Sketches from the field

Here are 3 sets of sketches done at different times

 with a bit different techniques 

in two different places.

This simple ink drawing was done on a whim. Needing to do some sketching before I left the wetlands and started a hectic day, I pulled out a marker and did this quick one.  The Lillies are sitting at the bottom on the water, and rising at the top above the trees on the horizon. They were in bloom, and it is amazing.  I stepped into the "blind" nearby and as the door shut behind me I could see one flower in full bloom standing just above the benches in the darkness. It had grown up through the slots in the floor and up above the wooden bench before it bloomed. The only light it relieved was that coming in the open windows. It had come this far, I was not to disturb it.  But I am sorry I did not do another sketch.

Here is a very small and simple sketch.  All the few remaining petals, dried and dark, are stretching away, as if they were wanting to follow the wind that took all their classmates on a field trip south for the winter. They did not leave when all their classmates caught the bus, but there will be another one. And now they seem to have changed their mind; all blown and dried the same direction.

This page from the sketchbook shows some of the variety that I was noticing that morning in mid- September. It was a bit chilly for the bee, so he posed little threat to my nose sticking in his business.  The arrangement of the blackened "brown-eyed"s caught my eye.  Then new growth of some fruit on the top right, and some distant elm shoots top left.