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About the Motmot
Exploring the natural world with pencil and paper from high atop a one-story bungalow in the middle of Oklahoma.
Category Archives: Art
What do Toucans Really Think?
Morning ritual in Panama: take coffee cup to the chair at the back door landing, open the sketchbook, raise the binoculars. The forest patch behind the house looks like a life-sized diorama of a jungle scene. A Nance tree blooms right outside … Continue reading
Posted in Adventure!, Animals, Art, birding, Diversions, Drawing, Environment, field sketching, life drawing, natural history, Nature, Panama, rainforest, random speculation, tropics, Wildlife
Tagged animal behavior, art, bird watching, drawing, fieldsketches, life drawing, Panama, rainforest, sketching, Toucans, travel, tropics, Wildlife
3 Comments
Earth Day with the Motmot
Greetings from Gamboa, Panama. Ant Man and I rented a house for six weeks on a hill above the Panama Canal, with a view of cecropia and palms and fruiting miconia trees attracting every known tropical and neotropical bird that’s … Continue reading
Posted in Adventure!, Animals, architecture, Art, bird art, birding, birds, Boats, Drawing, Environment, field sketching, life drawing, natural history, Nature, Panama, plein air, rainforest, Scope sketching, travel, tropics, Watercolor, Wildlife
Tagged architecture, birds, Earth Day 2016, Gamboa, motmot, Panama, Panama Canal, sciart, sketching, tropical ecology
9 Comments
2015 flutters to a landing
It was a year when plein air painting got a lot more fun, which I think is worth noting, and when I found new beauty in old and familiar places. I had a decent year of painting, exhibiting, teaching, drawing, writing, and learning how to breathe … Continue reading
Posted in Adventure!, Animals, Art, bird art, birds, Drawing, natural history, Nature, plein air painting, self-indulgence, Sound clips, Uncategorized, Wildlife
Tagged bird art, birds, drawing, life in review, Nature, New Year's Resolutions, pastels, pensive ruminations, plein air painting, sketching
4 Comments
Pastel Gallery is up and running
For anyone who’d like to see more of the Fall Pastel Collection from last week’s California run, the page is up and running. I was generously hosted by the Elkhorn Slough Foundation and Elkhorn Slough National Estuarine Research Reserve, who … Continue reading
Friday Figures: A Few Small Gestures
Did these drawings using only a single strong light on a stand. Room lights shut off, blinds closed, drawing in semi-darkness. You can really see the figure that way. A single light source, simplicity itself. Every pose starkly beautiful. I’m … Continue reading
Posted in Art, Art Studio, figure drawing, life drawing
Tagged art, figure drawing, life drawing, models, pencil on paper, studio work
3 Comments
Postcard from Spring Island, SC
Happy Friday!
Posted in Art, Nature, Pastel, plein air painting
Tagged art, palmetto, pastel, plein air painting, South Carolina, Spring Island, tidal marsh
7 Comments
