Some Thoughts on Art and Birds

Pencil Sketches of Blue-headed Vireo. Copyright 2020 Ken Januski

Sumi Brush Pen Field Sketches of Great Blue Heron. Copyright 2020 by Ken Januski

Sumi Brush Pen Field Sketches of Great Blue Heron. Copyright 2020 by Ken Januski

Sumi Brush Pen Field Sketches of Wilson's Snipe. Copyright 2020 by Ken Januski

Sumi Brush Pen Field Sketches of Wilson's Snipe. Copyright 2020 by Ken Januski

Sumi Brush Pen Field Sketches of Wilson's Snipe. Copyright 2020 by Ken Januski

Pencil Sketches of Yellow-rumped Warblers. Copyright 2020 Ken Januski

I've been thinking about writing about the annual exhibit of  The Society of Wildlife Artist's, 'The Natural  Eye,' for some time now. Since I've participated in it many times but am not a member I don't feel right about writing about  it. On the other hand it's the one exhibit I spend a lot of effort trying to get into each year because I like the work so much. As I've said many times it's thrilling to see my work with the work of so many artists whom I admire. Though I have to say, until I and Jerene actually went to the show in London the excitement was still somewhat tempered. It's one thing to admire work online. It's  quite another to be standing in front of, and surrounded  by it.

I've been in a lot of shows, both group and solo, though far fewer of the latter than the former. These were almost all when I did abstract work. Once I switched to representational art, I think  about 2006, I didn't really try to  get into many group shows, and with the exception of  'The Natural Eye'  and group shows at a local art center I belonged to  I didn't get into any  competitive juried shows I did apply for. I'm pretty sure  why. Wildlife art is not  considered serious art in the US. I feel confident saying  that. Though I'm not Robert Bateman's biggest fan, the fact that, unless things have changed recently, he's never been shown in a major Canadian museum says a lot. With the possible exception of Carl Rungius I'm not sure how many major American museums  have ever shown any wildlife art. I suppose some fishing scenes from Winslow  Homer, a John Singer Sargent alligator and a few others. But in the 20th century and later it's just not considered real art. ( I'm ignoring any possible contemporary artists who use an ironic  take on wildlife art and therefore might possibly be shown, because irony in itself discounts the subject it portrays).

I know I'm taking a while  to  get to the point..... The recent sketches above, some from life, others based on looking into the viewfinder of my camera to sketch from the small images of photos there show  I think how far I've come in actually being able to  draw birds. Though  I'm sure most people will say that they agree with that much more with the pencil sketches from photos than with the sumi brush pen sketches from life. But trust me they are much better than when I started about 15 years ago.

But even if  they showed twice or maybe even 10 times as much improvement as they do  there would still be a big problem. How do you make a finished work of art out of a sketch?  How do you make a painting? How do you make a print? How do you  make either a painting or a print as ambitious as the old abstract paintings I used to do? How  do you, based on these sketches, do something that both galleries and museums would be willing to show? How do you make art that is taken seriously  and not just  considered cute?

Just about the first thing I realized when I started drawing and painting birds, outside of how little I actually knew about what they looked like even though I'd birded for at least 20 years at that point, was  that they just can't sit by themselves in the middle of  a canvas. I could make a portrait like that, and did try to  do so, but what was I supposed to put around the bird? Impressionistic marks that might hopefully make it look like  they fit in perfectly with the bird to make a final composition?  A vignette like fading into nothingness around the bird? Sad to say, I realized that I had to contend with the environment in which they lived. Sad, I say because that meant not only did  I have  to learn more about drawing and painting birds but I also had to learn more about drawing and painting the various environments in which they  lived.

But at the same time I didn't want a lot of stultifying detail, especially something reminiscent of that based on a faithful detailed rendering of  a photo. That work did  and still does make me very nervous. Though some people can breathe a sense of life into it, perhaps because they actually are familiar with birds and their environment, most artists do not. One of  the other things I learned very on is that I didn't  at all want my work to look like that! Stultifying! After all the subject was alive, very alive and that was part of the point of even using them as a subject.

So................. that finally brings me to one of  my main points. What a complete revelation it was to discover The Society of Wildlife Artists! What exciting art, all based on wildlife! This is a link to the current show, which will open on 10.28.20: https://www.mallgalleries.org.uk/whats-on/exhibitions/natural-eye-2020. In case it's not evident, I'm fortunate  enough to be in it, and have actually pre-sold one of  the unframed prints.

I'm a bit used to seeing the show now, having exhibited 7-8 times over  the last 10 years or so, but it is  still very exciting. The link I posted shows much of the work, though of course it is without the context of a gallery so you can't  see the size, texture, etc., etc. That just adds to the excitement of the show.

I'm not going to say a whole lot about it. But I mention the problems I had when I started  making bird/wildlife art because this show I think is often the answer to those  problems. It shows lively art, lively both in terms of the subjects and environment portrayed, but also lively artistically. All of  this art could easily be  shown in a museum if museums were alert enough to realize its vitality and power.

If you look at my sketches above you can see what a far cry they are  from most  of the work in the show, though some  have a similar simplicity. But many artists want to be able to make something more finished or perhaps more ambitous and yet also want to keep it  from becoming stultified. I think most people who read this and  who  also look at the show  will see that's there is very little that is stultifying. Particularly  as a whole the show is vital, the exact opposite of  stultifying.

And yet it  is also not  at all monolithic. There is  a great variety of subject matter, media, formal methods and imagination. The name of this blog, actually named  before  it  even was a blog if I recall correctly, is  ArtBirdsNature. My idea was that all are equally important and that they can reinforce and bring out  the best in each other. That I think is what 'The Natural Eye' does. I wish there was a similar  show in the US. I also hope you'll enjoy looking at the work, and perhaps  even buying some, in the online  gallery.
 

First Moku Hanga Print

Nashville Warbler on Bean Trellis in Winter. Moku  Hanga Print by  Ken Januski.

For quite some time I've debated trying Moku Hanga printmaking. As best I can tell the term itself just refers to Japanese woodblock or  woodblock  printmaking. Most  people will probably be familiar with it through ukiyo-e prints, such as those by Utamaro, Hokusai, Hiroshige et al.

Though I've always liked those prints I suspect I first liked them more for their influence on the art of people  like Edgar Degas than for any other reason. That is no longer the case but it was my first reaction to them. Now my interest is completely different. It is more related to things like the use of  non-toxic materials(since the ink  is water-based not petroleum  based), the fact that it can be done without a printing press, though this has been true  of all my other prints as well, that it has a registration system that most likely is  better than the one I've used in the past, and perhaps most of all it is capable of a rich color, a color that actually is absorbed into the paper, rather than lying  on top of it.

Though I'd read the last statement before, the fact that the color merges with the paper,  you  actually need to see it to understand it. Now I have! It can be seen in the two prints above and below of a Nashville Warbler  on a Bamboo Bean Trellis in Winter,  which we had in our backyard on and off over a two week period a number of winters ago.

These two prints also show at least one of the problems with this type of printmaking:  the background color, in particular, varies greatly between prints. I began printmaking about 5-6 years ago I  think, though  I had had a brief introduction in college. The more I've done it the more I  remember why I shied away from it in college. Printmakers seemed SO interested in technique! At the time that was the last thing that I thought art should  be about. But after my 5+ years of printmaking I realize that technique is an integral part of  it,  at least if you want to make an edition, i.e . more than one more or less consistent print  of the same image. And given all the work involved, at least when I make a print, it seems silly to not have more to show for  it than just one print.

Still I don't like having to worry about technique. It's a necessity, not a virtue, not something I seek out. That said I've seen some moku hanga prints that are extremely rich in color and that is  something that I think is desirable enough to more than compensate for  the technical problems involved. At least I hope so! Time will tell.

Another thing I love in many ukiyo-e prints is the sinuous, graceful line, based most often on the sinuous, graceful line of the original brush paintings on which the prints were based. For  me there at two huge obstacles to doing this myself: first I can't do graceful, sinuous brush paintings, and to do so would  probably take  years  of practice; and second, I'll never  become such an accomplished carver of wood as to translate sinuous lines from paint to carved wood. In ukiyo-e prints this was no problem because the artist and the carver were two different people! And the printer was a third person involved in the process. This helps to explain some of the accomplishments of this type of print. And it also shows the difficulty of doing it today.

There seem to be quite a few contemporary Western printmakers using moku hanga today, each in their own way. From what I can see many skip the part based on graceful, sinuous lines and instead are more interested in rich color fields. I know of some art in this manner that I greatly like. But it's not for me, at least not at the moment. So crude as my lines might be I plan to continue  to use  them in my prints. Only time will tell how I come into my own interpretation of moku hanga.  Above and below you see the first.

Nashville Warbler on Bean Trellis in Winter. Moku  Hanga Print by  Ken Januski

All printmaking seems to require a lot of time in the studio. So I was happy a couple of  times recently to  leave prints and printmaking behind and head outside. Below you see two recent field sketches. As you may be able to tell they are done with a brush pen, something that resembles a Chinese  or Japanese brush but that comes with a reservoir of ink. It may be hard to believe but when I first started using them a year or two it was with the idea of developing the sinuous, graceful line that I talked about above. I find it far more refreshing that a labored pencil sketch,  at least for myself.

Great Blue Heron and Killdeer at Manayunk Canal. Brush Pen Field Sketch  by Ken Januski.

Two Great Blue Heron in Trees Along Manayunk Canal. Brush Pen Field Sketch by Ken Januski.

Ending 2016 with Two Woodcuts(Or Keep Calm During Chaos)

Wood Ducks in Snow on Wissahickon Creek. Reduction Woodcut by Ken Januski.

It's always a bit of a struggle to keep politics, or other things that occasionally seem important, out of what is supposed to be a blog about art, birds and nature. I try to but Trump blasts away all my resolve due to his constant attack on decency, logic, reason, fairness and just about any other quality that used to be considered part of 'civilized' behavior. So I'll just say that I expect chaos both here and in the rest of the world, largely due to Trump. It may not be immediately evident, especially if you ignore his tweets(as everyone should), but it will eventually become so. That being the case I think the Wood Ducks portrayed above, seen in a blustery winter storm a number of springs ago, may serve as a good example. They look calm and serene amidst the chaos. Hopefully the world can do the same under whatever conditions he brings about.

I'd originally intended this small 4x6 woodcut as a season's greeting card that I tried to whip out in time for the holidays just as I was also finishing the woodcut below. But I soon let it got more complicated than I should have, especially at such a small scale. Still in the end I'm happy with how it worked out. It does have the misty, blustery feel of the actual day that I saw the Wood Ducks. It is printed on a good quality Japanese paper, Nishinouchi. The ink went on a bit more sparsely than I expected but in the end it didn't seem to be a problem. I was also impressed that I could keep adding new colors and the paper accepted them without problem.

I loved this scene when I first saw it a few years ago. This print, like many I've done, is based on a watercolor I did of the original scene. Little did I know as I did it that it might need to serve as a motto for the next 4, and God Forbid, 8 years: Remain Calm During Chaos!

Killdeer and Great Blue Heron in Snow at Manayunk Canal. Two-block Reduction Woodcut by Ken Januski.

I finished the Killdeer and Great Blue Heron woodcut a few weeks ago, just adding a few minor tweaks to the last version that I posted here. As usual with prints, especially reduction prints, I often find at the end that there is something I wish I'd done differently earlier on. With a painting I can just paint over it. But not in a print. So printmaking I think really forces you to live with simplification. You can only tweak so much. The final tweaking probably took two weeks and affected only about 10% of the entire area of the print. But I do think it made the print a bit livelier, both in terms of color and tone.

As anyone who has followed my work and this blog for very long knows I'm always trying to reconcile naturalism/realism and abstraction. To me this print goes quite a way in that direction, though here I think I'm a bit more realistic than in some of my other attempts. Others may view it differently.

I've been listening to a lot of music by Beethoven recently as well as reading two biographies and taking a number of audio courses. At one point Beethoven talks about writing for the future not the past. With wildlife art it's easy to get tricked into sticking with the past. But in the end I think it's a mistake. Art needs to remain lively and not just be an imitation of the past. That is my goal in my hybrid realistic/abstract work. For me it works and is endlessly fulfilling I hope that also proves true to people who view it.

Reduction Woodcut, Recalcitrant Snipe, Leftovers, Trump's Greatest Sin

Killdeer and Great Blue Heron. Partially completed reduction woodcut by Ken Januski.

I guess one of the benefits of writing posts so infrequently these days is that I can ramble all over the place in terms of subjects covered. Thus the title.

My most recent artwork is the reduction woodcut above, based on one of numerous sightings of Killdeer and Great Blue Heron in the Manayunk Canal over the last few winters. I'm moving along more speedily than normal on this one, spending less time in endless deliberation about what to do next. I think one or at most two colors are still left and I plan that they will just be in a few small areas.



Wilson's Snipe and Greater Yellowlegs at Ottawa NWR. Watercolor by Ken Januski.

I say 'recalcitrant' snipe in the title because I keep going back to these snipe seen at Ottawa NWR a number of years ago in the hopes of getting a painting, print, drawing I'm happy with. Above is the newest effort, I think 11x17 or something like that. It's the biggest watercolor I've done in a while.

Wilson's Snipe and Greater Yellowlegs at Ottawa NWR. Acrylic Painting by Ken Januski.

Next is an acrylic painting, actually smaller than the watercolor, that I painted then repainted a number of years ago. It seems like such a great subject and yet I'm not completely happy with any of my attempts. I've also done numerous pen and ink and watercolor studies along the way. So we shall see. Sometimes it almost seems like you need to exorcise a subject. I do think eventually that I'll get a good print out of this subject.

Chipping Sparrow in Pines. Brush Painting by Ken Januski.

When I print I always tear large sheets of printmaking paper to size. And always there are small leftover strips of good paper. I've never known what to do with them so they just accumulate. Recently I ordered a new Chinese brush, ink stick and grinding stone from Oriental Art Supply. I realized that this leftover paper might be just the ticket for experimenting with the new brush and ink. So after about 5-6 horrible failures I ended up with this passable brush painting of a Chipping Sparrow in a pine tree. One reason I wanted a better quality ink stick was so that I could get richer blacks. As you can see there are at least one or two here.

'Tula' salvia in backyard. Photo by Ken Januski.

I haven't written anything on Trump and the election so far. I'm not completely shocked by the results. The white working class has been effectively abandoned by Democrats for years. There's also a sense of moral superiority in many Democrats that I think fuels a resentment of them, a resentment Trump was all too happy to take advantage of. But what of Trump? To a certain extent I agree with both Obama and Clinton in the idea of at least giving him a chance.

But for all of his faults, and everyone except the blind know that they are legion, there is one that I think will do more harm than anything else: his lack of civility, respect for others, and respect for truth, all willingly jettisoned by him. As he said to the Wall Street Journal when questioned about whether he'd gone too far in some of his statements he said: "No, I won!"

Most Americans know that the presidency is more than just a matter of winning. It's not a football game, or a backstreet brawl, though I suppose it has been in the distant past. But in an age where there is already far too much ranting, too much eager willingness to  not even consider the other side, Trump sets the worst possible precedent. Anything and everything is legitimate as long as you win. History will decide I fear that this is his very worst legacy.

I should add, as others have, that he might actually be successful. History never unfolds as predicted. But I'll still never forgive him for his utter degradation of the process.

And, to end on a happier note, the last photo  is of 'Tula' Mexican Sage, almost always the last flower blooming in our garden, even in December. We buy this plant at about 12 inches tall every few years, then watch it grow and grow until November without flowering. And then finally in a race against a hard frost it starts to bloom. Each day we wonder: will it be the last? Not so far.

Trials and Rewards of Ink Drawing and Painting

Black Crowned Night Heron, Greater Yellowlegs and Short-billed Dowitcher. Brush Pen Sketch by Ken Januski.

I first saw the possibilities of working in ink when doing life drawing through adult education classes in San Francisco many years ago. I'm sure this was precipitated by examples from Matisse and Picasso as well as the more contemporary Richard Diebenkorn and Elmer Bischoff, the latter two more for their use of line and wash rather than just line as with Matisse and Picasso. In any case once I tried it myself I was thrilled, particularly in doing large, very quick drawings from live poses.

I really haven't been too successful in using ink with wildlife art, particularly bird art though I have done quite a bit of it. I think the main reason is that the pens I used didn't have as much fluidity as I would have liked. That has changed however ever since I started using the Kuretake Brush Pen and to a lesser extent pens from other manufacturers. Since they're made to mimic oriental brushes it's no surprise that they have a lot of expressive possibility.

Nonetheless ink is also fairly unforgiving. You can't erase mistakes. Either try to work around them or start a new drawing. I've done more than my share of bad drawings so far in 2016. But the ones on this page from today and yesterday are fairly successful in my estimation.

The one at top is based on a photo that is quite a few years old. It has always struck me as full of possibility: all those Greater Yellowlegs with one Short-billed Dowitcher and then the barely visible Black-crowned Night Heron looming over them. I think finally I've captured some of the possibilities of that photo.

If you look at much wildlife art, online or elsewhere, you can see a whole lot of big expressive eyes and a lot of fur and feather details. Someone must go for this because there is a never-ending torrent of it. I'll say no more than that the type of work I'm showing here is in deliberate contrast to it. It is very difficult to believe that the same subject can create such thoroughly different responses.

Great Blue Heron. Brush Pen Sketch by Ken Januski.

As I've mentioned before I'll sometimes work from a particular photo, or even take that photo in the first place, because I can see the entire bird, feet and all. That was the case with this Great Blue Heron seen at Maumee State Park a couple of years ago. I like to see the feet as well because they are very important in showing how the bird has distributed his weight. It adds to the sense of life, much more so than the glint in the big eye of some bird in a more 'realistic' painting or drawing.

Great Blue Heron. Brush Pen Sketch by Ken Januski.

I do think Great Blue Herons must have just about the most predictably interesting shapes of all birds in the eastern U.S. That was the motivation in the remaining sketches on this page. Their shapes are just too interesting to pass up. I only wish I'd had a better view of the feet!

Great Blue Heron. Brush Pen Sketch by Ken Januski.

Field Sketching Resumes, 'The Natural Eye' Begins

Male Wood Duck with Turtles on Log. Sumi Brush Pen Field Sketch by Ken Januski.

I wish I had been there but I was not and once again I missed the opening of 'The Natural Eye', the annual exhibit of the Society of Wildlife Artists in London. Examples of some of the work can be seen online at What's On at The Mall Galleries. If you go to page four you'll see my two works. I thought this year was finally going to be the year that I and Jerene were able to visit the exhibit and meet other artists but it just wasn't possible. As I've said previously it is the only wildlife art exhibit that I find exciting. The link above gives you a very good representation of the work on exhibit and a very good representation of the type of bird and wildlife art that I like.

Finally yesterday I was able to do some field sketching along the Manayunk Canal. I was hoping that a heavy storm the day before might have brought some unusual birds. But if they were there I didn't find them. I had however recently bought a sample pack of brush pens from jetpens.com because I've been so happy with the Kuretake Sumi Brush Pen that I bought there. I also wanted to try some of them out. A few are far too fine and stiff for my purposes. But others have a fluidity and flexibility that I like. An example of one of the pens is above. If I recall correctly it is a Pilot Brush pen. When I got home I added color with Caran d'Ache NeoColor II water-soluble crayons. I then used a waterbrush to make washes from the crayons. I know this sounds like an advertisement for these media, and you can certainly find plenty examples of such online. But that's not the case. I'd call it more objective reporting: these are the tools I used. In almost all cases here they are not the best tools but the best convenient tools. I could have used a sumi or watercolor brush along with watercolor. But that's less convenient, especially when out in the field, and unsure of whether or not I'll sketch. These tools allow me that possibility while carrying very little gear.

Great Blue Heron, European Starling, Northern Cardinal. Sumi Brush Pen Field Sketch by Ken Januski.

Above is another example of brush pen field sketches. On the right is a Great Blue Heron up in the trees also done yesterday along the Manayunk Canal. It's done with the Pilot Brush Pen. I also used that pen for the European Starling seen from my studio window. Above it a drawing mainly from memory of a Northern Cardinal that appeared momentarily in front of the same window. The Zebra brush pen was far too fine and stiff for my tastes, but others may love it. I guess it depends on how you plan to use it.

In any case it's nice to be doing field sketches again and I'm happy to be experimenting with these various brush pens.

Winter Wren in Leaves. Proof of Combination Woodcut/Linocut by Ken Januski.

Finally I'm continuing the combination woodcut/linocut of the Winter Wrens in Leaves. I've printed the black(Caligo Safewash Ink) on good paper(Shin  Torinoko Cream). The black is from the old linoleum block. I then printed an orange on a woodblock on top of that. This is a proof. I didn't rub the baren as hard as usual because I was afraid the black ink might not be completely dry. As a result you can see that the orange is spotty. It may also be a bit darker than I want. But I do like the brown that results from printing orange(Daniel Smith Water-soluble Ink) over the black. Once I've printed the orange for the edition I'll cut away some of the black and print what remains on top of the orange over black. Easy as Pie as they say.

Dragonflycatchers, Tomatoes and Tidbits

Flycatchers are among the comparatively small number of birds expert enough to catch dragon flies on the wing, and these insects are too wary to be taken sitting.

Arthur Cleveland Bent, Life Histories of North American Flycatchers, Larks, Swallows and Their Allies, p.218, Least Flycatcher entry. Published by Dover Books, 1963.

Eastern Wood Pewee Eating Dragonfly. Watercolor Sketch by Ken Januski

Flycatcher Eating Dragonfly. Photo by Ken Januski.

After seeing what I'm just about positive was a very early Least Flycatcher this week I have been reading Arthur Cleveland Bent's book noted above. I was quite surprised, though perhaps I shouldn't have been, to read how unusual it is for birds to be able to catch dragonflies. Along with the Least Flycatcher we saw numerous other flycatchers, mainly Eastern Wood Pewees and Traill's Flycatcher. I say Traill's because I think a couple of birds were Willow Flycatchers. But since they didn't call there is no way to separate the more likely Willow from the nearly identical Alder. The photo above, from that day is most likely a Eastern Wood Pewee, though the glare and washed out color remove a lot of the field marks that could confirm this. Above is a watercolor sketch I did a few years ago of an Eastern Wood Pewee about to swallow a rather large dragonfly. I do love both flycatchers and dragonflies so their combination, though bad luck for the dragonflies, is quite interesting  to me.

Cherokee Purple, Unger's Cherry, Stupice, Brandywine, Mexico Midget, Tasty Evergreen, Cherokee Purple and Yellow Pear Tomatoes. Photo by Ken Januski.

Also interesting and tasty to boot are all of the tomatoes that are now coming ripe in our garden. All of them above are grown from seed from Seed Saver's Exchange though the very small Mexico Midget are volunteers from seeds planted years ago that keep reseeding year after year. I'm not complaining! I don't often show much from our garden but I did want to show these beautiful and tasty tomatoes.

Killdeer Chick, Young Green Heron and Great Blue Heron. Sumi Brush Pen Field Sketch by Ken Januski.

Though I've been out birding a fair amount this week I've done very few sketches. Above are two of the young Killdeer which I said in an earlier post are too bad to show. Oh  well. On the facing page a young Green Heron and beneath him a striding Great Blue Heron. I'm really only showing this to show that I'm still working in the field with the sumi brush pen and because I like the Great Blue Heron sketch.

Below a less successful Great Blue Heron, sideways Green Heron and young Wood Duck from Morris Arboretum today. Though there's not much to the Wood Duck sketch I do like it. To a certain extent these sum sketches are accomplishing what I want: they are simple, get a sense of the pose, and might be enough to spur me on to a print or painting.

Wood Duck, Great Blue Heron and Green Heron. Sumi Brush Pen Field Sketch by Ken Januski.

GBBC 2015 Day Two - Great Blue Heron In Flight

Great Blue Heron In Flight Over Papermill Run. Watercolor Sketch by Ken Januski

Another day, another deadline. One problem I've found with trying to 'illustrate' in some way or another each day's experience during the four days of The Great Backyard Bird Count is that I start getting anxious as the day's birding draws to an end and I don't have any idea what I'm going to do.

The easy answer of course is to just do nothing. But this is a personal challenge of a sort so I always try to do something. We birded the backyard, Andorra Natural Area and Morris Arboretum from 7 a.m. until 12:45 p.m. today. We didn't see anything quite as exciting as the Peregrine Falcon from yesterday but there were locally good birds like Golden Crowned Kinglets, Brown Creepers and Winter Wrens. I don't really like to take photos so I hold off as long as possible, unless I'm trying to get evidence of an unusual bird.

I never have enough good photos, or good looks at Winter Wrens or Brown Creepers so I was a bit tempted to take out the camera for them. Still I held off. I finally did take it out toward the end of the day as the one Brown Creeper crept higher into the gray overcast sky. By that time it would have been pointless to take a photo.

Getting desperate I did take a couple photos of a Great Blue Heron feeding quite studiously in Papermill Run at Morris Arboretum. This was just a backup in case I got desperate. It was too cold to consider sketching, even though I did have the sketchbook, so I took those photos just in case.

Later as we moved over toward the Wissahickon a large bird flew up and drifted toward the other Great Blue in Papermill Run. Yes it was another Great Blue. I have quite a lot of horrible sketches of Great Blues in flight. They are always striking but I never get them right. So this time I just took two quick photos. With the overcast sky they don't show much. But both give a good sense of the bird, the curve of the back, bend in the neck, length of the wings and especially the legs with feet pointing up rather than down.

That became the subject for today's illustration: a Great Blue Heron gracefully drifting out of view.

You never know what will happen when you challenge yourself like this. But often I find that I try something new and that eventually I end up using it somewhere.

Completed Reduction Woodcut, Awakened Sketchbook

Moleskine Sketchbook with Woodpecker Field Sketches and Carving Tools in Studio. Photo by Ken Januski.

As I was winding up the reduction woodcut I've been working on I kept noticing my poor neglected sketchbook off to the left of my cutting area. Though I take it out with me when I'm out birding I just can't convince myself to take it out and sketch in winter. The top sketch in photo above of a Hairy Woodpecker, conveniently outside my warm studio window is from December 28th. The page to the left has an Osprey from late November.

Today was particularly cold due to the wind so even though we watched a handsome male Pileated Woodpecker for at least 15 minutes I didn't sketch. But when I got home the guilt was just too strong. I HAD to resume sketching. So the photo at the bottom is the male Pileated from memory. It's not much but at least I'm reviving the habit.

Back when I was reading a lot about Winslow Homer, one of my favorite watercolorists, I read how he worked in his studio in Maine during the winter on his oil paintings. Everything in its place more or less with watercolors in the field in warmer weather and oils in the studio in winter.

So it's really not surprising that I should do more prints in winter, and more sketches from photos. But still it's nice to work from life, or at least from memories from life.

American Goldfinch, Great Blue Heron and Killdeer Along Snowy Banks of Manayunk Canal. Final Edition of Reduction Woodcut by Ken Januski.

Another reason I felt like sketching, and birding, is that I've finally finished the reduction woodcut! And I'm happy with it. The final version is above. I'm still not sure how many of the prints will go into the edition. I started off with 16 but there are a lot more prints will small smudges than I'd like. So I still have to figure out which ones will be in the edition. The more the better though, because I really like this print!

Opera and Representational Art

American Goldfinch, Great Blue Heron and Killdeer at Manayunk Canal. Third Color in Probable Four Color Reduction Woodcut by Ken Januski

Opera!?! I'm sure the connection between opera and representational art will seem very hard to believe to most readers. Though my knowledge of, and even experience of opera, is very small I have spent some time listening to and reading about it over the last six months. Unfortunately I've seen and heard none in person.

One of the books I've been reading is The History of Opera by Carolyn Abbate and Roger Parker. In many ways it's ridiculous for me to be reading this because it's aimed at people familiar with opera, which I am not. Still it does complement the Listening to and Understanding Opera course by Robert Greenberg from The Teaching Company that I've been listening to for about six months.

One of the main themes is the constant pendulum swing in opera between freedom for the music, especially the singers and strict adherence to the text, to the story being told.

I got a kick out of reading about this conflict because it's the one I experience in art ever since I turned from abstract art to representational art, specifically wildlife art, and even more specifically bird art.

As I've said many times I'm quite bothered by the seemingly blind adherence to photographic 'fact' that seems to dominate so much bird and wildlife art. Where in the world is the art? Where is the artistic expression? I found this surprisingly parallel to what I read about opera. The only difference is that it seems that more often it is the strict literalists calling for reform, asking and demanding that the music be truthful to the story, not an afterthought. Often melody and song have been the leading factors in opera. The story trails behind. And then the pendulum swings back the other way. It seems to be a steady conflict. The only difference that I can see in my comparison with representational art, especially wildlife art is that the pendulum has rarely swung in the more expressive direction.

In my own work I cannot deny my familiarity with art, art history and all the great and powerful art that has been made over thousands of years. It's impossible to deny the expressive possibilities of art. At the same time I do want to keep some attachment to the story, or in bird or wildlife art, those so-called 'facts' of description.

The debate as to how true I should stay to the colors of the scene along the Manayunk Canal has been a big factor in deciding which colors to use in my current woodcut. Color is just as emotionally powerful as song and I think it's foolish to deny it. So I've finally decided on a dark purplish blue for the third color of the woodcut. I spent a lot of time proofing and thinking and finally came up with this color.

The final color will probably be black, both for the goldfinch's wings and for the water. But the dark purple blue almost functions as a black so instead I might let it function as black and just use a lighter gray blue for the Great Blue Heron and some other areas. It will continue to be a debate between song and story, or wildlife 'fact' and color and art.

Below is a photo of the full image of the print. Because the ink is taking longer to dry than I expected the print itself is taking longer than expected.

American Goldfinch, Great Blue Heron and Killdeer at Manayunk Canal. Third Color in Probable Four Color Reduction Woodcut by Ken Januski.

Adding a Brown to the Goldfinch, Heron and Killdeer Woodcut

American Goldfinch, Great Blue Heron and Killdeer at Manayunk Canal. Second Color Printing of Reduction Woodcut in Progress by Ken Januski.

If I had carried on over the last two days assuming that the weather report I saw on Sunday morning was accurate I'm not sure things would have changed all that much. I suppose the extreme, 'life-threatening' warnings forced me to resign myself to staying home all day Monday and Tuesday, thus giving me time to concentrate on the new reduction woodcut. But I wanted to work on it anyway, blizzard or no blizzard.

As it turned out we got less than 2 inches of snow in our neighborhood. I can't complain, though we'll have to keep waiting to try out our snowshoes. I'm sure that there are people north of us along the Atlantic Coast that are happy for all the warnings.

I've added a burnt umber here, a color I hadn't originally intended to use. I had hoped that the earlier yellow ochre  could suffice for all of the American Goldfinch and Killdeer as well as most of the shrubs and twigs. But I soon realized that wouldn't work. I needed to add a second brown. It's turned out a bit browner and less warm than I'd hoped but the color will change again once I add the blue and black.

As usual with a print, there are a million things I could complain about. But all in all it's proceeding more or less as I had hoped. But finishing is always the hardest part. So stay tuned for further developments. Print is 9x11 inches, by the way with the actual image 6x8 inches. It's printed with soon-to-be obsolete Daniel Smith Water-soluble Ink on Rives Heavyweight Paper.

In case you don't remember or didn't read the post regarding the Philadelphia Mid-Winter Bird Census of a few weeks ago this was based on observations that day along the Manayunk Canal in Philadelphia.

A New Reduction Print

American Goldfinch, Great Blue Heron and Killdeer at Manayunk Canal in Winter. Reduction Woodcut by Ken Januski. Early Proof.

I really can't remember the last time I did a 'pure' reduction print. After struggling for what seemed weeks a few years ago to do complex reduction linocuts using oil-based inks I backed off from the process. Part of it was the technical ordeal involved. Part of it was my getting tired of breathing the solvents necessary for use with oil-based inks. But part of it also was aesthetics.

I realized that I was using reduction linocuts as though I was painting, oil painting, where I could keep adding colors until the painting/linocut looked right. But this is counter-productive in a way. With a reduction print you keep cutting away the part of the surface that will print. So yes you can keep adding more colors, but the area on which you can print them gets smaller and smaller. So they have less effect.

Another aspect of reduction print as painting is that I was more interested in the overall surface, how one area was one color and another area a different color, one small area bright and another dark. That's the way most painters think. But often this is at the expense of line. I think in my earliest prints, including the complex oil-based reduction linocuts I didn't care much about line.

When I moved to multi-block woodcut or a combination of that and linocut I became much more concerned with line. It's a major element of so many prints in the history of printmaking. And of course it's generally associated with drawing. Since I love to draw it's no surprise that I liked the idea of making line more important. Off the top of my head I'd say it's been a very important part of my prints for the last two years or so.

To make a long story short I've been curious as to what might happen if I returned to reduction prints, though in this case reduction woodcut rather than reduction linocut. Above is the second test proof on copier paper. It's based on the numerous sketches and watercolors that I've showed during the past few weeks. I'm sure I'll be tempted to 'rescue' the print by adding a second block. But for now I'm going to try to keep it a pure reduction print. I'll only use this one block in the print, come what may!

My complex reduction prints of the past often used 5-10 colors. All those colors make registration all the more difficult. But I used them because I was thinking like a painter. I used however many colors I needed, and could stand printing, in order to get the look I wanted. Here, as in other recent woodblocks I don't plan to use that many colors. At first I thought four or five. But right now I'm hoping I can get by with just three. This isn't a matter of laziness. It's just a matter of trying to stay simple and see what happens. This is also called the KISS principle, something I first ran across in computer programming: Keep it Simple Stupid! It's always made sense to me though I haven't been the best practitioner.

Between a Blob and a Photographic Rendering

Killdeer Studies. Pencil Sketch by Ken Januski.

Killdeer Studies. Pencil Sketch by Ken Januski.

When I did the pen and watercolor sketch of an American Goldfinch, a Great Blue Heron and a Killdeer that I showed in last post, I wasn't really concerned with detail. I was hoping that the three birds would be recognizable but I don't think that proved true for the Killdeer.

That wasn't really a problem to me. My intent as I said in post was to give some sense of the experience of seeing all of those birds on a very cold day along the Manayunk Canal. Still I was disappointed that the Killdeer didn't look like much more than a blob.

Since then I've continued to toy with the idea of a print based on that sketch. If I make one the three birds will have to be somewhere between shapes that are nothing more than blobs and a more photographic rendering. The Killdeer will be the smallest shape, assuming I keep it in the far background. and so it will need the most simplification. It will be too small to have much detail. And yet it has to be more than a blob. So that's the purpose of the pencil sketches above, done over the last two days from photos that I've taken.

I'd like to get a better since of Killdeer before I start simplifying them. Great Blue Heron are probably one of the easiest birds to simplify. Especially in cold weather they have a distinctive hunched shape that is unique. The problem with them is not making them too simple and including at least some detail so that it looks like a bird not a caricature of a bird.

In the end I'll try to coordinate all of these birds. That was the main point of the sketch from the last post, to explore how they could all fit together. I'm happy with that sketch and probably won't change the general composition. But whether it will be a woodcut or a linocut, using one color or more, using one block as a reduction print or multiple blocks all still have to be determined.

One thing I can predict with some accuracy though is that the final birds will be closer to blobs than to the renderings above. I hope that they will be a happy medium, somewhere in between. But I do think it's safe to say that most of this detail will not appear in the print.
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Sketching and Beautiful Weather

Young Downy and Hairy Woodpeckers with Ruby-throated Hummingbird. Ballpoint Pen Field Sketch by Ken Januski.

We've seen beautiful late September weather here the last few days. But wait, it's only late July! I read recently that this may presage another long and brutal winter like last year's. If so we may regret this weather then but for now there's nothing to do but revel in it. And because of that I've found that each day I tell myself I have to be outside sketching rather than in the studio working on that woodcut that I started a few days ago.

Above is the work from today. On the left an immature Hairy Woodpecker with a Downy Woodpecker beneath him. The Downy was almost all white from this perspective with just a bit of black around eye and on underside of tail. The lack of black, esp. around eye made me think he also was an immature.

I've continued to spend a lot of time watching the Ruby-throated Hummingbirds that have been visiting our backyard. On the right side above are three drawings from today, the smallest of which was done from memory after he hovered two feet away from me for a few seconds. All too soon the hummingbirds will be gone so I'm really trying to take advantage of them while they're here. Oh yes, the bill of the hummingbird on lower left looks a bit odd because he's sticking out his tongue! I love being able to get such seemingly unusual behavior down in a sketchbook though I doubt that it's really all that unusual.

Eastern Kingbird, Question Mark Butterfly and Great Blue Heron in Field. Ballpoint Pen Field Sketch by Ken Januski.

The drawings above were done at Morris Arboretum, though I think on different days. The Eastern Kingbird didn't stay for long so there's a lot of memory used in this drawing. Beneath him a Red Admiral that stayed for a few seconds, though not enough for me to get everything down. On the right one of three immature Great Blue Herons that were at Morris yesterday. I got a kick out of this one in the field. He was sketched live and some of the landscape was done at the same time. The rest of the landscape was improvised over the last 24 hours.

Before I move on to the delayed Green Heron woodcut I wanted to mention John Busby. After I posted the last post I realized that John Busby's most recent book, Looking at Birds: An Antidote to Field Guides, is the perfect book to encourage drawing encounters with birds, even if you just get the briefest of sketches. As I googled for the exact title of the book just now I ran across a video of John Busby sketching on the web site of author and artist John Muir Laws. When I posted this yesterday I hadn't yet had time to watch the full 24 minutes of the video. But today, a day later, I have. It is spectacular. About minute 15 or 16 he sits amid hundreds of gannets and mentions how he could never do a glorified portrait of one of them, in spite of their beauty. Take a look at most bird art shows and catalogs and that's all you'll see - glorified portraits, made possible only through photography. John Busby is interested in the full experience of seeing the birds and not just the birds but the birds in their environment. Towards the end he says that he thinks his goal might be for the viewer to wish he'd been there. And in that he succeeds. A far, far more lofty and worthwhile goal than all those deadly glorified portraits!!  And who knows what else you might find of interest on Laws' site.

Crouching Green Heron. Second Proof of Woodcut by Ken Januski.

Okay, back to the woodcut. I've done some minimal cleanup in the heron woodcut. I've also copied this onto a second block so that I can use at least one more color if I feel like it. Time will tell. I want to keep this pretty simple. I was really only trying to catch the striking pose. But once I printed it the pattern of the wood came out in the background and now I'm tempted to keep it, which of course is threatening to send the woodcut off in a different direction. I hope it rains soon so I can figure out what to do.

Criminal Neglect of a Sketchbook

Red Admiral, White-tailed Deer, Common Whitetail and Great Blue Heron. Field Sketches by Ken Januski.

Soon after I started doing artwork based on birds I bought a Moleskine large sketchbook, large being just 5x8.25 inches. It's actually smaller than I'd like but it also fits perfectly in the back pocket of my jeans, something that the Stillman and Birn sketchbooks that I like so much do not do.

The two pages above are the last two pages from sketchbook number five. The caption explains the sketches with the exception of an apology for the White-tailed Deer. I rarely draw mammals from life. But when I found this deer staring at me from about 10 feet away, debating I'm sure whether to run or not, I decided I had to get down what I could. Seconds later he was gone and all I had was a vague visual memory to put down on paper. Unlike birds most mammals, at least in the face, seem harder to get in a sketch. As with humans the softness of the face is hard to get down with lines.

In any case I'm glad I tried. I also tried one of my few butterflies from life, a Red Admiral that cooperated by staying still for a bit. The reason I show these pages though is not to show what I've seen recently but to note how bad I've been over the last year about field sketching.

Much as I try to do sketches when I'm out I'm generally shocked when I look through a sketchbook and see the dates of the drawings in them. There are 96 pages I think. How long should a sketchbook like that last for someone who sketches frequently? One month? Two? Three if there weren't any vacations where I tend to draw more? The answer, on average since I began over seven years ago is 11 months!!

That is always shocking to me and works out to only about 8 pages per month or 2 per week. What's worse though is that the drawings above are the last pages of a sketchbook that took over 15 months to finish!! I'm really not sure why. Perhaps I spent more time on photos? Perhaps I spent more time in the studio working on prints? I don't know.

By the time I finished this sketchbook the other day though it was falling apart, the binding in tatters.

Eastern Phoebe, Gray Catbird, Acadian Flycatcher and Tufted Titmouse. Field Sketches by Ken Januski.

Yesterday I began a new sketchbook while walking along the Wissahickon in Philadelphia. Again the captions explain the drawings pretty well with the possible exception of that big, odd-looking Tufted Titmouse. It was harassing a White-breasted Nuthatch and I never got really good looks at it. So I put down what I could and then tried to finish up at home. Well that didn't work and that explains the white around the head and elsewhere. I used it to try to cover up mistakes in ink with white gouache. This happens almost every time I try to fix something once I get back in the studio. The only good part of it is that it generally forces me to go look at my photos or guidebooks afterwards to figure out what it was that I got so wrong.

Obviously neither of these pages exhibit the best field studies I've ever done. But they do remind me, and hopefully readers as well, of the virtues of having a sketchbook and using it quite often. It also makes what could be a relatively dull walk in the woods, at least in terms of seeing something new, a consuming adventure. Regardless of the fads and trends of contemporary art I think that there will always be a place for sketching.

Heart of Steel

Eastern Towhee at Houston Meadows. Acrylic Painting by Ken Januski.

That's quite a title I admit. I found it while searching online for information regarding my recollection that Delacroix had a hard time letting a painting go, to the point of touching it up while hanging on exhibition. I never found anything regarding that but I did find something similar:

Finishing a painting requires a heart of steel: everything requires a decision and I find difficulties where I least expect them.

After the fact I realized that I might actually be thinking of John Constable or Edgar Degas. Perhaps all three of them had the same problem. In any case Delacroix says it well: a painting is really an orchestration, a visual symphony, of color, tone, shape, light, line, texture, etc. That's why there are so many decisions. Every thing you do affects everything else. Wildlife art or any art that just stresses accuracy in detail misses the only important thing in painting: the visual symphony.

All of which is just an explanation for the state of this acrylic painting of an Eastern Towhee. I think it's done. Every time I've tried to finish it up the marks I made in one area made another area look bad. So it's gone back and forth, back and forth. That's both the good side, and the curse, of acrylic painting. You can change it forever. The answer I think is either to sell it or hang it, in other words get it out of my hands so I can't do anything more with it!

Having worked so long in watercolor and woodcut/linocut where you can't keep changing over and over the freedom of acrylic is a shock. It's largely a pleasant shock. But still there is the problem of when is the painting done. This is something I'm sure all creators are familiar with. At some time you just need to boot the creative project out the door or have someone grab it from you, saving you from yourself. A less desirable alternative, though used by many, is to just destroy it in disgust. I've rarely used this method.

Great Blue Herons at Manayunk Canal. Field Sketches by Ken Januski.

Because of that these field sketches are a welcome relief. They of course don't have the detail of the painting, not even close. But they're fresher and simpler. These are two of the four different Great Blue Herons I saw at the Manayunk Canal the other day. Though there can be frustrations in art work in the long run I consider myself very lucky to be able to spend so much time either sketching outside or doing more developed work in the studio. It can't be beat.

Dancing Crane Flies, High Herons, Giant Zinnias

Dancing Crane Flies over Arbor Vitae.

Dancing Crane Flies over Arbor Vitae.

Each fall and winter, as far as I can tell after the first hard frost, a huge number of insects dance about in the air above a 6' Arbor Vitae that we bought years ago. They've always puzzled us so finally last year I got out my butterfly net and caught some: Crane Flies. What a surprise! Additionally I've found that there are numerous ones in Pennsylvania and obviously even more throughout the US and the world.

They are so busy bouncing up and down, almost like dowitchers of  the air, stitching air rather than mud, that it's almost impossible to see one individual. Today however I decided to spend 15 minutes trying to get decent photos of them. Two of the best are above. I think they give some idea of what it's like to see them in the yard. The oddest thing, still, is why they don't seem to come alive until cold weather. And why do they always choose this arbor vitae, one of the lesser shrubs of our garden, one that we bought when we were raw beginners as gardeners and just never replaced?

In any case it's always a pleasure to see them.

Two Great Blue Herons at Manayunk Canal. Field Sketch by Ken Januski

At this time of year it's always tempting to take a birding walk to see what is still about. There will be a few new arrivals, like mergansers and grebes, but mainly it's a matter of seeing what is still here.

Today found no real surprises at the Manayunk Canal. But I was puzzled about the herons. I'd hoped to see a Green Heron but knew that would be unlikely. But where were the Great Blues? They should surely be there. Has all the development there driven them out?* I fear that it eventually will. It's been two years since I've seen a night heron there. But when I started my return walk I found two, both high in trees. I always forget to look up! I've done a lot of Great Blue Heron sketches so today I concentrated on sketches that placed them in their environment.

Benary's Giant Zinnias after first hard frost.

Benary's Giant Zinnias after first hard frost.

Ever since our first hard frost a few nights ago our Benary's Giant Zinnias have looked the worse for wear. And yet they may still be the most beautiful things in the garden. But anyone who has seen Mondrian's Chrysantemum drawings will know that the structure of this type of flower is in and of itself a thing of beauty, regardless of whether the color is still there or the plant is still alive. Each fall I look at out spent zinnias and think of Mondrian.

I'm not really sure when he did them. I assume before the paintings that he's famous for. If so you can tell just by looking at them that this will be an artist to reckon with. By the way seeds for these wonderful zinnias are currently on sale for half price at Seed Savers Exchange. I'm pretty sure that's where ours are from.

I know this is a bit of a hodgepodge. But I did want to post something about each of these so into the HodgePodge Post they went.

*After I wrote this I realized that I should add that it is not all bad news at the Manayunk Canal, though I think it is far more bad than good. About a month ago Fairmount Park planted 100s of native trees and shrubs along the canal. As I recall there were a few oaks, though not many, birches, magnolias and numerous shrubs. Invasives have been removed to a certain extent to make way for the native plantings.

Eventually that should help the wildlife of the Manayunk Canal. On the downside I also learned that they're planning to dredge the canal to make it passable again, hopefully for nothing larger than a canoe or kayak. I'm sure that will have negative effects on the wildlife that are there. A Spotted Sandpiper hung out in that area this summer and I wouldn't be surprised if it's the hidden deeper area that is going to be dredged that also protects the herons. I fear it will become just another city park.

Some monstrously large, and ugly, buildings have been going up for months on the eastern side of the path. They nearly abut the path and much vegetation has been cut as they've been developed. I can only guess the negative effect of all the people moving into this grouping of monolithic housing will do. But as I said at least there is a small bit of good news in all of the native plantings.