Palm in the Bloodroots

Yesterday Jerene and I spent over five hours enjoying a perfect spring day at the Schuylkill Center for Environmental Education. Sunny but cool. A perfect brisk day. Wildflowers were starting to flower: bloodroot, which we also grow in our yard, with its pure white flowers and foliage that looks like it comes from the best abstract sculptor in the world; bluebells, just starting to bloom; wake-robin; and trout lilies just starting to show their beautiful speckled(like a trout) straplike leaves.

We saw at least three Hermit Thrush, our first of the year, as well as our first Eastern Towhees. We saw just one warbler, a Palm Warbler. Unlike most warblers he just sat there. I knew he wouldn't do this though so I didn't get out my sketchbook and try to sketch him. I'd learned my lesson on that score at Carpenter's Woods on Friday. So what does he do? Just sit there for five or ten minutes. So I took quite a few photos.

Palm Warblers are generally the first warblers I see each year, even though Pines often arrive earlier. I just don't see too many of them though. But Palms are a little more common, often walking through another wildflower that looks like it might have been designed by an abstract sculptor, the Mayapple. It doesn't reach the abstract heights of bloodroot but it's still very attractive.

For years I've thought about combining a Palm Warbler and some Mayapples in a painting. But seeing all the Bloodroot yesterday made me want to try something that might even make a stronger painting: Palm Warbler and Bloodroot. I never saw such a scene. But it's not all that unlikely.

Given all of the good photos I took yesterday there was a great temptation to just paint a more realistic version of a Palm based on a photo. But I really want to pursue using my field sketches as well as making up composite scenes, not being limited by what photos give me. So that's what I did here.

It started well, then fell apart. I was about to toss it; or just give up on it when I decided to try just a bit more work. Mainly I added darks to try to tie the whole thing together. I think it's somewhat successful.

In any case it's successful enough to convince me to continue in this direction. I'd like to show greater imagination in my art.

Mystrees and Such

I always fear, though not too much, that I lose readers when I veer off into art theory. I do like art theory, in fact I have a fondness for theory about all sorts of subjects, but sometimes it just seems like mumbo-jumbo. I see eyes glaze over as I rattle on. So I keep my distance from it most of the time. Sometimes it just seems too indulgent and abstract.

So............back to something more straightforward. Last Sunday Jerene and I spent 4 1/2 hours walking the trails of the nearby Schuylkill Center for Environmental Education.



Our hope was to find our first Palm Warbler of the season but we knew that we might not. We did expect to find plenty of other birds, and certainly wildflowers. At top is a sketch I did of some fading Trout Lilies on Forbidden Drive at the Wissahickon last Friday. Immediately above is a photo of one seen at SCEE on Sunday. There were thousands and thousands of them, though not really very many in bloom. I assume that many are too young to flower. But the ones that were in flower seemed to be just starting rather than just ending as at the Wissahickon. Not to immediately go back to theory but here's a question: which do you prefer, the sketch or the photo? Photos really can show you detail that you could never get down in a drawing. And yet I always prefer sketches.

I'll get back to some other wildflowers that we saw but first I'd like to mention the title: Mystrees and such. The reason is below.



What in the world is this? The light maroon flowers were on a multistemmed tree that rose 20-25 feet in the air? They remind me of flowers from the hibiscus family, but I don't know of a tree in that family. And I really haven't had much time to look. I took a quick look through David Sibley's Guide To Trees, but didn't find anything on my quick perusal. However it's not organized by key as some guides are. So you really can't look for maroon flowers. We have a guide that does use such keys but I just haven't had time to look at it. Maybe tomorrow. Until then I leave it to readers.

OK, you readers were slow on the draw here. Once I finished all the paperwork I had due today, both tax and otherwise I took out my 'The Tree Identification Book' by George W.D. Symonds. Sure enough I went to flowers and found it. Since the book is not in color I then searched the web to make sure. These are the flowers of the Pawpaw. I highly recommend this book and well as his book on shrubs. An additional note. According to wikipedia the Pawpaw has the largest edible fruit indigenous to the North American Continent.



The trillium above was almost the exact same color as the mystery tree. And it too is a mystery. There's no doubt it's a trillium, but which of the various red trilliums? I might have time to investigate tomorrow. But for now it's another one for readers to identify.

We never did find our Palm Warbler. In fact we still haven't seen our first warbler of 2010. But we did see our first Osprey, Brown Thrasher and Hermit Thrush of 2010. They all reminded us that the orderly procession of the natural calendar marches on. Its regularity is a comfort in an often chaotic world. I seem to always see Palm Warblers down among the full Mayapples. I didn't take any photos of the Mayapples.



But I did take one of these Bluebells. We often see Palm Warblers near them at SCEE. Hopefully one of the next sketches I show will be based on Palm Warblers and bluebells. I just need those Palms to finally show up! And sad to say I see I'm up to white lies again: some Mayapples snuck into the Bluebells photo!