Always Wandering

Autumn Appreciation

Art, Life Balance, watercolor
Autumn Woodland 14”x20”

After an unexpected allergic reaction from a bald-faced hornet sting, I feel fortunate to experience another autumn season. As woodland creatures prepare for the winter by caching food and planning for shelter, I start to wonder if the old wives’ tales told to predict winter will prove true this time. If so, we might be in for a good one. And, by good I mean power outages and lots of shoveling. 

But now, the calm before the storm. A near autumn-peak woodland. Deciduous trees will soon lay down their leaves to reveal naked branches, as they curve and twist this way and that way. The decaying leaves will soon provide nourishment to the naked figures, and an insulated vessel for overwintering insects. The systems at work, even during what appears to be dormancy, are complex and wonderful.

A Vermont Spring

Art, hiking, Outdoor Adventure, watercolor

Violets and Trout Lilies bloomed for well over a week at home on the New York / New Jersey stateline, but the narrative in Wilmington, Vermont was different. We arrived on a windy night. A thin blanket of snow swirled over the New England town. By morning, the landscape was draped in fluffy white snow. Congrats – we traveled back into winter!

In the next 24 hours, the sun broke through the gray thickness above and the snow soon disappeared. Our ambitious gang of goldfish snack inhalers (and their parents, the coffee guzzlers) could not stay put for long. We set off on an adventure to summit Haystack Mountain!

The Journey Begins

The missus and I bundled ourselves and the little imps as if we were headed to the arctic. With bladders bursting and fingers already numb, we were ready for the trail! We carried our luggage (the kids) on our backs and shoulders through mud and rocks up 1,000 vertical feet. It was not long before we found the snow again. With sun blaring, snow became slush and feet became pruney.

A Vermont Spring – Watercolor 20”x14”

We pressed on and the giant slushy stairmaster with complaining children soundtrack finally gave way to a tremendous vista at the top of old Haystack. Glory was ours! We had made it (all of us)! And then…we realized it was time to climb back down…oh shit.

Haystack Summit

Moonlit Forest Watercolor Painting 14×20”

Art, Life Balance, watercolor

Moonlit forest w/c 14×20”

There’s something about winter that makes me want to paint night scenes. Probably because in the northern hemisphere there is more darkness this time of year. Night can be magical and mysterious, which is what I’m trying to convey in this painting with a dramatic sky and a full moon shining through the clouds. “Creatures” tend to become more active at night, though in the dead of winter, I’m not so sure. I bet most sensible animals slow their heart rate down and buckle down until warmer times. I like to think of ourselves as slowing down too, to take a breath and look around? Nah, of course not.

Connecting with Nature?

Life Balance, Outdoor Adventure

A friend recently gave me a book called “How to Connect With Nature”, written by Tristan Gooley. At first, I thought, “are you saying I need help connecting with nature”? How dare you; after all, I attended “Nature College” and earned a “Nature Degree”. Of course, I dare not actually say any of that stuff and I thanked him profusely for his kind act. But, hang on a minute; my friend is actually spot on! Reading scientific papers about deciduous forests is not the same as experiencing a deciduous forest, fully with the senses. Better yet, hiking through a deciduous forest and identifying plants with a wild, scattered mind is not the same as experiencing a deciduous forest, fully with the senses.

I’m only a few pages in, but so far I like it. It seems the purpose of this book is to give people practical tools to make a profound connection with Nature. Sounds very cliché; we hear it on television, musicians sing about it – take it all in, commune with nature, they say. But, to consciously want to connect with our natural surroundings, in my opinion, is not a common desire. I had a friend tentatively make the following request a few times per year – “take me hiking, dude, so I can be one with nature and shit”. I assume this request came out of the idea that going to some scenic setting with birds and a nice overlook would seem cool. But, perhaps there is also a good chance that folks who want to take a hike for commercially inspired purposes might develop a deeper interest in nature through that experience.

It seems that to be present and “feel connected” is no easy task, even for people who really want to experience nature in a primal sense. For me, there is often an in and out signal – sometimes I feel more aware of my surroundings and sometimes I feel foggy-headed and distracted by thoughts of what has occurred in the past or what might occur in the future. This dilemma seems to circle back to ancient teachings about the practice of awareness and staying in the present moment. I believe this is the fundamental step for people who want to “connect with nature” in a truthful way. There are many wonderful sources out there for folks who want to learn more about mindfulness (and I don’t mean to use the term “mindfulness” as the marketing buzz word that it has become). Below are my top 3 favorite sources that I follow on this topic, and I hope you can benefit from them too. Happy trails!

3 Great Websites About Awareness / Simplicity

Audio Dharma – an archive of Dharma talks given by various speakers.

Zen Habits – a blog about finding simplicity and mindfulness, by Leo Babauta.

Raptitude – a blog about getting better at being human, by David Cain.

 

Find Your Flow

…Nature-inspired watercolor paintings available on our Etsy Shop! 

What To Paint? – Creative Process

Art, Outdoor Adventure, watercolor

Dear fellow artists and wanderers,

I’m going to let you into my world.

I put together a short video that outlines my typical creative process for painting nature scenes in watercolor. It is quite simple: wander around someplace, find something that you think is interesting, take a picture, and put it down on paper. You might be thinking: yeah, easier said than done, but I hope you might draw some inspiration or ideas from my process. Please enjoy!

I rarely paint in plein air, but I would like to get into that habit. I don’t mind the cold or the occasional curious observer.  It’s just that I am spoiled by the ease of working from a photograph, indoors where I don’t have to worry about the light changing rapidly or the wind blowing away my art supplies. Still, I plan on sacrificing these creature comforts for a different experience and greater challenge…maybe.

What does your creative process look like?