Sketchings of Nature

A friend at the lake brought me a wonderful nest she found on the ground.  It is a cup-shaped nest made out of green moss, pine needles, shredded birch bark or paper, tree lichen, feathers and dog hair.

I’m not sure yet the kind of bird that created this soft home-tweet-home.  Any guesses?  I had fun photographing it in a variety of settings like on a tree branch.

This prompted me to sketch it in my art journal:

With a few other wild plants such as:

Pink Forget-Me-Nots…

White Trillium flowers and unfurling ferns.

And wild roses that are in bloom!

I hope to paint these subjects individually.  It was fun to draw them in my sketchbook so I will remember to do so!

Doing these sketches reminded me of one of my favorite artists, Marjolein Bastin, who draws and paints nature beautifully.  Do you have a favorite nature artist?  I’d love to hear about it!

Happy Creating!

Color Thy Nest

I was experimenting in my art journal last evening by painting 6 small nests in different colors of watercolor over a black pen:

Do you have a favorite color combo you like?

This playful experiment led me to create this nest:

I used watercolor, pan pastels, watercolor pencils and a black fine point sharpie.

I like this quote from Oliver Wendell Holmes:

“Where we love is home.  Home that our feet may leave but not our hearts.” 

I also created this nest:

And here is a quote from Emily Dickinson:

“Hope is the thing with feathers that perches in the soul – and sings the tune without the words – and never stops at all.”

Happy Creating!

Quail Eggs

Years ago, I had a California Quail lay eggs in my lavender.  I didn’t know it until they had hatched.  Apparently, Quail hens like to lay their eggs close to the ground.

Above are quail eggs I created in watercolor, pan pastels and color pencil.

This memory got me thinking about how to attract birds to my yard.  So I googled it and found this great article on “Landscaping Tips for a Bird Friendly Yard.”

The three basics (hence the 3 eggs…) are food, water and shelter.  The article goes into greater detail if you are interested.  I learned a thing or two – hope you will too.  🙂

I took these photos of my yard today – Enjoy!

The above is a crab apple tree in full bloom.  Can you find the bee?

I like to grow my own herbs to add to my cooking.  The above photo are chives and oregano.  The chive flowers are just starting to open.

The blueberries (above) are in bloom.  Looks like we are going to have a good crop this year!

Just love the sweet scent of Honeysuckle!  I planted the above plant to attract hummingbirds and butterflies to my yard.

Hope you have a happy day!  🙂

Robin Egg Blue

I created a bird nest with gesso and clear bead gel on a wood panel.  I then painted it in layers of watercolor.  This is how it looked when I started:

The eggs are the color of an egg for the American Robin.  Did you know that there is a Crayola crayon that was named Robin Egg Blue in the early 1990’s?

I added several more layers of watercolors:

I then buffed it with a soft damp cloth:

But I found it needed more contrast so I added more paint and defined some of the twigs in the nest with soft vine charcoal:

I’m not sure if it is done so I will set it aside for a few days and then look at it again.

Have you ever found a Robin’s blue egg shell?