(I wrote this at the very end of May and wanted to share it with you before it gets too late!)
I took a walk out through the fields today to “Aspen Hall”, just for a bit of exercise and to enjoy the sun. Along the way I discovered some beautiful butterflies, though it’s tiny, the “Pearl Crescent” was so pretty when you look at it on zoom!
A beautiful little butterfly called the Pearl Crescent
When we got to Aspen Hall, I did a very quick sketch using my watercolors and waterbrush. I say quick because the mosquitoes were finding us fast! The picture below shows how I held my palette as I worked.
This is how I held my palette while I stood and painted.
You can see the last post I did on Carpenter Bees there to the left. I also always make a little pen holder with clear tape on my sketch book.
This is the water brush I used to do the whole painting, a big flat.
Here’s a picture showing the big flat waterbrush I used to do the entire painting. The flat was great for making the marks on the trees and I used the corner when I wanted to make small marks. (If you click this pic you’ll see a really cool note card I created where you can put your own text on the palette!)
Painting and notes done while standing in "Aspen Hall", watercolor.
This is the page I created with my notes and watercolor sketch. Click it to read my notes, the black flies were terrible, biting me and being pests! It was hard to paint, but I’m happy with the little watercolor sketch. Standing still is great for seeing and hearing birds, they were all around me.
Ginger gives me a toothy smile and says, "Hurry up already!"
And there’s Ginger, my faithful Aussie! She’s just looking at me saying, “Are you done yet?” 🙂
A footprint in the mud from ?
Here’s a cool footprint I spotted in the mud in “The Maze”, another area on my land. I have to look it up, but I’m thinking Opossum? Skunk?
Another Leopard Frog friend!
Could I take a walk on Long Lane Farm and NOT see a frog? I don’t think so! This is one of the most popular kinds here, the Leopard Frog. Isn’t he handsome? (oh it could be a female…can a frog be pretty?) I just love the spring greens, olive greens and bronze of their skin; in the sun it really is metallic!
A female Baltimore Oriole looking for food in the bushes.
A great capture, photos of a female Baltimore Oriole searching for seeds on this wild bush in my field.
Another shot of her as she searched for food.
It’s interesting to observe ‘garden’ birds further afield than your backyard. Seeing her feeding on native bushes, bugs, seeds….whatever she was eating she was very busy doing it.
A collection of leaves I picked while sitting in one spot.
After painting I sat for a few moments in Aspen Hall, I looked around me at all the green plants. It didn’t look like anything interesting to paint or draw, but, if I had students with me I’d challenge them to find as many different leaf shapes as they could to draw. I picked one of each just within my own reach and look how many I found! It would be nice to do as a lesson, ignoring color and talking about shape, and some botanical terminology.
I hope you enjoyed this (short) walk today! Wait till you see the next post, a new moth discovery for me!
BTW here’s a new page I created called “My Photography Equipment” to show what cameras I use when I go out walking and exploring, I love ’em!
Visit my shop for note cards (and more) of:
Wow can I come for a visit? All this in one walk? Lucky you. Thanks for sharing.
haha, yes Deborah, one walk! You probably already know this but it’s all in being observant of the little things, and staying still sometimes to take notice. thanks!
So many things to see, lovely sketch too.
Frogs are definately beautiful!
Wonderful post!
Great photo of the leopard frog! Wow!
I love your work…and love that Ginger is your companion in the process, too!!
thanks Mary! I always enjoy my walks with Ginger, she’s a great companion. The sad thing is I’m trying to find a new home for her because I’ve been traveling to England and will be leaving yet again soon! I go for too long, she needs a new home and it makes me sad. But she has issues with food so can’t be with children, she may bite! She’s also 9 and some people don’t want an older dog, BUT she’s soooo good and well behaved. I may have to take her to the SPCA so they can find a good home, I have her listed on a pet site online but no one has inquired yet. 🙁
Well, it’s one of my great worries at the moment. Thanks for coming by, I visited your blog again, wonderful work!
Thanks Alex and Cathy, love my walks out there in the fields, but I’m still itching badly from the darn mosquito bites I got ! grrrr…
I am going to start printing pics of my favorite froggies (pictures I took) and then work on some paintings. Thanks for coming by you guys!
very nice illustrations of your walk, love the photos too, the frog is awsome!
continued success!
Wow! I say that you packed a lot into one walk.
Terrific picture of that frog! I enjoyed seeing how you hold the palette as I stood in my son’t window and tried to hold palette and spiral bound journal as I sketched his view and found it difficult.
Thanks Lyn, Sandra and Timaree! Glad you stopped by. Timaree, about holding the palette, it can be tiresome, you have to experiment with what is comfortable for you. Good idea to practice inside before setting out. Use your arm to support your sketch book or journal and if possible put the palette right on top of the journal. If you hold it in your hand as I did, it will tire your wrist (it did mine!) but sometimes you have to hold it this way. Let me know if you try anything and how it works, keep me posted.
The pictures are lovely! Love the sketch as well
I have to hand it to you – I’m pretty sure the mosquitoes and flys would have sent me packing! Lovely post with interesting things and great little studies. nancy
thanks Alex and Nancy T. I just can’t help doing photography and sketching, it’s so integral to me. When I walk I have to take pictures, like capturing the creature to study it. And then standing still to do a sketch, usually a landscape, captures the feel of the day.
And it WAS hard with the mosquitoes!! grrrr…went out yesterday for a quick walk, it HAD to be quick, everytime I paused to look at something they buzzed around my head! And I don’t believe in bug spray, at least I don’t have any safe ones around. Are there any?
Excellent photos, especially of the bird. I’m in awe. My bird photos look like blurs of color (mostly green).
thanks Carole! I’m glad people like when I post photos along with my sketches. To be honest there’s many days I go out and only get photos and would love to share them, but then, this wouldn’t be so much about my art would it!? 🙂 I really like using my Panasonic camera, it has a great super zoom on the ‘nature landscape’ setting, but you still have to be soooo careful with moving the camera and breathing even, makes it blurry. I know my Oriole picture was a bit blurry, but I thought it at least showed what I saw. I also have a big lens I can put on it for bird photography, but that’s even harder to handhold. Takes practice.
Thanks for stopping by!