Goose Movement; Turtle Stillness

Goslings squishing around in wet grass during a shower.  
On the next day under a warm sunny sky turtles bask on a log, a parental goose stands watch.
Yesterday I watched all four parents grooming at one time.  I drew so fast I couldn’t see what the drawings looked like until afterwards.  Zoning.

A Gaggle of Goslings

Eleven baby Canada geese pecking bugs from the grass on the shore of Owen Pond as the rain starts to drizzle down;  turkey buzzards circle overhead, but four very stern looking adult geese patrol the area.

Tulip Finale, One-Legged Hen and Others

The tulips have healed themselves.

Along the trail on windy yesterday:  new blooms, wind-blown hen, one-legged hen holding her own in the blustery chicken yard, a solitary Canada goose sitting quietly on a bluff above the river deep in the woods.

Unstoppable!

A pot of tulip and hyacinth bulbs was delivered to us by UPS while we were out of town, and somehow it ended up in the post office where our mail was being held.  When we picked up the mail, there it was, having sat unwatered and in the dark of its box for a week.  I unpacked it as soon as I got it home, expecting the bulbs to still be dormant and under the soil.  

Instead, everything has sprouted;  but all the sprouts were waxy and white as well as contorted and bent under the constraints of the box.  The sketch above shows the plants looking like Belgium endive or overly blanched celery.

I unpacked the moss from around the sprouts as well as the rubber bands that held the moss down.  I watered it thoroughly, and put it outside in the sunshine.  After a few hours the plants began to fill with purplish color which then turned green in most places.  Stems and leaves plumped out.

A few more hours and the hyacinth flowers that were peeking out turned blue.  By the next morning the plants looked almost normal.  The purple areas had turned mostly green.  The magic of sunlight and water!

Catch -Up

Abby and I made a bird nest sculpture out of paper mache birds from the new art supply store in Maplewood.  We had painted the birds to look like a robin and a bluebird.
Here’s my sketch of Abby drawing the ramp shown below.  We were sitting on the ground in the park.

A plane flew over as she was drawing, so she added it at the top.

I love the desiccated look of post-Easter Easter lilies, crepey.

Drawings from the park and the shop window.  Spring is just barely beginning this far north.

P and I went sketching with our friend S at the Brooklyn Botanical Gardens.

Then yesterday we took Nate to the Met.  On the left is a ten-second action sketch of a burdened NJTransit passenger, and on the right are my sketches of Nate drawing in the Egyptian section, his favorite place at the Met.

More of Nate drawing, this time in the African galleries, another favorite place.

Some unfinished sketches of power figures from West Africa.

Our friend A’s Velveteen Rabbit-esque childhood horse

Next to unopened daffofils on the morning sun-lit table in her lovely Vermont apartment.

Still Traveling

Actually guinea roosters.

And a close up!  And a feather detail.

Travel Sketching

Never a takeoff without a drawing.

Flower shop in Maplewood, drawn from restaurant across the street.

Deer in the backyard browsing in the snow in NH

Guinea fowl!

Only these are not hens but guinea roosters.

Both guinea fowl say ‘chi chi chi’ and are therefore roosters!

Guitar and fiddle band practice

More band guys

And more.  Stay tuned—