Christmas Bird Count Sketches 2013-2014

Scenes from Christmas Bird Count. Ball point pen sketches by Ken Januski.

So as winter begins our low last night was 64!!! Yesterday was also the Christmas Bird Count for Wyncote Audubon in the Northeast section of Philadelphia and surrounding areas. We are often bundled up in the warmest clothes for eight hours out in cold, gray, often wet weather. Though we started off with some pretty warm clothes I ended the day with my sleeves rolled up, skin exposed to weather in the high 60s.

The oddest thing this morning was to look out in the back yard and see no white - the snow was gone. So we've gone from what seems to be the most early December snow in Philadelphia in my 25 plus years to what may be record-breaking temperature this weekend!

All in all though I'm not sure, at least for us, that the weather made much difference in terms of the number of birds and bird species we saw. I haven't tallied the number of birds yet, but I'd guess 200-300. Generally though if we have a high total count then we have a low species count. Yesterday was 33 species, including the House Sparrows of the back yard. That's always the more exciting number to us, and 33 is about average I think for us and the areas we cover for the Christmas Bird Count.

I brought along my sketchpad and did just one sketch, a Golden-crowned Kinglet with a Great Blue Heron in  the background at the Manayunk Canal. That's the basis for the sketch above done with ballpoint pen on two pages of a 8.75x11.75 inch Stillman and Birn Epsilon sketchbook. The rest of the sketches are based on photos I took: Herring Gull with newly caught fish at Flat Rock Dam, Great Blue Heron with Mallards also at Manayunk Canal, and at bottom left some Common Mergansers seen on the Schuylkill River near Flat Rock Dam where it meets up with the Manayunk Canal.

Due to the pressure of covering a number of areas and seeing as many birds as possible there wasn't much time for sketching. But I'm happy that I got at least one in. Sketching is like exercise or anything else: you need to keep at it to get comfortable with it, to the point that it's a pleasure rather than a chore.

I've recently run across two online reviews from online friends on books with bird art of some sort or another as their subject. Debbie Kaspari at Drawing the Motmot recommends The Laws Guide to Drawing Birds by John Muir Laws, Drawing and Painting Birds by Tim Wootton and Capturing the Essence by William T. Cooper. Tim Wootton in turn on his blog recommends The Unfeathered Bird by Katrina Van Grouw, who spoke recently at The Free Library of Philadelphia.

I can recommend both Tim and Katrina's books and I've written about both of them here over the last couple of years. I've not read either of the other two, though I've heard many recommendations for the Laws book.

But I'd like to add another book for anyone interested in birds or bird art: Looking at Birds: An antidote to Field Guides by the artist and author who first convinced me you could actually make vibrant art with birds as the subject, John Busby (in his earlier Drawing Birds).

This is a very brief book, with very few words. But I think it is less a book to be read than a concept to be understood: an antidote to field guides. Early on he says:

It is a bonus to come face to face with a rare bird of course, but the adrenalin rush when encountering a rarity can narrow my observation down to diagnostic text - 'has it or hasn't it, got greenish-buff legs.'

Busby's book argues for sketching the unusual and surprising things that occur when you do more in looking at birds than find the markings that allow you to check them off a list. Right before the quote above he mentions getting excited about Blackbird shapes and the fun of collecting them.  There is a short chapter on preening birds and sketching them. Basically this book is about renewing an often jaded interest in birds, so that they are always interesting to look at.

There is almost nothing in the way of technical instruction. But with all the bird art out there that seems indentured to photography its nice to see one that instead focuses on getting your own experience  of the bird down, instead of  the feather count.

The sketch at top is a nod in that direction. I hope it captures some of the experience of the birds and the day.

Ten Terns and SWLA(The Other Acronym)

In any field there are acronyms that often mean a lot to the few people that are interested in that particular subject but often are meaningless or actually sound like pretentious nonsense to others. I used to work in IT and as you can guess there were so many in that field that you could almost construct entire sentences of just acronyms - not that anyone in their right mind would want to.

As I've mentioned on and off over the years of this blog's existence I've struggled to combine my so-called 'fine art' background with wildlife art. I put 'fine art' in quotes because to me there's a false but nonetheless existent dichotomy in the art world between the two. If you doubt this actually occurs in practice ask yourself how many paintings with wildlife as subject you've seen in museums. It is almost unheard of to find contemporary wildlife art shown in museums.

I think this is both silly and harmful. But it's also a complex situation. There's much wildlife art I don't like. It's cute, or formulaic, or slavishly photographic. So I've always felt myself much on the far outskirts of wildlife art. And yet there's no reason at all that it shouldn't be the subject of contemporary, high-quality art. When I started using birds as subject five or six years ago I could find extremely little contemporary art with wildlife as subjects that I liked.

But slowly I found a few people. And then I found a lot. A huge number of them could be found at one place: SWLA. So for me this is an acronym that packs quite a punch. It exemplifies, particularly in the work of many of its members, what wildlife can accomplish and what it should aspire to.

SWLA stands for Society of Wildlife Artists. For years I've looked through the work of its members and admired it. When I can afford to I've bought books of their work. For others I'm waiting, eagerly, for their first books to be published.

It is based in London but accepts international members. There is also an annual competitive show, called as of last year I believe, 'The Natural Eye.' The 48th annual exhibition is on exhibit now in London.

I applied for it a number of months ago. I thought it would be difficult to get into, not to mention difficult to figure out how to ship. Because of the costs of shipping though they allow international artists to apply first with digital images. If they are pre-selected then they need to ship their framed works for the show and go through a final judging.

My work was pre-selected! So I created new mats and frames and figured out how to ship it there, without truly extravagant costs. But I didn't anticipate customs, something I've never really dealt with. To make a long story short the prints were still in customs on the day of final judging. I gave up on being in the show.

Then a few weeks ago I heard from Mall Galleries that the prints had arrived and would be in the show. I couldn't believe it! My prints hanging with some of the artists I most admire. I put a small notice at the top of my blog under 'About Me' that referred to it. But I didn't want to write about it on the blog until I knew for sure that the prints were hanging. A week ago I wrote that I was in two shows in one week, both with acronyms. This is the other one.

So I looked for reviews after the opening last week. The best I've read so far has a number of photos. But it and other reviews all showed the work with light colored mats and light colored frames. Mine had neither. Was there a framing rule I'd missed that required them? Since even pre-selected work could be refused for improper framing I began to doubt that my work was finally in it.

Today it was confirmed that it is and has been hanging at show for last week or so! I think I need to pinch myself in order to truly believe this. I only wish I could see the show myself. The review mentioned above states how high the quality is and also mentions that the printmaking is 'stunning.' I couldn't ask for much more than that, other than to actually see it.

There is one more thing that would even be better: to have gone to the opening and to have met my online friends from the Wildlife Art thread of birdforum that are also in the show. The ones I know of are: Tim Wootton, winner of Birdwatch Artist of the Year award, Nick Derry and Adam Bowley. I don't think any of them were at opening and may not even get to show. But as I said that is the one thing that I could wish for to make being in the show even more exciting. And I've never seen their work, or the work of SWLA members, in person. I'd love to be able to do that, especially with mine hanging somewhere nearby.

****
I had to choose an illustration for this post. I could have chosen two prints that are in show but I've shown them before. One in fact is now the header image for this blog. That's the Blackburnian Warbler. The other print is the black and white linocut of the Louisiana Waterthrush and Ebony Jewelwing.

But since I've nearly finished the newest lino I decided to show it instead. It's at a point now where every little change makes a difference. I think it's done, outside of printing an edition on good paper. But I need to let it sit for a day of two to make sure it's done before printing an edition.

Documenting Cuckoos and Other Migrants

It was a little less than a year ago that I documented my email to the PA Rare Bird List about an immature Yellow-crowned Night Heron by showing photos and field sketches on my blog. Today I'm doing the same thing but this time with a Black-billed Cuckoo.

I probably should have written the blog post before posting to the list but didn't think to do that. In any case here are some field sketches from today. First page shows a not to hot sketch of Blue-gray Gnatcatcher taking nesting material from Tent Caterpliiars and the Black-billed Cuckoo on the left hand side. On the right a singing Yellow warbler, just the head of an Eastern Kingbird, a Solitary Sandpiper and a Song Sparrow. I was struck by the little curve at the tip of his bill.

Second page shows a Northern Flicker in grass. It was hard to sketch him because he kept disappearing behind grass. Below him a Warbling Vireo. And on right another attempt at the Solitary Sandpiper.

There are two types of field sketches here: one is based on a bird I'm looking at through a spotting scope, e.g. the flicker and sandpiper. The others are birds that I looked at in binoculars, tried to get a mental image of, then drew. I did this with both cuckoo and vireo. In those cases I often know that the bird will be gone before I get the scope on the bird. So I continue to try to refine my ability to memorize what I see, a technique much espoused in Tim Wootton's new book 'Drawing and Painting Birds.'

This latter technique isn't foolproof. Sometimes I just don't remember everything correctly, especially things just seen for a split second, like the Warbling Vireo looking over his shoulder, possibly preening.

In any case that's the story on these sketches and the Black-billed Cuckoo. Things I did note on sketch that may not be legible are that the bill was black and eye red. I'm not sure I've gotten everything else correct.

After posting this I decided to try a quick watercolor of the bird. It's based on the field sketch with help from a couple of photo bird guides and my one personal photo of a Black-billed Cuckoo. One problem with painting them is that they are a bit drab: the bright red ring around black eye is the only exciting area. Otherwise just a drab, though beautiful brown on top, and a clean white/cream below. Though I showed tail spots in sketch I really couldn't see them well. The tail was more in profile so I used went back to that in painting. But it was hard to get the background of sycamore leaves, which is where he was, to work with the subtle colors of the cuckoo. I think that they overpower the bird a bit. So some other time perhaps I'll try this again. For now though it's my documentation for a first of year Black-billed Cuckoo.

A Worthwhile Way of Spending Time

And I don't think there could be any more worthwhile way of spending time than with nature and with art.

Tim Wootton, 'Drawing and Painting Birds'

When I first started using birds as subject matter in late 2006 there was really only one person, place, thing that inspired me: 'Drawing Birds', a book by John Busby. So thrilled was I by it that I wrote a review of it at Amazon. 'Inspiring is the Word' was the title of my review and I think it summarizes my feelings pretty well. It was, and still is, inspiring.

Most inspiring was the liveliness of the work, the sense that the illustrations of work by various artists was actually done by someone who had seen the actual bird and felt the excitement of seeing and portraying it. No lifeless photographic imitations that reminded me more of photos than of nature and birds.

There was just one problem. I loved the work I saw in the book, and I loved the philosophy of drawing from life espoused by the talented artist/author John Busby. But where could I go next? How could I follow this path of working from nature. Very few American artists that I could find did so: namely Barry Van Dusen, whose work was in the Busby book, and Debby Kaspari, especially in her various posts about drawing birds. These were a start but still I felt like I was operating alone in the wilderness. This was particularly true in my desire to meld art and nature, not just do illustrations of nature.

Then about two years ago I stumbled upon the work of Nick Derry. His seemed the best contemporary melding of both art and nature that I'd yet seen. I mentioned how much I liked his work to
Jocelyn Oudesluys on the Art section of The Nature Blog Network and she mentioned that he hung out at the Wildlife Art section of birdforum.

To make what's already a lengthy story a bit shorter I finally found a world in which I no longer felt myself an alien. Working from life, combining art and nature were all as natural as can be. And the most generous, thoughtful, constantly available person there was Tim Wootton, the artist and author whose book I've illustrated at top.

I'm sure I've mentioned before what a bunch of talented, helpful, interesting artists hang out there. Many of the most talented have their work showcased in his new book. Since I know many of them, at least as 'online' friends, I can't really give a very objective review of the took. I recieved it this weekend and have read it fully once and flipped through every illustration twice. I'm sure I'll be going through it many more times. That tells you something.

I do think Tim's book will join John Busby's as classics in the field of wildlife art and art based on nature. The one thing that I can quite honestly say is that if you are interested in being a serious bird artist you'll run into many questions: Should you work from life? If so how in the world can you draw something that moves so quickly, that may move as soon as you put your pen down to paper? What should you do about the background? Can you fake it with just some impressionistic foliage? Do you just leave it blank? Will amorphous colors running into one another fool anyone? Is there a more exciting composition than another warbler perched on a branch? How can you make your work look like art, have the dynamism of art? Should you use photographs as a help? What about video? How do you portray water? Do you also need bo learn to be a landscape painter. I could go on and on.

My point is that in my five years of doing work based on birds most of these questions have crossed my mind. Tim's book touches on almost all of them. I don't think Tim would say that there is a definitive answer to any of them, just as there aren't to most complex questions. But he gives you his thoughts and the thoughts of other artists. These will all help any bird artist I believe, particularly those who are just starting out and feel a bit like an alien in a strange world. This book makes working from life in nature, and making art based on it, seem like the most normal and exciting thing in the world.

I ordered Tim's book directly from his blog. This is the British edition and will cost extra for shipping and possibly dollar to pound currency conversion. Amazon has said it will be available in the states in July or August and I'm sure the shipping will be much less. I thought I'd hold off for the American version but eventually I just couldn't wait any longer. I'm thrilled that I made that decision. If you're not a bird artist but do enjoy art based on nature I think you'll also enjoy the book. It is full of lively and artful renderings of birds.

If you do come from a fine art background you soon find out how different it seems to be from that of wildlife art. And yet it shouldn't be. And here it's not. As Tim says it's hard to think of a better use of time than being in nature and making art.

Heron Suite

As you may have guessed I've really been taken with the Green Heron we saw at Tinicum last year. Here they're not all that uncommon but the markings on this particular immature bird, coupled with the surrounding environment, made him seem special and kept calling me back for another portrayal.

I've done four new watercolors, two I've aleady shown, one is too bad to show, and the other is below. While showing them at birdforum Tim Wootton, one of the inspirational artists there, suggested that it looked like an abstraction was dying to break loose.

Abstract/non-onbjective art is my true background. I've only worked naturalistically for the last four years. So the work at top is the Green Heron redone abstractly.

I could go on theorizing forever about the motivations for abstract or non-objective art. And I'm sure I wouldn't come up with any definitive answer. But for me at least part of the appeal is artistic expression. I've always likened this to music, especially music without lyrics. No one doubts its power and yet their is no story connected with it. You enjoy the music itself, the melody, rhythm, orchestration, etc. It has a real emotional power. The same can be said for the elements of art, color, shape, brushwork, pattern, etc.

The great difficulty I think with it is that it can lose any connection to the natural world and become somewhat febrile, too much of a greenhouse flower. So to me it needs to constantly be fed by observation of the natural world. At one time I considered this heresy. This was a limitation on art, and an archaic one at that. Not something anyone in 20th, or 21st, century should be bound by. But I haven't thought that for a long while. Nature is nature, regardless of century, and it's always one of the most important sources of art.

All that said you'll have to make what you will of the pastel at top. I'm happy with it and will probably do some more abstract works. I do have to say that I wouldn't have felt so comfortable taking liberties with the heron and turtles if I hadn't just finished so many recent realistic versions.




The painting above was the last watercolor. It's also the largest, at 12x16 inches. Oddly I also like it. There are times when the background just seems too empty. But most of the time it just looks tranquil, as it was.

So perhaps this ends the suite of Green Heron paintings and drawings. It's been fun and I think that between them all I've captured some sense of what it was like seeing this one on that day.

I Never Win Prizes

I think the last time probably was in 1983 at the 'Small Works' show at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst. And I never even saw that show. It was too far away to go to. I MAY have won some other art prizes but none spring to mind. It's just something I don't hope for or solicit. I get into shows and exhibits, but I've learned not to expect awards.

So I was a bit surprised when I got a 'Beautiful Blogger' award from Debbie Drechsler at Just Around the Corner, a blog that I've only discovered recently. I enjoy Debbie's pursuit of portraying what she sees in nature artistically. She has quite a variety of styles and is bravely sketching from life, something that can intimidate many.

I'm not really sure where 'Beautiful Blogger' came from. I know that I've seen other blogs that I read win it or similar awards. I've just never paid much attention to them. One reason I suppose is that I'm not in a hurry to write some random things about myself, one of the 'requirements' of getting the award, though I think it's a requirement that can't really be enforced.

I now know another reason. You're supposed to then give the award to other bloggers. Some awards seem to require that you give it to 10 recipients. This is just plain silly, unless you spend all of your time blogging and reading blogs. I probably don't read more than 20 blogs all together, at least art or nature-related ones. And many of them are already extremely popular. They don't need, and probably don't want, another such award. When I checked back to see who had given Debbie her award I found that a number of the people I thought of giving it to had also just been given it. Fortunately this award requires that I only give it to four others.

But there's still another problem. What if some of the bloggers have authors even more reticent than I? What if they don't even want such awards?

Well I will have to just take my chances and hope that they're happy to have the award. They certainly deserve recogniton. I'm going to start with one of my favorite blogs: The Best Artists. 100Swallows, the author, tells stories about famous works of art, generally European art, as far as I recall. He helps bring famous art to life, particularly in terms of the narratives behind the work. Though 100Swallows talks about more formal matters he seems to concentrate on the history of the work and the stories about the artists or the subject, It is history as STORY, and it always shows a true love of art. You can't help but get excited about the art when you read each post.

In a completely different light is Ellen Synder at The Spicebush Log. I first read her blog when it popped up as a new blog on The Nature Blog Network. Since I and my wife both love the spicebush that grow in our local forests, as well as in your small urban sideyard, I couldn't resist reading it. What I found was a thoughtful, witty exploration of Ellen's adventures in nature. Sometimes she also talks about her dogs, the local farm, or other subjects. But daily experience of nature seems to be the predominant theme. Ellen's a very thoughtful person and I greatly value reading her postings. I think that you will too.

Combining some of each of the first two awardees is Gabrielle at The Inner Artist. I first ran into Gabrielle when she commented on my blog and mentioned that she had lived around Philadelphia for many years. I'm still planning to take her advice on visiting the nearby Norristown Zoo for artistic subject matter. In fact I was tempted to give it a try the other day. Gabrielle's blog has been relatively quiet recently due to the travails of finding a new apartment. I'm actually not sure what city she lives in but it is in the Northwestern US. As she says on her blog:

Sorry Mama...I know you told me if I became an artist I'd sell my soul, but I can't refuse the siren call of the paints (or the pencil, ink or charcoal either, for that matter). I am a graphic designer by day, an artist by night and a nature nerd at all times.

I think this describes Gabrielle's blog well. I particularly like her blogs about art but also enjoy the ones that are strictly about nature. My guess is that the blog will pick up in activity soon, hopefully with some drawings of her resident chickens.

These first three choices were easy. I've enjoyed them all, though as I said I'm not sure they'll be thrilled with getting the award. But who should I choose for the fourth? Some candidates have already won it recently. Some are too popular already. Should I give it to a little known, little read blog in Illinois that I enjoy? Or should it be to the blog of an artist who already has his hands quite full already I'm sure? I'm finally choosing extraordinary wildlife artist Tim Wootton just because his art is so good and ought to be seen by more people.

Forgive me fellow bloggers, and artists, for putting you in the limelight. I hope you'll enjoy the unexected award.

So now for those 10 random facts:
1)I suppose this actually isn't all that random. I do remember the last time I won a prize. It was at the Philadelphia Inquirer where food critic Craig Laban had a contest for best tasting sourdough bread. It included a bread flown in from a famous bakery in France as well as bread from some of Philadelphia's best artisan bakeries, and my second ever homemade loaf, based on a recipe from Nancy Silverton. I won second place in the blind taste-testing, beaten only by the bread from France. Credit Nancy Silverton, not me.
2)My first job was handing out rodeo programs.
3)My wife and I both worked in separate battery factories in Illinois in our early years, long before we first met in Philadelphia.
4)In high school I took an aptitude test that showed I should be an artist or work with computers. I didn't even know what a computer was. But many years later I made my living as a computer programmer. longing all the while to return to my true love, art.
5)I once bought some Charles Ives LPs and thought I must be playing them at the wrong speed they seemed so wrong. Later I learned to love them, just as with Charles Mingus. I learned from this that our tastes are ever changing.
6)Though I'm tall and have large hands I used to tie my own flies for flyfishing. I thought this would be impossible. How in the world could my large hands fool around with sewing materials, especially at such a small scale? Catching my first trout on my own fly was thrilling.
7)It was flyfishing that led me to birding. I was getting skunked at Hickory Run State Park in Pennsylvania about 20 years ago and so got distracted by some flocking birds. I looked them up when I got home and found that they were Cedar Waxwings. Eventually all the time that I spent fishing became time spent birding.
8)I enjoy identifying birds by ear as much as I do by sight.
9)I once lived on the ocean on Great Highway in San Francisco, with the Pacific Ocean right across the street. But I never enjoyed it much. The area was too foggy and the water was too cold. This was a great surprise to me.
10)I studied tap dancing as a child. This wasn't my idea. Neither were the accordion lessons.

Painting Watercolors and Cooking Squid

Tim Wootton over on the Wildlife Art section of Birdforum.net recently posted a link to Joseph Zbukvic, a watercolorist who works at blazing speed. As I watched the video clip I was amazed at his facility with watercolor and brush. He says all you need is "faith." Well yes, but that faith only comes I think, for most people, with some confidence in their abilities, a confidence generally won through hard experience. At the same time watercolor looks so good when it is done quickly and not muddied and belabored.

On the other hand there are some watercolorists for whom I'm sure that this is blasphemy. They do great detail over many, many days, letting the paper completely dry before doing additional work.

As I was thinking about this it reminded me of most basic recipes for cooking squid: you either cook it over a very high heat for just two minutes or so, or you simmer it over a low heat for 30 plus minutes. So the same food treated very differently, both with excellent results.

But the important cooking and art lesson here, is that in-between just doesn't work very well. I know! So I decided to force myself to start doing some quick watercolors, often with a time-limit.

The 14x17 inch watercolor above of two soras is an example. It's based on sketches and photos of the soras we saw at Horicon NWR in September, 2009.



The sketch above is one I did in preparation for the watercolor. I then spent about 15-30 minutes drawing something similar onto the watercolor paper. Then I made myself work quickly. I had thought about 15 minutes but that was way too short. 60 minutes seemed about right. It allowed me to let the paper dry a bit when it needed to but also prevented me from getting too detail oriented or too tight. The ticking clock kept my brush moving.

I think I'll do some more of these. I'm happy with how this turned out. There will always be some things that I'd like to repair in such paintings I'd guess but there's also much that can be learned by working quickly. The important thing is bright fresh squid, not overcooked, jaw-breaking, rubbery stuff!

That same discussion on birdforum.net forced me to go look at my ancient textbook on Chinese brush painting, itself based on the 17th century Mustard Seed Garden Manual of Painting. But that's a story for another day!!