Ortolan Bunting & Rimbaud

I knew that I wanted to draw a songbird with this excerpt from Rimbaud. So I decided to find a French songbird to be my subject. The Ortolan came up swiftly. I was immediately charmed upon hearing its sweet warbles and viewing its lovely feathers.

I read about its place as a delicacy, eaten whole, in France. I also read that recently it has become endangered to the point that it is no longer legal to serve, however it is still dwindling in numbers as a species due to poachers.You can read more about this here.

It felt very appropriate to pair my ink & watercolour rendition of this bird with Rimbaud's excerpt.

Botany

If you had told me a year ago that in a year I would be drawing & painting plants, I would have thought you were bonkers. First of all, a year ago I was convinced I had no talent for such a thing. Secondly, I thought botanical art was consigned to the realms of kitsch or science. I'm so glad I was wrong on all accounts.

Much credit must be given to my husband who first noticed how many of my drawings were of plants, & told me that those were his favorite. Not that I am committed to this for all-time, but for the time being it has been a quite fruitful pursuit. Botany is full of inspiration.

As noted in previous posts, I have been reading "The Pressed Plant" which is about "the art of Botanical Specimens, Nature Prints, and Sun Pictures", It has opened my eyes even more to the inherent beauty of our natural world. And I wanted to share a passage from it's introductory paragraph here:

"As a sculptor, I had long been interested in the geometry of natural forms. In the plant photographs of the early twentieth-century German artist and teacher Karl Blossfeldt, I had discovered riveting images that exposed this formal geometry with utter directness- and strangeness. Blossfeldt's magnified details of plants, which often suggest anthropomorphic or architectural forms, were stronger than anything I had seen in conventional botanical illustration. Later, when I stumbled upon botanical specimens, I recognized and was equally amazed by that same simplicity and directness."

And here are some images from Karl Blossfeldt (que magnifique! no?):

For more, check out these fine displays on some neighbor blogs:

http://beausamofficial.blogspot.com/2011/03/karl-blossfeldt.html
http://esoile.blogspot.com/2011/02/inspirations-karl-blossfeldt.html
http://myspinningwheels.blogspot.com/2009/02/karl-blossfeldt.html

Anemone

My sweet husband recently brought me some purple anemones. So, though this isn't quite the season for it, I immediately thought of Emily Dickinson's poem:

Then a few weeks in, when my poor Anemone had dried out, I couldn't resist the urge to use them to paint. I've been reading a charming book recently, "The Pressed Plant," which is about the art of Botanical Specimens. So I've been drooling over pressed plants & plant impressions for the past several days. So here I painted the parts of the flower I wanted to imprint with watercolours & then I pressed them onto the page:

Vintage Treasure

We picked up this beauty for a dollar the other night, and I am smitten with it. These are just the colour illustrations, but every page is covered in ink drawings. It's such a charming story of a young bird being introduced to his neighbors, & educational as well. If you ever get a chance, it's worth a read or perusal.

This book was written and illustrated in 1944 by Mollie Miller Atkinson of New Zealand. She wrote it for her four year old friend Richard who "came from England". What better way to learn of birds?

If we could all have such friends!

To learn more about New Zealand's birds, try this link.
To listen to a bellbird sing, try here.
And to listen to a fun song inspired by the bellbird, try here.

Jasmine

Today's work with Wallace Stevens' poem "Jasmine's Beautiful Thoughts Underneath the Willow". I find somehow that I have read many poems and been unable to connect any images with them. Unfortunately, my knowledge of botany is limited. Crafting these ink drawings of the corresponding flowers brings new depth to the poems for me.

Enjoy also, these versions of a traditional Chinese song about the Jasmine flower:
Jasmine Flower Song & Mo Li Hua- The Jasmine Flower Song.