Red-shouldered Hawk Territory--V

I am having to shift creative focus, from wildlife viewing and sketching, to sending out submission letters for my novel. Why spend all that time writing it, if I don't pursue publication, right? I've always planned to do that. I simply needed to hold it for a while, the way you hold an infant close to you when its newly born. I am a writer as well as an artist. And though every publisher will tell you that more than one focus scatters your interest, it can't be helped. There is truth in this. Dividing your time is a challenge. But now that I have discovered who I am, I refuse to go forward leaving either behind. And so there is this dance, this back and forth journey, both creative endeavors, both requiring deep commitment, both rewarding in and of themselves. The hawks. Yes, I visited them yesterday. Neither of the adults were around and as I ventured into the nest yard, I felt its emptiness, as though no one were home. But knowing this was probably my last opportunity to see the juvenile, I stayed the duration of four hours and visited the gardens and sketched while waiting. In time, a juvenile began calling in the nest area. I saw him in flight several times, though when he perched, I could never locate him through the leaves. He returned to the nest area, flying within it from perch to perch, then exceeded its boundaries to cross the road and travel to neighboring areas, noted both visually and by the distance and direction of his solicitous calls. Though he is seen from time to time by the residents, it has become less and less likely that I will see the hawk family. And so, I will now devote my hawk watching time to using the inspiration they've given me to finish my sketchbook and select some favorite images to paint, all of which I will share with you as they are completed.In the meantime, I want to introduce you to several other Red-shouldered hawk lovers and observers that I have met along the way. This has been another amazing part of the journey, the connection that blogging has given me to others who have enjoyed similar experiences and captured these in their own unique ways.

Leonard is a professor and journalist in Marietta, GA. You must visit his video and though the outcome of his story is uncertain at this time, mobbing is a turnabout reality for hawks, one in which nature provides for the predated as well as, the predator.

Mary Howell Cromer lives in LeGrange, KY. She launched her blog, Red-shouldered Hawks of Tingsgrove this week to display her journal and photos of the Red-shouldered hawks that she has spent hours observing the past several years. She has experienced both happy and sad endings, as well, and given aid to the parents a time or two. Don't miss her fun images of the juveniles.

And Jay at Down to Earth, created a wonderful diary post about her experiences with Red-shouldered hawks living in and around her property in eastern North Carolina. Visit her beautiful images, including a juvenile visiting the bird bath.

And last, but certainly not least, you must visit Larry Jordan's Red-shouldered hawks at Birder's Report for a northern California look at this beautiful species. To see my entire series of posts on this family of Red-shouldered hawks, click this link. The above images were taken at various times during my observations. The sketch is of the female with prey brought to her by the male. The second image is the male taking the remains of the female's meal to another perch to eat. The dragonfly is a ballerina ! a very small male Blue dasher. The perched hawk image is the male; the hawk in flight, one of the adults.

Inauguration Chickadee

No sooner did I see my photos of this Carolina chickadee in the snow than I began to think about painting it. Since I haven't painted snow in a while, I decided to try it first in my sketch book. Sketching is fun because its relaxed. Generally used for recording experiences, artist notes and sometimes the planning out of a painting, a sketchbook is a place for 'no pressure' practice and play. It's a doubly worthwhile experience to take photos as the sketch progresses. I'm discovering this as I remind myself to do it. You get to see what's happening twice, once while you are deep in your creative brain, wandering the uncharted territory of color, shape and perspective as it relates to a new subject. And a second time as you see the progression through images.

While viewing the image on the left above I could clearly see the pathways of dark and light and how they weren't leading my eye through the sketch. And since this sketch is a bit of a map for a future painting, I went back in and added the darks you see on the right and in the final sketch (top). Generally, I like to begin with the background when I start a painting, to see how the colors and light play out. Then I work with the painting focus to make sure these same colors are reflected in the subject.

This is a painting of neutrals with a splash of color, an arrangement I love. I used ultramarine blue, vandyke brown and sepia to make variations of gray and brown. I added quinacridone gold to the blue to create greens and Winsor Deep Red for the berries.
In the end the sketch was wonderful practice. I noticed and corrected details in the placement of the eye, the shape of the beak, the shape of the white feather pattern against the black cap. I also noticed snow. It's crusty and irregular. I lost my snow shapes easily. So, with my sketch to remind me, I'll draw the snow detail more carefully in the final painting.
Inauguration day. New hope and new energy for the world.

A Welcome to 2009!

Every year I create a list of experiences and accomplishments that marked the year's journey. Its my way of expressing gratitude for the year past and loading my mind with ideas and thoughts about what I want to do in the coming year.
One of my favorite motivational quotes comes from Neal Donald Walsh: "Yet here is a secret of all Masters: keep choosing the same thing....over and over until your will is made manifest in your reality." And when the going gets tough, which is sometimes the moment before reaching the finish line, I recite this encouragement in my mind..."just keep chosing the same thing". And whatever project or activity I'm struggling with seems to finish itself!

I also recently came across a fun way to think of these goals. Artist Karen Winters refers to them as "the things I'm looking forward to in 2009"on her blog The Creative Journey. And since I began both my blog and a facebook page in 2008, I will celebrate the launching of these two activities and the coming year by posting a few of the things I'm looking forward to in 2009.

--sending out query letters to find an agent for my novel

--finishing the last few pages of a whooping crane coloring book project and zipping it off to my layout partner in this endeavor

--spending a week of watercolor practice with Ann K. Lindsay and art friends in New York

--visiting Cape May and enjoying nature in a few other new places

--spending more time painting watercolor landscapes and the birds I've photographed

--developing a notecard series (or two) of backyard birds

--spending more time in the outdoors, hiking, sketching, photographing, kayaking

--creating a handmade moleskin sketchbook and filling it with a year's observations, stories and sketches

--creating new ways to display and market my art!Okay, that's enough for now. I noticed there is a lot of playing on my list. Welcome 2009!
Wishing you and your family a Happy New Year with many things to look forward to!

Photo: Greater sandhill cranes flying to roost at the Hiwassee Island, Dayton, TN.
Art: "The Return", original watercolor by Vickie Henderson.

Sketching Practice

When I go to visit my favorite art instructor in New York, Ann K. Lindsay, I am reminded of how actively my "critical mind" comments on my painting efforts. It makes me sigh sometimes, wondering if this will ever lessen. Ann says its always with us. And then I am reminded to "be kind," to step back and allow those critical thoughts and especially fears to subside. No effort is wasted. Our minds are learning, integrating, even when we think we're doing nothing.

For many of us, being kind to others is second nature. But thinking kindly about our own efforts, our practice before we get it right, doesn't come so easily. On a practical level, this critical thinking helps us fit in and strengthens our ability to cooperate in our families and community.But we also have our own perspective, an inner voice that allows for individual differences, our own uniqueness. And eventually we come to respect both the uniqueness in ourselves and in others. It is one of the joys of art classes. After a work session, we post our efforts on the wall and talk about what was hard and what we enjoyed, what we did and did not like about the effort. And when I look at everyone's work, it is wonderful, fresh and alive with discovery and uniqueness. When I am too busy with other things to practice drawing and painting, I come back to it with timidity. And that means my critical mind (which also seeks to protect me) is in high gear and shouting, "don't risk showing that to anyone." And so it was when I posted my first kinglet sketch.

I also stepped away from it leaving the sketch visible on my table until my opinions softened. I have since had time to create a few more sketches. And I learned that drawing a robin is much easier for me than a kinglet. The reason? I think its because angular shapes give my eye something to grab and work from. Angles break up the shapes. I sketched this robin in only a few minutes and was pleased with the first effort even though the legs are a bit short. The ease of this sketch could be from having seen many robins, even though this is my first attempt to draw one. But it also could be that sketching the kinglet warmed me up and quieted my doubt. Probably all of the above!
Critical thinking and seeing work together as we draw, paint, live life. Sprinkle in a little kindness as you practice and watch what happens.

Coming up: My Thanksgiving visitor and the painting

Kinglet--First Sketch

I have collected a small stack of backyard bird photos that have been tugging at me for the past few weeks, especially after capturing some new ones this weekend. Though I didn't have much time left when I got home from the office last night, I made this first attempt at capturing the ruby-crowned kinglet in my sketchbook.

My eye is not yet acquainted with its shapes. This is one of the things about art that is so intimate and engaging. You see differently as you attempt to capture a subject. You begin to notice spacial relationships, size, shape, color nuances. I have not tried sketching these smaller birds, so first comes the practice. The eye and the beak are so important in capturing the beauty of the kinglet. So here's my first attempt. I'll practice sketching it a few more times and then give it a whirl on watercolor paper.

Speaking of Personality

While I’m on the subject of vultures, I thought I would introduce you to another favorite vulture friend of mine. She is a turkey vulture who makes her home at Ijams Nature Center, in Knoxville, TN, where she educates and delights children and adults of all ages and has her own special outdoor enclosure. I found her so engaging that I made the above composite of her after spending some time photographing her with wildlife biologist, Pam Petko-Seus. It's the personality and the stories that capture my heart and make me want to create art. I smile everytime I look at this painting. Who would buy such a portrait? I haven't a clue. For me its about the joy of creating--giving back what this beautiful bird gave to my heart.

In Search of a Bit of Color

I've been working on an illustration project for kids that consists of line drawings, absent of shading and color to allow budding artists the chance to express their own imaginations. Its a fun project to both create and anticipate, but occasionally it leaves me starved for color!
So I added a little color to this sketch of a whooping crane juvenile with his wings spread during taxi training, before flight feathers have fully formed. What description comes to your mind when you see him? Prehistoric? Funny? Graceful in the rough? These were a few that passed through my mind!

And I took a short break to visit the colorful bounty that presides at Ijam's Nature Center here in Knoxville, TN, a lure that is irresistable to both me and the birds.

You have to look deeper into that birch to find the subject of the photo midst all that brillant red.

I think I'm safe in saying this is White-throated sparrow. Tennessee is in their wintering range and they are arriving. What a colorful backdrop to show off this beauty. It wasn't planned, I assure you!

Linked to Bird Photography Weekly #11 at Birdfreak.com, to raise bird conservation awareness.

Whooping Crane Family--Part I

It was this series of sandhill crane notecard images that prompted me to ask the question, "Is there any place on earth I could view and photograph a whooping crane caring for its chick?"I was speaking to George Archibald, co-founder of the International Crane Foundation (ICF), during a quiet moment at a wildlife exhibit in the spring of 2004. So many times, while expressing delight over this card collection, now sold out, customers asked me, "do you have any whooping crane images like these?"
I expected George's answer to be one of amusement. The original wild population of endangered migrating whooping cranes, numbering approximately 307 today, nests in Wood Buffalo in the Northwest Territory of Canada. Their nesting sites are inaccessible except to authorized biologists who monitor their numbers. Because this population was reduced to only 15 birds in the early 40's, genetic diversity is of up-most importance to the survival of the species. Captive-reared birds are carefully monitored for genetic value to the wild population and decisions about each off-spring are made by an international recovery team.
To my surprise, he responded by saying there was a good possibility that the whooping crane pair at the Amoco Whooping Crane Exhibit at ICF might be allowed to raise their own chick within full view of the public. And so it was that this door of opportunity opened.It was in June of the next year, 2005, that I received the call, "we're putting a pipping egg in the nest tonight and it should be hatched by morning." With that, I dropped everything and began the twelve hour drive from Knoxville, TN to Baraboo, WI, arriving around eleven a.m. June 19.

The sleeping chick had hatched in the pre-dawn hours. When it awoke and raised it's head, two very attentive parents greeted it with food.The image above is among my favorite photos because it captures the parents' earnest attentiveness. As the chick stirred, they moved in unison, almost as one, carefully offering the chick the tiniest of insects held in their enormous bills.The chick toppled over on his face, so new was he to life that when he reached for the morsels he lost his balance. The parents retracted their bills, waited for him to erect himself, then ever so slowly, moved their bills toward him again to offer the food.

Keep in mind that an adult whooping crane is five ft tall and its newly hatched chick measures only about four inches, not even the size of the adult's head and bill combined...
and you get a glimpse of how truely awe inspiring it was to witness the patience and gentleness demonstrated by these two parents. Next: A whooping crane chick's day.

Gourd Art and Whooping Cranes

My kitchen has been transformed into a studio, the table filled with unfinished gourd art and pine needles ready for coiling. Not that the kitchen ever poses as a domestic center, anyway. It more closely resembles a studio much of the time as projects come and go.
Earlier in the week, the same table was scattered with ink illustrations for an exciting children’s book project that I will return to later. But for now, it’s exhibit time, time to finish up and organize the art that will travel with me next week, to the Whooping Crane Wildlife Festival in Necedah, WI.
There I will reunite with whooping crane enthusiasts around the country and with Operation Migration’s crew and staff. If the weather cooperates, we’ll all visit the observation tower to watch this year’s juvenile whooping cranes in flight training over the Necedah NWR wetlands as they follow ultralight aircraft piloted by Operation Migration crew members.The photos above and below were taken at a flight training in September of 2007 as I stood at ground level beside the observation tower. The young trainees were hugging the ground that morning with pilot Brook Pennypacker encouraging them to a higher altitude.
It is a thrill to see these fledged juveniles and to witness an endangered species being aided by these innovative efforts.

Detail of unfinished pine needle coil on a hard shell gourd basket.

Below, woodburned sandhill crane art on small hardshell gourds, ready to be coiled.
Detail of art on the bottom of a piece with date and signature.

Watercolor Practice—Trees

A friend of mine asked me, "what do you have after a week-long painting workshop? Did you come back with paintings?" I laughed. "No, no new paintings, just lots of fundamentals and practice."

Getting familiar with the paints, the combining of colors to create rich neutrals, how much water and how much pigment, how the water and pigment move together on the paper, which brushes give what effect—these are the fundamentals of painting.

And since I had not painted for over a year, it is these fundamentals that I revisited. They weren’t in my back pocket anymore. I had to reconnect with them. It was a happy reunion.

Painting is much the same as playing basketball or learning photography or writing practice. You follow your passion and you practice. Through practice you develop skill, familiarity, confidence. You load your brain with the fundamentals.

Then when you want to paint, these fundamentals are right there in your brain’s library. You focus on your subject and the rest flows. This is the essence of talent—a loaded library.

I practiced trees, lots of trees.

Practice wets the appetite. It made me eager to paint more trees.