AvesInArt Challenge Day 2

Today we took one of our favorite family field trips - heading to the Hammonasset Beach State Park for some birding, and stopping along the way at the Book Barn in Niantic.  Here's Jorge's submission for today, a female Northern Harrier, captured as she cruised her hunting circuit over the marsh.

NORTHERN HARRIER, Circus hudsonius

Sue's subject was closer at hand, a Song Sparrow foraging for grass seeds, partially concealed behind last summer's dried marsh grasses.

SONG SPARROW, Melospiza melodia

2014 GNSI Annual Meeting - Boulder, Colorado

University of Colorado - Boulder, with the Flatiron formation as a backdrop (more on this below)..

The annual meeting runs for a whole week, from Saturday to Saturday in mid-July, with workshops, informational sessions, technique demonstrations and meetings. There's also a portfolio-sharing session, a member's art exhibit, a banquet, an auction and field trips.  The field trips usually bracket the week, and participants often arrive early or stay late to get out to see the local sights.

The university's iconic red tile rooftops, and ochre and pink sandstone. This is Kittredge Hall, our dormitory.

The Natural HIstory Museum, where the Guild's member exhibit hangs until September.

The Natural History Museum is open every day and is FREE.  The exhibit space is small, but thoughtfully addresses local, as well as global issues.  There is an inviting space on the lower level designed for socializing and wandering amongst curio cabinets - with comfy chairs, a few work tables, a thermos of coffee, a current exhibit or two and some old taxidermy.

The GNSI exhibit has a lovely hall all to itself, with excellent interpretive signage.

Photoshop class in the new Visual Arts Center on campus.

One of my classes is pictured above, working in the computer lab, equipped with twenty new PowerMacs.  The instructor is a scientific (and medical) illustrator who shared some of her "tips and tricks" for masking in Photoshop. Many scientific illustrators these days combine traditional and digital techniques to produce their illustrations.

Steller's Jays (Cyanocitta stelleri) in the research collection.

During lunch break I skipped out to visit the bird collections, in the lower level of the Natural History Museum.  Vertebrate Collections Manager Emily Braker entertained my questions and requests to see specimens - I loved the Steller's Jays (photo above).

Morning field trip to El Dorado Canyon, a few minutes south of Boulder.

As I mentioned in the introduction, there was a variety of field trips offered to conference attendees. You could visit Boulder's Tea House (imported piece by piece from Nepal), you could tour the NOAA facility, take a brewery tour, visit Denver's Botanic Garden, take an overnight trip into Rocky Mountain National Park or, my option, take the morning hike up into El Dorado Canyon.  It was an easy walk, just enough to gain some altitude and appreciate some higher elevation flora and fauna - and return us to campus in time for afternoon workshops.

A not-so-threatening reminder to respect the rattlesnakes encountered along the trail.

After a great week of workshops I treated myself to a free day to explore Boulder's Chautauqua Park:

"The Flatirons" as seen from Chautauqua Park in Boulder.

Chautauqua Park in Boulder lies on the west side of the city, on the slopes of the Front Range of the Rocky Mountains.  It's home to some great hiking trails and the Chautauqua Association of Boulder.  The park's iconic Flatirons are a group of geologic formations popular with the area's rock-climbers.  A network of trails meanders throughout the park, following ridges, creek valleys, skirting the base of the flatirons and bisecting the open meadows.  Spur trails lead climbers to the rock-climbing routes up the flatirons.

My bird list for the day included both Black-capped and Mountain Chickadees, Steller's Jays, Western Bluebirds and Western Tanagers, Common Ravens and Plumbeous Vireos.

Happy New Year 2015 - and a challenge for January.

A new year, a new beginning - AvesInArt creators Jorge de Leon and Susan Hochgraf have challenged each other to make a new photo and a new drawing or painting each day throughout the month of January.
Let's get started!

White-throated Sparrow (Zonotrichia albicollis)

Jorge's submission for January 1st is this White-throated Sparrow, which he found late in the afternoon gleaning sunflower seeds from the ground below our birdfeeders at home.  This bird will probably roost for the night in this same yew shrub, up a bit higher in the branches, concealed from view and sheltered from the cold wind.

Northern Cardinal (Cardinalis cardinalis)

Sue's submission for today is a male Northern Cardinal, also seen under the birdfeeders in the late afternoon.  This sketch is done with a fine-point Sharpie marker on paper.  Two males and a female made brief visits, spooked by my presence at the window, but were there long enough to capture their cardinal essence.

New Exhibit at Starbucks

AvesInArt has just put up a new show!  Birds of Uruguay, in paintings and photographs, is now on view at the Starbucks in Storrs-Mansfield, Connecticut.

Interior view to the gallery wall.

After closing time, Sue making final preparations.

Some of the colorful birds of Uruguay.

Come to see the show and let us know what you think.  And, if you're interested in seeing these birds in person, check the Southern Screamer Birding Tours website, and consider a trip to Uruguay!

Bird Portraits?

This spring I'm trying something new.
I've painted a few bird portraits in a new medium - acrylic on canvas board.

Green Jay (Cyanocorax luxuosus) from the Rio Grande Valley of southeastern Texas

I love the classic side-view portrait, but have always been intrigued by some of Jorge's photos which capture a front view.  Just about the only birds that actually have binocular vision (where they see what's in front of them using both eyes to create a forward-facing field of view) are the OWLS.  The rest of the birds have a wide field of view primarily to the side of the head, which is useful for detecting predators.  So, while a photograph may capture an instant where the bird is facing the camera - it is not actually focusing on you at that moment.

My choice of these two species was due to the intriguing patterns on the faces. The Green Jay is a bird of subtropical to tropical forests, where sun-dappled shade is common.  These colors and patterns work well to confuse and conceal the bird's actual features.  The pale blue feathers above and below the eye stand out from the black mask, and appear to be distinct feather tracts that at can be manipulated, perhaps in display.  

Jocotoco Antpitta (Grallaria ridgelyi) from the Andes of southern Ecuador

The pattern of light and dark on this antpitta's face is unique in the genus Grallaria - which is why it immediately caught the attention of ornithologists Robert Ridgely and John Moore, who discovered it very recently in the tropical humid Andes of southern Ecuador - in 1997!

I have often wanted to do a series of these photos (or paintings!) entitled "Here's looking at you" - but of course they aren't really looking at us at all.

National Juried Show!!

Common Potoo, Nyctibeus griseus

My watercolor painting of the Common Potoo (Nyctibeus griseus) was just accepted to the member's exhibit at the Guild of Natural Science Illustrators (GNSI) annual meeting.

Last summer I completed the painting for our Greater New York GNSI chapter's fall exhibit entitled Nature's Camouflage.  This small exhibit has gone on to several different local venues since the September 2013 opening at Highstead Arboretum in Redding, Connecticut.  (see previous post!)

Now my painting will hang at the Museum of Natural History in Boulder Colorado from April through September 2014.  The 2014 conference and annual meeting will be held at the University of Colorado, Boulder, nestled at the foothills of the Rocky Mountains.

A full week of classes, technique workshops, demonstrations and field trips to the nearby mountains and museums, the annual meeting is always a great way to learn - both from experienced instructors and fellow artists.

I attended several days of the conference last summer - at College of the Atlantic in Bar Harbor, Maine - and came away inspired to try out some new painting techniques.

Detail of notched eyelid, Nyctibeus griseus.

This watercolor of the Common Potoo was done before that experience, so it's my standard combination of wash and dry-brush with finishing touches of gouache to highlight the white feathers.  I really enjoyed working on this piece, and used museum study skins, photographs and videos as reference material.

Detail of chick, Nyctibeus griseus.

Well, if you find yourself in Boulder, Colorado this summer, stop by the Natural History Museum and check out the Guild of Natural Science Illustrator's Member Show - my potoos will be there!

Nature's Camouflage - a new GNSI show!!

Artists and guests at the Exhibit Opening, September 15, 2013.

My local chapter of the Guild of Natural Science Illustrators, "The Greater New York Chapter - GNSI" has opened yet another beautiful exhibit.  Again, the Highstead Arboretum hosted - and I learned today that this is the fifteenth anniversary of this GNSI - Highstead collaboration.  With a theme like "Nature's Camouflage", the range of subjects was bound to be diverse, and it is.  In watercolor, pencil, pen-and-ink and other media, the twenty or so exhibitors have depicted varied interpretations of the theme.

Most of the artists were on hand to talk - it's my turn.

 There were cryptically colored moths, a mantid and a katydid, frogs, birds, mammals small and large, an octopus and one plant - of the genus Lithops, a type of succulent called Living Stones because they look just like little pebbles on the ground.  Some subjects were depicted in full camouflage against a detailed background such as a host plant, leaf litter, or in snow - while others were simply studies of the subject with a description of the camouflage mechanism.

Common Potoo, Nyctibeus griseus, watercolor.

For this show I painted the Common Potoo, Nyctibeus griseus, in watercolor.  Here's the text I prepared for the exhibition:

In the family Nyctibiidae and order Caprimulgiformes, the potoo is a South and Central American bird, closely related to Whippoorwills.  Many members of this large group camouflage on the ground, in leaf litter, or by aligning the body parallel to a tree limb.  The Common Potoo, however, seems to hide in plain sight, often perching on the exposed end of a broken branch.  A nocturnal flier, the potoo will remain motionless during the day, keeping watch on the observer through specially notched eyelids.  The chick learns to "freeze" at a very young age, but here has been caught peeking.  As they rest together, the silky breast feathers of the parent bird drape over the youngster, blending the two into one.