Summer Studio Time

I’m sitting at my computer (obviously), with my head still spinning from the first few weeks of school and coming to terms with the fact that I now have 7 to 8 hours a day to do something other than focus on kids, i.e., be productive. I promised that I would draw a follow-up wildflower study page and post…as of today I only have preliminary sketches and memories of summer wildflowers. They are on my studio to-do list though, and the post will happen, albeit not timely. On a rainy fall day, I’m sure I’ll be inspired to paint those fleeting wildflower colors.

In the meantime, I wanted to show proof that I have been working in my studio on a piece for a pollinator series I have in the works. The sketches you see will become a collage of wildflowers and pollinators.

Wildflower Study I

Who is the fairest of all? I drew these flowers while hiking during a gorgeous time of year in Montana's Beartooth mountains (when is it not?), where alpine meadows and forests are blanketed with dozens of wildflower species. One of the more enchanting flowers I came upon was the Fairy Slipper Orchid. It's easy to favor this beauty, as I imagined magical fairies and other mythical creatures dancing in the deep forest. It is also known as Calypso orchid, based on classical mythology of a sea nymph who concealed Odysseus on an island for 7 years. Named as such because the flowers are concealed amongst the forest floor litter and are easy to miss.  I also love the deep blue violet of the larkspur, which reminds me of the velvet of renaissance royalty, and the brightly colored blanket flower, which simply adds a happy presence to the landscape. 

And alas, a colorful (and rather large!) pollinator making it's way from flower to flower, doing it's part to keep the landscape beautiful for all of us.

Lovely Lilacs

Filling the air with their heady fragrance, lilacs are a sure sign of spring. This year, they are blooming profusely in our Montana town, undoubtedly because of the long cold-initiated dormancy they experienced this past winter. While they are part of many gardens all over North America, they are not indigenous to our country. However, these lovely shrubs have been part of our landscape since the 1700s when they were brought over from Europe by New England settlers. Most notably, the oldest known lilacs were believed to have been planted around 1750 on the Governor Wentworth estate in New Hampshire, and journal notes indicate that Thomas Jefferson and George Washington both had lilacs in their gardens.

Red Squirrel

For much of the winter, when the weather isn't absolutely intolerable, little red squirrels run back and forth along an obstacle course from our backyard to our neighbors. They begin their trek in a large tree on the far side of our neighbor's yard. After scrambling down the huge tree, they bound in and out of the snow on the ground, run up into our neighbor's tree closest to our house, then tumble down onto our fence with acrobatic ease and hop over little snow hills they create along the top of our fence. From our fence they precariously climb onto a branch barely hanging low enough for them to do so, scramble around the tree in our yard, then run along another branch to hop onto a different part of the fence. Eventually they disappear into the backyard of the neighbor across from the alley way to harvest pine cones from an evergreen tree. Either that or pilfering easily obtained bird food from the neighbor's hanging feeders. The squirrels then bravely retrace their steps back to their drey with goodies in tow.

Dandelion Dance

The long 2018 season of snow, ice, and cold wind have finally receded into the "distant" past, and dandelions are dancing across our yard with a vengeance. My son and I decided to make nutritional use of this resurgence by collecting dandelion leaves for a dinner salad. However, I got a little sidetracked with the brightness and unusual shape of the leaves of this very common flower (and the flying insect!) and recorded it in my sketchbook.