Field studies, a tool for learning. From the beginning I had a lot to learn, if I wanted to study nature. The best way for me to learn was to do what came naturally - sketch and paint watercolor studies. Only these studies would be of plants and animals, wherever I found them. I would make it a part of my work; and through it I had an excuse to go out, explore, discover, record, and gain first hand experience, about plants and animals in their places. It wasn’t long before I realized how invaluable this was. Experience is doing. And doing is learning, growing, understanding, and gaining knowledge, and in my case connecting with nature. It can also be inspiring. As an artist I wish to be affected by the subject I’m recording. It is not my intent to capture something on paper without feeling for it. It is an attempt to capture it’s character or a sense of the thing or place - the solid mass of a rock outcrop, trees shifting in the wind, a misty waterfall, filtered sunlight; or a tentative field mouse caught live in the house, a fox stalking through a meadow, a frenzy of birds feeding on a berry bush. And it’s not always about how much you record, it’s how much you absorb while attempting to do so. And it’s about seeing and sensing. That is what I hope to share and bring into work my work. That is the artist in me.
Here are a few field studies and some other studies from live or dead specimens. Occasionally other studies will be substituted. Check back if you like.
Gallery
Blue Jay
my 1st dead study
Mouse caught in the house
Great-horned Owl
death study
Great Blue
Wildwood, FL
Osprey at nest
