Lemons and Photo's

Apologies for the lack of postings this week. It has been hot here in the Northeast, and when it is hot about the only thing I feel like doing is reading. Doing art will take my mind off the heat, but as my hand starts to stick to the paper it does get a bit more difficult. So most of my drawing has been on hold since last weekend. I did manage to do a quick drawing last night of these three lemons. Done with a Pigma pen, the 005 tip on just sketchbook paper from a reference photograph. Not great but not bad and at least it is some art for the week.

Next week the life sessions start up again so I should have more work to show. I was going to get a bunch of portraits done. Oh well, no reason why I can't fit them in between other works anyway. I really need to finish that flower stipple work. Wish me luck.

Though I haven't been drawing I have been taking advantage of breaks in the  heat to take some walks in either State Parks or MA Audubon sites. The photo's above I made last Saturday in Massasoit State Park, East Taunton, MA. Pictures are Purple Loosestrife on the top left, Depford Pinks on the upper right, a green dragonfly lower left, and Blue Vervain in the lower right.

We have just had 2 days of beautiful summer weather. Actually Thursday was almost too cool, with temps only in the mid 70's as a high. Yesterday was a bit warmer with temps in the low 80's. I took advantage of the fact that it was a Friday to head down to the Cape for another visit to the Long Pasture Audubon sanctuary.

Above are just a few of the photos I made yesterday. The upper left photo is Heal-all with an Ox eye daisy blooming right next to it. The top middle photograph shows a copper colored beetle sitting on a old clover blossom. The top right photo is of one of the few orange flowers, Butterfly-weed. This one has a bee visitor and I photographed it in the center's garden so you can see some day lilies blooming behind it. The lower left pink flower is one of the mallow's not sure which as I wasn't really paying attention to the leaves. Also this is a planted garden so while I think they mostly choose wild flowers it may also be a garden variety. The lower middle is a butterfly on some clover. I am sure the butterfly is a type of Skipper, but no clue which one. The image at the lower right is a seed head of some Dandelion like flower.

One photo I wish I had but don't is of the blooms on the Mimosa Tree. Problem is the only branches blooming were up high and as there wasn't a ladder handy I could only photograph from the ground and the results just don't look like much. The tree on the site is quite large I would say it probably reaches the max. size for this variety of tree (30-40 feet).

I wanted to photograph butterflies yesterday, but they weren't cooperating. However, I did see quite a few, several monarchs (I did photograph one but the photo isn't good), some yellow butterflies I wasn't close enough to identify, and a lovely black and gold one that just wouldn't stay still long enough for me to photograph.  Oh well I will have to try again another day.

I also heard and saw a lot of birds, several chickadees, probably a nuthatch or two, song sparrows, and a pair of cardinals, both the bright red male and drabber female. Can you tell I really enjoyed my outing, and will try to get back again this year. The tide was in when I arrived so there are no beach photos from this trip.

Enough for today. I hope you enjoy looking at my flower photos as much as I enjoy making them. I try to select the best to show on the blog. Photos are often cropped and sometimes lightened but otherwise not manipulated. Per usual comments are welcome.