wild columbines, bulblet ferns, walking ferns, native sedums, purple cliffbrake, and spleenwort.

 

Looking down from the limestone cliffs.

Wild columbines (Aquilegia canadensis) on the rocky ledges.

 

 

Columbines and bulblet ferns (Cystopteris bulbifera).

Spring has been so dry this year that the usually green mossy rock ledges were all dried and brown; the walking ferns in particular seemed to be fried to a crisp! Still, they manage to hang on--I'm sure they'll all revive with the first abundant shower.

 

Walking fern (Asplenium rhizophyllum)

Wild ginger (Asarum canadense) with flower.

Rare purple cliffbrake fern (Pellaea atropurpurea)

Stonecrop (Sedum ternatum)

Here was another rare fern--the wall rue (Asplenium ruta-muraria)--so tiny it would be easy to overlook if we didn't have an expert botanist as a guide. Other ferns and plants on the cliffs are unique to this site.

Wall rue (Asplenium ruta-muraria)

Alumroot (Heuchera villosa)

Rue anemone (Thalictrum thalictroides)

Rock twist (Draba ramossisima)

A number of other spring blooming flowers were present: spring beauty (Claytonia virginica), harbinger of spring (Erigenia bulbosa), cut-leaved toothwort (Cardamine concatenata), pussytoes (Antennaria plantaginifolia), round-leaf ragwort (Packera obovata) etc., that are by-now very familiar to me. I did learn that the tiny spring beauty flowers actually have pink pollen, and that when bees harvest their pollen, the pink pollen sacs tell us they've been visiting these spring beauties..

 

Harbinger of spring (Erigenia bulbosa)

Pussytoes (Antennaria plantaginifolia)

Round-leaf ragwort (Packera obovata)

I had brought a sandwich and my paints so that after our excursion I could stay a bit longer to paint one of these lovely flowers. I chose to do a field sketch of one of the delphimiums, which turned out quite nice. I had just finished my drawing when I felt the cool breeze presaging that some rain might be heading this way, so I packed up and left.  I had just got back on Route 50 when a shower started.

 

Watercolor field sketch of Delphinium tricornis (9" x 6").

 

I finished the watercolor in my studio at home with the help of my photos. Above is my little sketch.

Bluebell Time Again

Bluebells on a Hill, oils on canvas panel, 11" x 14." 

  

The Potomac from Mt. Aventine, oils on panel, 12" x 9." Contact artist for prices.

That bluebell time of the year is here again and the weather was glorious. I went down to visit my friends in Accokeek for the weekend so I could paint the bluebells at Chapman's Forest.  Patrise wasn't sure there would be many blooms--the previous weekend the flowers had seemed skimpy, so on Saturday afternoon I set out to explore.

Thanks to the recent rain, the bluebells were lush, but with so many deadfalls, some of them huge old trees, the trail was hard to follow. On the way back I somehow lost the trail, but managed to find my way to the main road. By then there was no time to go back with my painting gear. It would be dark before I was finished and I didn't relish the thought of being lost in the forest at night. Instead, I walked up to Mt. Aventine, a colonial-era mansion on the property, to paint the view from the back or the house.

When I got there, a couple was enjoying a picnic on a table by the house. I greeted them, saying I hoped I wouldn't disturb them and started to set up on the back porch of the house. I found that the bottom screw-plate of my Guerilla Paint Box had come off somewhere and I couldn't secure it to the tripod. Not dissuaded, I sat on the back steps and set the box on the floor to paint.

I've painted this spectacular view a few times before, and it's difficult to compose because the wide panorama is so symmetrical. To take the curse off, I decided to try a vertical format and focus on just one small part of the view. The colors were very hard to render: all that lovely variety of greens of the new foliage, particularly the yellow-green of the ancient oaks, against the silvery hues of the Potomac just defeat me. I know I didn't get them all here, but I think the composition works.

Back at my car I was relieved to find the screw plate to my paint box in the trunk. How could it have become loosened from just the vibrations of driving? And yet it did.

Sunday morning Linda, Patrise and their dogs joined me. The ladies suggested we cut directly through the woods to save ourselves the distance down the driveway to the trailhead. I was loaded down with painting gear, so the suggestion was welcome and we struck our way across the forest. Once at the site I set up my easel on the hill, trying to avoid stepping on the bluebells. Patrise & Linda were sitting on a log sketching a short way from me when the dogs caught some scent and went wild. I was so focused on my painting I didn't notice what they were after until Patrise asked if I'd seen the fox--I hadn't.

After about an hour my friends left with the dogs and I stayed to struggle with my painting. I was enjoying the songs of birds in the stillness when I heard something stir over by a huge fallen log (on the left). I looked up and there was a small red fox--perhaps a yearling--cautiously poking from under the trunk just a few feet away. I think he was more surprised than I--he turned around and took off the moment he saw me. I wondered if this was the poor creature the dogs had chased after... Later as I was getting ready to pack up, a herd of about 10 panicked deer came crashing through the forest at a gallop and disappeared down the gully. More dogs, presumably--deer have little fear of humans around here.

My painting of the bluebells turned out underwhelming--it doesn't quite have the right colors to give the impression of this spot on such a lovely spring day. I'll have to try it again next year. Sometimes it seems the more beautiful a place, the harder it is to paint.

Riverbend Park

Riverbend Park, oils on canvasboard, 9" x 12," $300 unframed

My painting season started yesterday with a MAPAPA Paint Out Plus, beginning with a short talk by master artist John Bannon at Riverbend Park in Virginia. Riverbend is just above Great Falls Park and to get there I drove along Old Georgetown Pike, a winding scenic road that parallels the Potomac River through some of the most expensive real estate in the DC area.

The day was gorgeous: sunny and crisp, if a bit too windy. It was the first really lovely day of spring so far, with the cherry blossoms and pear trees in their full glory. The Virginia bluebells were starting to bloom along the park trails and countless other small woodland plants such as bloodroot and liverwort showed their leaves.

We painters scattered about the park to paint, agreeing to return around one o'clock for a critique. There are some very good painters in this group; my morning effort seemed so amateurish that I decided to stay and do another painting in the afternoon. The wind had died down a bit by then and it was warmer, but sudden gusts still blew off my hat a couple of times--lucky the wind was blowing from the river and not toward it. My second painting turned out much better, as you can see above.

Bluebells at Chapman Forest

Bluebells at Chapman Forest, watercolor, 10" x 14"

My dear friends Patrise and Linda live in southern Maryland, very close to Chapman Forest, a large estate on the Potomac riverfront established in colonial times. The old estate has been preserved by a local group and contains many acres of old-growth forest, among which are several large upland patches of Virginia Bluebells, an unusual occurrence. Most large bluebell patches are found along riverbanks where the spring floods help the plants propagate in sandy loam. I wonder just how many years it takes for bluebells to form a patch this big... fifty, eighty or a hundred years undisturbed?

The weather looked pretty chancy for the weekend, but I decided to risk it, since the blooming season for these beautiful flowers is so short, and it had been a couple of years since I'd been down there in the spring. I drove through several showers on my way south from Columbia, and we encountered one more downpour as we were getting underway for our hike, but we got lucky and it didn't rain during the afternoon. We saw other wildflowers during our hike: Dutchman's breeches, tiny white violets, smooth yellow violets, and Jack-in-the-pulpit.

The storm clouds make a dramatic backdrop for this hill covered with bluebells, and the purple-pink color of the redbud flowers is the perfect complement to the tender greens of the emerging foliage. I'm selling it for $100, shipping and handling is additional. If you are interested in buying please drop me an E-mail.