New England Sketchbook 2008
Drawing The Motmot
Nature, art, and everything.
Drawing The Motmot 
Will you be adding the pastel works here? Or the watercolor studies? You do such beautiful work and inspire us all to “get out there!”
You have only to ask…I’ve uploaded the drawings with the pastel touches. There will soon be a new page with sketches and watercolor studies. This one is getting overloaded with images already. Thanks for the request, and hope you like the new work!
I have just spent a long time looking at this forest notebook, admiring the drawings and also walking in the forest with you. I hadn’t even seen a forest in years and I had almost forgotten what it was like. Thanks. Your great drawings pointed things out I might have missed on my own.
On this page, I especially like the two drawings where you’ve got the light, yellow green color in the background. I feel this adds such depth, I can get the feeling that I’m standing there too. Great work!
Oh! How I miss New England! I was born in NW CT and lived for 8 wonderful years on Cape Cod. Visiting often the site of the Outermost House and Nauset Marsh, drawing the seasons and taking photgraphs for those days when the winter winds blew harshly against my little house.
Then, later I found my way to a small town 11 miles south of Boston and spent a large amount of time in Waldon’s Woods…Oh! How I miss it all!
Oh! I LOVE the watercolor study from the Quabbin Reservoir! How did I miss that one?!
Thank you for sharing your wonderful work and all the information and tips on how you create it. It is very inspiring. I could look at your drawings and paintings forever because we share the same vision of being in the wild places. You have captured not just the images but also the moods so very well. Thank you for your life and your generosity.
I am wondering how you “keep your place” in these wonderful drawings–when I attempt drawings of complicated subjects like these (well, not anywhere near as complicated) I always have so much trouble figuring out where I was when I looked away. Any suggestions? Judy
Judy, the answer is, if you lose your place, get a new one. In other words, use your subject as reference material for the picture you want to make, rather than a model you have to copy exactly. I get “lost” all the time, usually not on purpose, but try to keep the gesture and direction going to create a composition using whatever else in the scene looks good to me. Editing is your official artistic license, so feel free to incorporate bits and pieces from the entire scene- move a rock, drop a tree, add a clump.
You can also try slowing down a little more as you work. Before you drop your eyes down to your paper, make a mental note of something noticeable near the section you’re working on. It’ll give you a guide to find your way back.
I usually take a more subjective approach to my drawings, rather than shooting for accuracy. Which gives me a good explanation for my not getting it down exactly:-)
Hope that helps!
yes, thank you, that does help. I think your drawings reflect your deep knowledge, so they look very “accurate”–and the artistry is there in the editing and composition.
Anyway, you’ve inspired me to start a daily series of drawings of things around me in New England–and this year it’s like the rain forest here. Judy
Will you be selling some of your art print at the Museum?
Hi Hester,
Yes, I’ll have some prints soon in there. I’m working with a printmaker to put etchings in Excavations, the museum store. There will also be a few prints of some of the other artworks. Stay tuned- I’ll put a note up when they’re ready to roll!
Thanks for asking!
We added your site to our list of educational/ art resources.
Good work!
http://www.plantsearcher.com/index.php/selected-websites/blogs/drawing-the-motmot-nature-art-and-everything.html
The Plantsearhcer.com
I love some of your more vibrant works. I always find it difficult to capture the colours of nature, mainly because I am colour blind but mostly because I am not brave enough to use dramatic colours in my work.