Pretend it's fall.

It's been a very busy summer. I hope to be able to give updates on everything soon!


In the meantime, I just had to share this lovely view from a walk at Fontenelle Forest yesterday. The morning temperature was in the 50s. I know that won't last, but it was a reminder that there is an end in sight to the heat. Fall is on its way!

Enjoy the beauty of the day, wherever you happen to be.

Lauritzen Gardens Exhibit

Exciting news! I belong to the Guild of Natural Science Illustrators, and our Great Plains Chapter is having an exhibit of natural science illustration at Lauritzen Gardens in Omaha in November. I am so thrilled to be a part of this group of wonderful illustrators. If you would like to see beautiful illustrations of the natural world, be sure to check out our exhibit! More details will follow.


As you can imagine, I am hard at work getting artwork ready for the show. I will be sharing some of my book art and calligraphy from my exhibit in Louisiana over the next few months. I had meant to share more over time, but didn't get around to it. While I am working on other things, this would be a great time to do it!

Watercolor Reference Wheels

We are finally getting some much needed rain. I watched our backyard turfgrass seemingly grow an inch yesterday afternoon after the rains came through.


This is giving me the chance to go through some photos I took last week. This one was very interesting to me while I was out in the forest.




watercolor sample wheel and Claytonia wildflower

A few weeks back, when we were still getting snow, I made these small wheels with my watercolor paints around the edges. I like this arrangement because it allows me to carry a reference of colors directly into the field without a lot of bulk. I made the wheels based on color groups. Although I (almost) never use watercolors straight from the tube, it makes it a lot easier to see which base to start from, and make some notes right there in front of the flower. Each wheel has space on the front and back.


The green paint that is right next to the Claytonia virginica, or Spring Beauty wildflower, is Daniel Smith's Green Apatite Genuine. I bought it on a whim a few weeks ago because I liked the color on the display. When I tried it out at home, I found that it has a very different look in pale washes and in heavier mass tones.


As you can see, the mass tone was very similar to the leaf color in this lighting.


The color also has an intriguing, sedimentary look on the paper.


So, will this mean I can take a shortcut and use this green? It would save me time in the field not to have to mix a color. I am not sure, yet- I need to become more familiar with it. I use (and like) many different brands of paint, and there are other ways to mix this green, using other paints on my palette. But this one intrigued me, because I had not purchased it with wildflower painting in mind.


This also reinforced how much I like using these wheels. You do have to be familiar with how the paints mix, though.


How do you carry your color references into the field for field sketching?

Wildflower Watch!

This has been such a long winter. I've been feeling so weary of winter's landscapes. It has been interesting to look back at my photos from last year at this time, and see how green it was.


But, there is hope. Yesterday, it snowed, but the day before, I found this at Fontenelle Forest:

Dutchmen's Breeches. Spring wildflowers!!!


Last year, I saw these flowering about three weeks earlier. I am so glad to see them again. I was also looking for Bloodroot and Spring Beauty, but didn't see them on the trails I checked.


We also saw Ruby-Crowned Kinglets flitting through some bare branches, and saw a duel between a Red Admiral and a Comma butterfly. They flew at each other and tumbled about.


I've always had a special love for wildflowers. My parents have a photo of me from when I was five years old, sitting in a fig tree, holding a handful of Oxalis violacea. Not much has changed, except that I now take photos or paint the flowers instead of picking them.


Do you have a favorite spring wildflower where you live?

Butterflies!

Weather in Nebraska is always interesting. Last weekend, we had record cold temperatures. Midweek, they are predicting almost 80 degrees. And next weekend, snow is predicted again.


But it is trying to be spring! And on my hike yesterday at Fontenelle Forest, I saw leaves of Dutchmen's Breeches wildflowers coming up. I was searching for Bloodroot, but they were not up yet in my usual spot.


But we saw three butterflies! I think they were commas, because I have seen them in this area of the forest before. The adults can overwinter. I wonder if these are overwintering ones? We had such a harsh winter, it would be absolutely incredible if that is the case. But nature always fills me with wonder.

The butterfly is almost in the center of this photo, basking in the sun in the middle of the fallen leaves. I took the picture with a cell phone, because I did not have a better camera with me, so I apologize that the picture is terrible. I was not expecting to see butterflies this early.


Whether they were overwintering ones, or not, they definitely brought a sign of hope for the spring.

A New Look

Hello, everyone, I'm back! Thank you for sticking around and reading the blog. Other formats for sharing are fun, but honestly, this is the only one that allows me to go into detail, so I am recommitting to the blog. I'll be making some changes over the next few weeks to update the look and focus. And I hope to share some exciting news, soon. (I love it when people share exciting news! It's so interesting to see what makes people excited or happy!).


You might have noticed that I added a subtitle below the name of the blog. I'll be sharing a lot more about geometry and nature here in the future. Geometry gets shortchanged so often in school, and I believe that is a great loss. It acts as a language that underlies seemingly disparate fields, from space science to fine art.




Great Dodecahedron

There is great beauty in Geometry.





Inside of Great Dodecahedron Model

I made this model following instructions in Magnus Wenninger's book, Polyhedron Models. I got the idea for photographing the inside, though, from Alan Holden's Shapes, Space, and Symmetry, which is still in print.


The inside looks like a flower. Such is the beauty of geometry, and it is a very good example of how geometry underlies much of the natural world.


Thanks again for visiting!


Sunshine, at last!

Greetings from frozen Nebraska! I can't believe it has been so long since I have updated the blog. I seem to be using other media to share photos and sketches these days. If you are still reading here, thank you! I do hope to get back to posting regularly.


The sun is out, the snow and ice on the ground is melting, and I hope to have some photos and sketches to post, soon. Stay warm!