This is my drawing rig for field studies: a Jullian watercolor easel, drawing board and sheets of Rives BFK paper. And various pencils and stubs of pastels. This is along one of the dense forest trails on Barro Colorado Island, Panama.In progress, was drawing this cecropia tree’s root structure (and a dead tree that it was growing around as support) when a wild great tinamou strolled into the picture, saw me and froze. It held the pose for several minutes and finally relaxed and walked a few feet away, lay down and took a nap. Stuff like that you can’t make up.This is the root system of the cecropia, a “pioneer” tree that shoots up whenever a light gap opens in the canopy. Its roots look like legs; the tree might just get up and walk away at any time. Barro Colorado Island, Panama.
This is the song of the great tinamou, which sings dawn and dusk, tremulous and quavering and very lovely.
Drawing The Motmot 