Mid-Winter Blues

 

Pages from my botanical journal.

I wasn't thinking of "blue" paintings like Picasso's when I titled this post--I'm just at that point in mid-winter when the blues set in, when I wish I could be somewhere sunny and warm instead of where I am. But Florida is beyond my budget this year...

We've had no snow on the ground this winter thus far, and with a lot of cold and drizzly days one would think at least the soil had enough moisture, but actually it's been a record dry season too. Everything just looks more drab and colorless than usual--not even a good atmospheric effect like fog to give any illusion of interest.

 

My back yard this morning.

In my studio at least, I can find some colors to please my eye. My journals are steadily filling up with drawings of whatever botanical material I can find around, and some non-botanical stuff, like the local birds. I have set up three feeders this winter: a finch sock, a hanging suet cage, and a platform feeder for birds such as cardinals, who can't get at the other two.

I tried a quick sketch of one of the White-breasted nuthatches that frequent the feeders, but he's so fast, it's difficult to capture anything but a gesture, if that. I think I got the attitude, but had to consult my Sibley's Bird Guide to get the right markings of the plumage. My bird still doesn't have the right proportions, but I'll keep working on that until I can do better.

Tulip Tree Flower sketch, colored pencil.

I'm finishing my illustrations for the Virginia Native Plant Society (VNPS) brochure--the Tulip Tree flowers above were drawn from some old photos I'd taken during a Botanical Artist Society of the National Capital Region (BASNCR) field trip to Tudor Place, a historic estate and garden in Georgetown, in DC. Their garden had one mature Tulip Tree whose branches swept down almost to the ground, and gave a great opportunity to view the flowers at eye level and from above.

The other drawing is of a sprig of American holly, as a companion piece to the Tulip Tree. I'm still working out the arrangement of the leaves and berries on the branch in graphite, and will transfer it to good paper when I have the design worked out.

In My Botanical Journal

Last week's pages: oat grass, dried hydrangea leaf and 'Nelly Stevens' holly.

 

This past October I started a new botanical journal after seeing two presentations on nature journals by artist Lara Call Gastinger. She did one presentation for our BASNCR chapter Zoom meeting and another at ASBA's annual conference. I'd tried doing nature journals on several occasions before, but somehow, after a few months, I'd get involved in other things; it became harder to find the time and interesting subjects for entries, and eventually I gave up on these altogether. 

 Lara's concept that one need not fill up every bit of space on a page, but come back to use the empty space in subsequent years, freed me to think of a nature journal in a different way. The idea is to establish calendar dates for each page, and simply do as much as one feels up to on those pages. With this in mind, I decided to attempt a nature journal again, and try to have fun with it instead of making it a chore.

So, every week I've been sketching a little of whatever plant material I find in my garden or during my walks or wanderings. At this time of the year much of what I find is dried leaves or seed pods, with the occasional evergreen, or plants from my indoor garden. Last week I drew a sprig of the 'Nelly Stevens' holly, a curled-up leaf from one of my hydrangeas, and oat grass, all from my garden.

 

Bearss lime flowers, Beautyberry (Callicarpa amaericana) and Christmas cactus (Schlumbergera sp.)

Generally I use pencil to do a very loose outline of the object first, then carefully draw it with more detail in ink before erasing the pencil guidelines underneath. The pencil scribbles help me to get the movement and proportions of the drawing more accurately. After the ink drawing is complete, watercolor pencils or a mixture of watercolor with watercolor pencils give it color. Notes about the plant with botanical name if possible, and occasionally notes on the pencil colors used finish up the entry.

On the previous week, I sketched blossoms of my Bearss lime tree wintering indoors, a tiny sprig of Beautyberry collected at Summerset (the site I visited for my painting of the historic property in Delaplane), and a flower from my Christmas cactus. The Christmas cactus produced four lovely flowers this year, and has a few more buds--last year the plant produced only two flowers.

 

Witch hazel flowers, Australian red finger lime, and Brassidium orchid flowers.

I try to draw the material life-size, and one of the challenges is how to arrange the sketches in the notebook pages attractively so that they flow across the pages. Using color to unify the two pages is one way to accomplish this, but the design still needs to be taken into account. Do I bring in a branch from the left or right side, coming from the top of the bottom of the page? To draw or not to draw across the fold? Each set of pages is different, that's where the fun comes in!

 

Fir tree sprig, cedar apple rust gall on Virginia juniper, Virginia pine cone.

I'll share more pages from my botanical journal in future posts throughout the coming year.