Mink of an Eye

Wood Duck, Mink, Louisiana Waterthrush. Watercolor by Ken Januski

I apologize for the bad pun in the title of this post. I hadn't planned on it but was thinking about how what is portrayed here happened in the blink of an eye, my eye: I noticed a sleek black animal scurry along the Wissahickon in and out of the rocks at its edge. At the same time it scared up a first of year Louisana Waterthrush which was only about 6-12 feet away. It flew up and sang its song, the first time I've heard it in 2013. A bit further down the stream two Wood Ducks perched high in a sycamore, I'm sure having found a hole to nest in there.

And of course when I thought about blink of an eye, I immediately thought of the mink. This is the third time I've seen this type of mammal slinking along the edge of the Wissahickon. My investigations made me think it was a mink but I just wasn't sure that they were in Philadelphia. A little online questioning convinced me that they were and that this is what I had seen.

I always like seeing Wood Ducks in trees, or flying through trees. Though this is where they nest I see them at least 90 percent of the time on water. So it's nice to be surprised by them up high.

Though I like the idea of combining things seen into a paintng it often seems to daunting. How in the world do I show the Wood Duck high in the tree, the Mink and the Waterthrush without it seeming horribly contrived?

Well that is where the arrival today of a box of Stillman and Birn sketchbooks to try out for a demonstration later this month comes in. In this case it was the 8.5 x 11 inch hardbound Alpha sketchbook that caught me eye. I knew that many people are in the habit of opening up a double spread and just working across the page division. I've wanted to try that myself. It also gave me an idea as to how to show the Wood Ducks and the other two subjects all at the same time. A tall vertical format seemed perfect for that.

As usual this is more of an exploration than anything else. I've used far more water on the paper than is probably reasonable. But it held up just fine and allowed me to experiment with this somewhat complex composition. I'm very happy with this and assume that one of these days it will find its way into either a more developed painting or a print.

Another Sora

This sora is strictly virtual though. I went to Morris Arboretum  again yesterday but didn't find the sora. I did find two Solitary Sandpipers and one Kildeer though. When a Solitary approached within two or three feet of me I was shocked to see how small and delicate they are. Since I'd always seen them in scope or binoculars before I didn't have a good sense of scale. But these were so close that I saw them with my naked eye.

As a side note though, they didn't get anywhere as near to me as the mink, which almost walked across my shoes. I'm not positive that it was a mink and  in fact had never even seen one before the animal we saw last week in West Virginia that seemed to be a mink. With this one I had edged close to the shore, but was still hidden by reeds and trees, so that I could sketch the shorebirds. I think I must have hidden myself so well that the mink didn't even know I was there as he scooted by at water's edge.

Back to the Solitary. I did a number of field sketches, none too successful, trying to capture their delicate shape. Also did two kildeer sketches, of varying quality, as well as a Great Blue Heron in an attractively awkward stance and one Northern Flicker.

As I've said many times I really do love improvisation in art. I've been able to use it in pastel but never with watercolor. Watercolor is just so unforgiving that I've always been afraid to try it. Today I finally decided to give it a chance. I also chose larger paper than usual, 12x16 inches. I thought this large size might force me to be a bit looser, and not fiddle too much.

For the composition I used two different photos of Solitary Sandpipers and combined them with the sora, based on my last watercolor. Oddly enough when I sketched the Sora, there actually were a Solitary Sandpiper and a Lesser Yellowlegs right in front of it. But I wasn't interested in them then so I didn't sketch them. In any case this watercolor is an improvisation in composition as well as technique. But it still has its basis in reality.


I don't know if it's done. Since it's my first time with something like this it seemed good to leave it rest at this stage.