Nature Sketches

 Nature provides so many rich subjects for me, like this beautiful belted kingfisher. We have a pair that live at our pond. They never cease to amaze me. They are powerful hunters, and capable of amazing aerial maneuvers. They patrol the pond, dive and take off in a manner that reminds me of WWII fighter planes. I've used pencil, Sharpie and gouache to capture their military looking steel blue color.

 Other visitor to our pond include white tail deer. In the early morning light they browse among the underbrush, ears always alert to sound. Pencil and watercolors were enough to capture this gentle scene.

 A lovely trip to the Connecticut College Arboretum. The main image in pencil and watercolor, the small sketch of Nina made with fountain pen and watercolors. Washi tape creates the border and the lower right hand corner has some stamps I bought at the craft store.

Here two beautiful scenes of  late summer. using a Pentel Pocket Brush Pen in the top sketch to capture the Hammock river and an egret. the lower sketch with Pentel Brush Pen in light black, depicting the fields of wildflowers and salt marsh at Hammonasset state park.

Each of these entries in my sketchbook remind me of the privilege of working in nature. The humility I need to cultivate to remember that I am just one part of this world. But when I remember that, I also remember that each and every life is significant. Each bird, each flower, each seed carried by the wind. We all play our parts, and we all belong to  a whole.