My Summer Project - Natural History Illustration with EDX.org

It was an impromptu decision. I saw an online EdX course on Natural History Illustration being offered through the University of Newcastle in Australia and decided to sign up. It dovetailed nicely with my New Year's Resolution to draw a little bit each day (a resolution that I've mostly been able to keep), plus it was something I wanted to learn more about. It was advertised as a class for people of any artistic experience level.

This turned out to be both much more interesting and challenging than I expected. I was blown away by the quality of the artworks produced and while I could keep up, every week's lesson and homework stretched me as an artist.

I've always had a realistic, but somewhat impressionistic style. I was never one to try to capture every detail in a drawing or painting, but this class required that. It is less about the beauty of the art and more about the accuracy of the rendering. I also learned a great deal about the structure of plants and the anatomy of birds and animals.

I just submitted my final project of a sunflower that is growing in my front yard (I love sunflowers!). I'm pleased with how it came out and I'm very glad that I decided to take this class. It's made for a great summer project.

Book Review: Seasons in my Garden

Seasons in My Garden: Meditations from a Hermitage
by Sr. Elizabeth Wagner
Notre Dame: Ave Maria Press, 2016

Sr. Elizabeth Wagner is one of the founders of Transfiguration Hermitage, a semi-eremitical community in Maine devoted to prayer and solitude. In “Seasons in My Garden,” she meditates on “human desire and human struggle, with human weakness and vulnerability” as well as on “the experience of God’s presence.” Though her individual lifestyle is not one most of us are called to experience, her reflections speak to universal “emotions, needs, and desires.” She invites us to God wherever our lives may take us.

The garden in the title refers not only to the physical garden she tends throughout the year, but also her interior spiritual garden which also needs cultivation and which changes along with the physical seasons.

All of us, whether we realize it or not, are connected with nature. Those of us who live in areas with four distinct seasons can certainly relate to Sr. Elizabeth’s ebb and flow as she sojourns through the year. 

“Seasons in My Garden” is a meditative book and while reading it in a traditional fashion provides a cohesive experience, the chapters can also be read independently as mini-retreats in the midst of a busy day. This work provides a gift of peace and reflection and invites us to contemplate life in harmony with the natural world around us.

Simple Treasures

Thankfully, spring seems to have finally come to Western Massachusetts, after what has felt like the longest winter ever. It is so good to be able to go out for walks again and soak up some sunshine. Of course, walks with a three-year-old don't necessarily count as exercise. This is the age of exploration. A walk is a meandering adventure with frequent stops to admire the ground and pick up treasures.

My big boys used to do this, too. When they were little, I loved wearing overalls, and by the time we got home from an excursion, all my pockets would be bulging with found items. I don't remember exactly when that impulse stopped with them, but eventually there came a day when we would go for a walk and just do that - walk - and the days of picking up as many items as possible were left behind.

Fast-forward ten years and I've aged out of the overalls, but I definitely need to make sure I'm wearing clothes with pockets. My little foster-daughter is on a mission to pick up every item she can find. To her, they are more precious than gold. This photo shows the haul from our walk yesterday. My two jacket pockets were full of rocks and pine cones and one hand was holding the sticks, so I still had one hand to grab her if a car was coming down the streets of our quiet neighborhood. I don't think I could have held another thing. I may need to start bringing a big bag with me to accommodate her!

In any event, I know that this stage is magical and all too fleeting and I plan to treasure every moment of it as much as she values these simple items. This is the good stuff.

Moment of Beauty - Tree Edition

Long-time readers of my blog will know that I have a certain fondness for trees. Here are a couple of trees I came across in my travels this summer.

Moment of Beauty - Roots by a River

 I've always been somewhat fascinated by trees. I think that their many variations are inherently beautiful. Long-time readers of my blog may recall that I even did a series of paintings on them a few years back.

In the course of my long weekend, I came across this very interesting root formation by the side of a river. The photo on the top shows a large portion of the roots, while in the one on the bottom, I focused more on the large knot of roots. I then changed the photo to black and white and increased the contrast. I don't know if you will agree or not (beauty, after all, is in the eye of the beholder), but I found beauty in this unexpected place and wanted to share it with you.

The Mystery and Beauty of Water Crystals

In reading Holding on to Hope: The Journey Beyond Darkness, I came across this paragraph:

In his book, The Hidden Messages in Water, Masaru Emoto, a Japanese scientist and original thinker, shows that water crystals are affected by pollution and the vibrational energy of music and even words. By photographing water crystals that have been exposed to pollution, various types of music, and words of love and peace, or alternatively, anger and hate, he was able to observe that water absorbs energy and the energy is reflected in the crystals when frozen. The most beautiful and unique crystals are formed when exposed to the energy of loving and peaceful words. Words of anger and hatred produce deformed and broken crystals.



I found that fascinating. There are some examples of these water crystals on BlogThis!Share to XShare to FacebookShare to Pinterest