November snow!

It's been an unusually cold November, so far. We've already had snow and single digit temperatures. I'm ready for the more typical weather we are expecting next week, which will allow me to get outside in the yard again!

I'm not teaching classes this month. I had a long list of things I wanted to get done during my "break," but what has happened is that I have been spending a lot of time making art! I have a backlog of botanical artwork that needs to be finished, and I am getting things done for our next Great Plains GNSI show at Lauritzen Gardens next year. While things are not going as I had planned, I am really pleased with how things are working out. I'm also coming to the conclusion that I just want to maintain this blog as my social media outreach at the moment.

I am working on several acrylic paintings for our show of plants and pollinators. After lots of drawing and colored pencil work, I am enjoying using thicker paints and brushes again. This morning, I finished a painting of a flower fly, and started work on a monarch caterpillar (I love those)!

And I've continued working on a horticultural history project for the Sarpy County Museum. This has been a fascinating research project, and I hope to share more about it at a later date.

Here is a photo of the flower fly painting before I finished it- the wings on the fly and the disk flowers are unfinished. At this point, it is about halfway done. When I first get the thought that I am almost finished, I know that it really means I have reached the halfway point, and it was definitely true for this one.

unfinished Flower Fly, © Camille Werther 2019

Studio work

Lots going on in the studio. I am working on my portfolio of natural science illustration. Pulling together years of work into a cohesive portfolio has been fun. Each drawing and painting brings back a host of memories. It's wonderful how much comes back... the smells of a place, the temperature, the sounds. When you draw and sketch outdoors, it cements all these things in your memory, whether you are aware of it or not.

In addition, I'm working on a large acrylic painting of a Polyphemus moth that I found at the base of a tree in my backyard. It's been challenging and fun. As you can see, I just have the basic outline blocked in. The body of the moth is almost done, but I have more shadows to put in. The abstract-looking background is a block-in to be developed later, but I kind of like it the way it is! The black gesso I used covered the canvas incredibly well. It is really making everything stand out.

This is a particular moth, not an illustration of a general one. The wing was torn, so I am leaving that the way it was. The moth was so beautiful. The spots on the wing were see-though silvery.

I've also been playing around with acrylic gouache. I've not tried this product before, and am enjoying it, but as you can see, there is a learning curve.

It's been a satisfying week. In addition, I've been doing some field sketching. Hope to post some of that soon. If it is spring where you live, go outside and draw! You will not regret it. :)