New Art Works

Great Spangled Fritillary (Speyeria cybele) on Purple-Fringed Orchid (Platanthera grandiflora), watercolor, 13"h x 10"w.

With the current heat wave, spending time outdoors hasn't been very appealing. Aestivating in air conditioned comfort has its advantages: I finally get around to doing paintings I'd been meaning to do for ages!

The Great Spangled Fritillary (Speyeria cybele) above was painted from photos taken four years ago when I was artist-in-residence at the Red House. I visited an acquaintance in nearby WV who took me to a site where there were a lot of native Purple-fringed orchids. The orchids were in full bloom and attracting scads of butterflies, among them this Great Spangled Fritillary. 

Painting the butterfly was very challenging, and so was the orchid--those fringed edges are so tricky!

 

Mountain Laurel II (Kalmia latifolia), watercolor, 14"h x 11"w.

 

Above is the second painting I've done of Mountain Laurel, inspired by my recent hike to North Mountain. I sold the first painting I did of it when I was artist-in-residence at the Red House a few years ago. Both paintings were done from sprigs of the actual plant. I love the way the branches of this plant grow in such artistic patterns, and the dark leaves set off the pale flowers--definitely one of the loveliest of our native plants. 

 

North Mountain Patch of Ground (Hawkweed sp.?), colored pencil, 12"h x 10"w.

 

This last piece is for the upcoming "A Winter Walk" exhibition that the Botanical Art Society of the National Capital Region (BASNCR) is going to present at the Athenaeum in Alexandria, VA, during the holidays this year. Our show is scheduled from Dec. 18, 2025 through Jan. 24, 2026.

I was intrigued by this tiny, very hairy plant growing on the slopes of North Mountain that I came across during a VNPS hike last year. One of the botanists guiding us tentatively identified it as a hawkweed, perhaps Panicled Hawkweed (Hieracium paniculatum) but I'll need to go back in about a month to see if that is indeed the correct identification, or perhaps it's another species, Beaked Hawkweed (Hieracium gronovii). Both bloom in mid-summer.

I selected colored pencils for this piece in order to use a technique I'd learned about and saw demonstrated at this year's ASBA Spring Symposium--I wanted to try it. Using a metal point to make marks on the paper turned out to be an effective yet simple way to render those long hairs.

I'm busy working on other paintings now, waiting till we get a respite from the weather.

 

North Mountain Hikes

Mountain Laurel on North Mountain Trail.

In the past two weekends I've had the opportunity to hike on North Mountain. The first Saturday was a Virginia Native Plant Society (VNPS) organized hike, and although I had been there with them the previous fall, I missed the turn and had to back track to find the road--I ended up arriving quite late. By the time I got to the site, the group had already started out.

 

Minniebush flowers (Rhododendrum pilosum)

 

Fortunately, being plant people, VNPS folks don't cover a lot of ground in a hurry, and I found them only about 40 yards up the trail. The weather was splendid, and seeing familiar faces: Sally, Emily, and Richard, all expert plant ID'ers, was wonderful--I always learn so much from them. Running into my friend Lori was an extra treat--we had no idea we'd both signed up for the hike! 

 

Blueberries along the trail (Vaccinium angustifolium)

Mountain Laurel (Kalmia latifolia)

Mountain Laurel in bud.

 

Mountain Laurel grows profusely all around this area, but it was still mostly in bud, with only a few flowers open on the lower slopes. We spotted some pink Ladyslippers blooming along the trail.

 

Pink ladyslipper orchid (Cypripedium acaule)

Another pink Ladyslipper orchid.

 
We foundd a number of young American chestnut trees growing--this area must have had quite a number of these trees back in the 1920's before the blight killed them off, and saplings frequently sprout from the dead stumps. Unfortunately, these never reach maturity, as the blight attacks them just as they reach the size when the bark starts to furrow.

 

Young American chestnut tree (Castanea dentata)

Going up the trail, we saw two pink native azaleas in bloom--Roseshell azaleas (Rhododendron prinophyllum), which are fragrant. One had some galls on it,caused by a fungus called Exobasidium, which doesn't harm the plant too much. Oddly enough these are the only two azaleas of this species we found--why in this particular spot, I wonder?

 

Roseshell azalea (Rhododendron prinophyllum)

Roseshell azalea with Exobasidium gall.

Near the top of the mountain we saw some young witch hazel trees with witches' hat galls caused by the Witch Hazel Cone Gall (Hormaphis hamamelidis). 

Cone galls on witch hazel tree.

The view opens up as one reaches the top of the mountain, where a few Table Mountain Pines grow along with pitch pines. I learned a new botanical term, "epicormic," to describe the new growth that sprouts from the trunks of the pitch pines. There were plenty in evidence on these, a sure way to identify them, as this doesn't occur in other species of pine.

 

View near the top of North Mountain.

Epicormic sprouts on pitch pine trunk.

The view from the top, at Eagle Rock, is amazing, and on this sunny, cool spring day the greens and blues of the distant mountains were just spectacular!

 

The view from Eagle Rock.

 

My friend Lori and I on Eagle Rock

 

We had such fun that Lori and I agreed to repeat the hike the following Saturday just by ourselves, hoping that the mountain laurel flowers would be further along toward full bloom. After a very rainy week, we met there to walk the trail on another gorgeous, sunny yet cool morning.

 

Mountain Laurel on the hillside.

Mountain laurel in full bloom.

Just we we'd hoped, the woods were alive with the blossoms of Mountain Laurel--a riot of pale pink! The lower slopes were almost fully out, although higher up, the laurel was still mostly in bud. 

 

Close up of the flowers.

 I had in mind to take a couple of sprigs with blossoms home to paint, so we took a side trail looking for places where I could do so unobtrusively. Along the fire road which the hunting club maintains, we found some huge bracken ferns.

 

Bracken fern (Pteridium aquilinum)

 

There were many folks on the trail this morning, some with young children--always nice to see young people enjoying the woods. The Roseshell azalea, so lovely the previous week was about done blooming by now. 

 

View from Eagle Rock

The view from the top is always spectacular! This young red oak sapling near the top of the mountain caught my eye, it was such an amazing color.

 

Red oak sapling.

 

On the way back we took the side trail again and I cut and carefully packed my samples for a new painting of  Mountain Laurel--I hope it turns out well. North Mountain is such a a beautiful place!

 

 

The Bear Loop Trail

Rhododendrons on the road to Ingalls Airport.

Judy had recommended hiking on the Bear Loop Trail at the top of the Warm Springs Mountain Preserve. This is located beside Ingalls Airport, a small airport which bills itself as the highest airport east of the Mississippi. I set out hoping that I might get to see some native rhododendrons and azaleas in bloom. The native flame azalea in my garden had bloomed just two weeks earlier, but with this mountainous area being higher in elevation and cooler, the chances of these plants blooming a few weeks later was a good possibility.

I was not disappointed--driving along the road to the airport I could see rhododendrons in bloom dotting the rocky outcrops. I parked at the designated area by the trailhead and set out around 11 or so in the morning, with sketching gear in my backpack. I noted other plants along the way as I entered the Bear Loop: highbush blueberries, wood vetch, a lone Pinxster azalea (Rhododendron periclymenoides), which usually blooms earlier, was still displaying blossoms, and it had these strange galls that looked like small apples. I later found out that these galls, called Pinxster apples, are caused by a fungus, Exobasidium vaccinii, that Pinxster azaleas are particularly susceptible to.

 

Pinxster azalea (Rhododendron periclymenoides) with galls.

HIghbush Blueberry blossoms (Vaccinium corymbosum)

I was looking for  a nice specimen of the native Rhododendron, R. catawbiense, which blooms at this time of the year, and found an amazing array of them here! These display quite a variety of flower shades from deep purple-rose to light pink. The buds are usually darker, almost magenta, before the flowers open to a lighter color.

 

 

I found one waist-high bush where the flowers would be at eye level while I sat on my small camping stool, and parked myself in the shade off the trail to sketch. After hurriedly blocking in the flowers and a few leaves, I was ready to start with watercolor, but my small Sennelier set didn't seem to have the right hues to reproduce the exact color of the flowers--the best I could do was to approximate it with a Rose Madder Lake that made them look too rosy.

 

Field sketch of Rhododendron catawbiense, bug stains included.

 

Still, it was challenging and fun to try to capture the flowers as faithfully as possible, their shapes and the lighting; it took me about an hour or so to get this far. By that time I was famished and went to look for the sandwich I'd brought only to realize that I'd left it in my car! Oh well, I wasn't too far into the trail, I could walk back and get it. It was now around 1:30 and the car was very hot--I decided to walk up to the airport to use the toilet and eat lunch in air-conditioned comfort on one of their easy chairs. While there I chatted with the lone airport manager--he told me he was usually the only one there, but today his wife was helping, mowing the area around the runway. The day's air traffic consisted of three or four small planes landing, and a couple of SUV's who picked up the passengers.

 

Canada Mayflower (Maianthemum canadense)

Here's a photo of some lovely Canada Mayflower (Maianthemum canadense) that was growing right by the base of the rhododendron I painted. Another related plant,  false Solomon's seal (Maianthemum racemosum), was growing lushly by the side of the trail. Bowman's root was also in flower.

False Solomon's seal (Maianthemum racemosum)

Bowman's root (Gillenia trifoliata) in flower.

By the time I resumed my hike on the trail it was after two. Once I passed the spot where I'd done my sketch, more and more rhododendrons in all shades began to appear, some tree-sized! But where were the flame azaleas? There should be some around here too.

Rhododendron catawbiense

Flame azalea (Rhododendron calendulaceae)

Toward the northern end of the loop, I finally found some thickets with flame azaleas. Odd, how these plants seemed to grow isolated from the other Rhododendrons, in shadier places. Many were tree-size--nothing like my poor garden's lovingly cultivated yet still puny specimen. The alkaline soils of the northern Shenandoah valley don't provide the type of acidic, moist and humusy environment these plants favor. Here they were in their native element! They exhibited many variations in color too, from pale yellow to deep orange.

 

Flame azalea

There were areas where the Rhododendrons covered the shady sides of the trail, making it look like God's own botanical garden, untouched by human hands, despite the signs of prescribed burns. No wonder Scottish plantsman George Fraser, who first collected these plants on Roan Mountain in North Carolina in 1809, was so taken with them! One of these days, I too, hope to visit the Roan Highland balds to see that amazing sight, maybe next year? This is more than enough beauty for me for now...

The northern portion of the loop

Rhododendrons under red oaks

Tall flame azaleas.

There were lots of mountain laurels here too, still in bud. Personally, I think the pink buds with their star-like shapes are probably more attractive than even the open flowers themselves.

Mountain laurel (Kalmia latifolia)

At the extreme point on the northern end of the loop, there were some steep drop-offs offering spectacular views of the Allegheny mountains and valleys.

The view from the Bear Loop Trail framed with mountain laurel.

I could have stayed here all day, but my feet were giving out. The trail is measured as roughly three miles long, but with my backtracking, I'd probably done closer to four miles by now. I'd almost taken a wrong turn down the mountain on another trail, but turned around once I found a sign with the right blaze.

The sun was getting lower on the horizon when I spotted a small black bear crossing the path some twenty yards ahead of me. Was there a momma bear with junior, or was he an abandoned juvenile? Not taking any chances, I yelled out, "Yo, bear!" as loud as I could, and the startled youngster turned around to look at me, then ran off into the forest. Whew! I continued to berate the bear loudly long after he was gone, just in case.

 

Wild Columbine (Aquilegia canadensis)

 

The rest of my hike was uneventful, spotting only one lone native Columbine flower on the way out.

Flowers Among the Clouds

Mountain Laurel on Skyline Drive.

My search for native orchids took me to Skyline Drive last weekend. The day was overcast, the mountains veiled in cloud as I approached the north entrance to the park (Shenandoah National Park). As my car began the curving ascent along the ridge, it was as if the season was being wound back to spring--here the honey locusts were still blooming, and at the higher elevations, the oak leaves were just beginning to unfurl.

The star of the forest at this time of the year is the mountain laurel. Thickets of Kalmia latifolia grow as the understory plant for miles along Skyline Drive as it winds its way around the mountain tops. The native rhododendrons had finished blooming and were sending out new green shoots amid dried blooms. I wished I had been able to see them at their peak, but the gorgeous mountain laurel was more than a consolation.

For some weird reason, the portion of Skyline Drive just south of Thornton Gap and Mary's Rock Tunnel seems to be where the mist becomes thickest. No matter how many times I pass this spot, it always seems to be enveloped in cloud, and today was no different. At times the fog was so thick one couldn't see more than a few feet ahead.

 I continued on towards Big Meadows, stopping off at an overlook here and there. I was getting back on to the road after a stop when I spotted what looked like a moving stick poking out of the underbrush. The stick moved farther out and I could see a large bird with a long tail walking across the road. Could it be a wild turkey? No, not big enough--the bird was leading her brood of chicks across the road--what could it be???  Why it was a pheasant! I stopped right there in the middle of the road to try to get a photo, and was just getting my frame in focus when a car coming the other way hurried the pheasant and her brood onto the other side. Once the car passed, still holding my camera, I stopped again (no one was behind me) but the pheasants had vanished into the brush without a trace. Who would ever believe me without a photo?

Once at the Big Meadows Visitor Center I asked if they had anyone knowledgeable on wildflowers, and they pointed me to ranger Mara. She knew the orchid I sought and pointed me towards two possible sites--she wasn't sure which one, both were a bit farther north, the way I'd come. It was worth a shot.

At the first site I walked beside the road going south and came upon one yellow lady's slipper orchid (by now I know the plant well so I can spot it easily). The spent blossom was completely dried but still hanging on, and a  seed pod appeared to be forming, an auspicious sight. I continued for a pace, until the terrain seemed less promising and turned around to explore the northern portion. No purple fringed orchids here as far as I could see.

Yellow lady's slipper orchid plant

I drove to the next possible site and repeated the procedure. I didn't see any orchids, and realized of course it was probably futile--I didn't know the plant well enough to recognize it when not in bloom, and by all accounts, the orchid would probably not bloom until a couple of weeks later this year because of the very cold spring. It would be best to go back and try to find some photos on line to get a better idea of what the plant looks like.

No sketches for today. I stopped to photograph other wild flowers, which were plenteous: bowman's root along shady banks of the road, goat's beard, and bladder campion, which I don't think I've ever seen, or at least noticed before.

Bowman's root (Gillenia trifoliata)

Goat's beard (Aruncus dioicus)

Bladder campion (Silene cucubalus)

While driving back, the sun began to emerge from behind the clouds. My eyes could pick out wild columbines in the sunlight here and there, though never at a place where one could stop to take a photo. I'll be back next week to search again. Perhaps by then the orchids may be in bloom.

Looking west at the valley.