Nature – Page 12 – A SKETCHBOOK ODYSSEY

Trip to the Zoo

October 19, 2015October 21, 2015waynejacques2 Comments

Today I had a couple of hours of time between meetings in New Jersey. I headed to the Turtle Back Zoo in West Orange, New Jersey. It is a pretty nice zoo, although growing up in Southern California I compare everything to the San Diego Zoo which is on of the best in the world. It was mid-day so many of the animals were hiding pretty well. I took some photos of the Peacock, Red Tailed Hawk and Bald Eagles. I am pretty happy with these sketches except the beak on one of the eagles make it look more like a parrot. Whenever you think of a peacock, you always think of the beautiful tail feathers, although the coloration of the head and body of the birds is amazing. Lamy fountain pen with Noodler’s Black ink with Holbein watercolors in a Stillman and Birn sketchbook.

Turkeys

October 14, 2015October 17, 2015waynejacques4 Comments

Every morning on my way into work, a couple of blocks from our house, I come across these guys. There are 2 flocks of wild turkeys that cross the road every morning. A group of wild turkeys is called a flock and a group of domestic turkeys is called a rafter. Some mornings I go slow past them and other mornings and some evenings I have to stop and wait for them to continue. Unlike the domestic turkeys that are used for food, wild turkeys are beautiful with all of the subtle colors. The black feathers have an iridescent quality to them and the tail feathers have brown highlights on the ends. There are also white feathers with black spots and blue and red skin on their necks and heads. Prismacolor black pens with Holbein watercolors in a Stillman and Birn sketchbook.

Maple Leaves

October 12, 2015October 16, 2015waynejacques2 Comments

Beautiful fall leaves. New England is known this time of year for the outstanding colors of the fall foliage. These leaves are on a small Maple Tree outside of our office. The leaves were still green on the perimeter and the veins were turning yellow first with some rust color tinges on the tips. Prismacolor Black pen with Holbein watercolors in a Stillman and Birn Sketchbook.

The creation of a thousand forests is in one acorn. – Ralph Waldo Emerson

October 11, 2015October 14, 2015waynejacques4 Comments

The acorn, or oak nut, is the nut of the oaks and their close relatives. It usually contains a single seed (occasionally two seeds), enclosed in a tough, leathery shell, and borne in a cup-shaped cupule. Acorns vary from 1–6 cm long and 0.8–4 cm broad. Acorns take between 6 and 24 months (depending on the species) to mature. Historically, I have always gauged how severe of a winter we were in for by how many acorns fell to our lawn in the late fall. Some years I would have to rake them up into large piles and other years, there were almost none. Typically, the more acorns in the fall meant that we were in for a severe winter. That all changed last year when we had almost no acorns and we had the snowiest winter on record with over 10′ of snow in basically the month of February. Oh well, small crop this year also, what ever that means.

Blue Aster

October 6, 2015October 8, 2015waynejacques3 Comments

There are so many varieties of asters that grow in the Northeast and I might have been hasty in noting that this was the Frikarth “Monch” variety. After further research, I believe that is actually could be the Aster Laevis “Bluebird” in the front planting bed in the front of our house. The ‘Bluebird’ is a superlative selection of the native smooth aster. This tall, vase-shaped wildflower has large 1″ diameter blue flowers held in cloud-like clusters at the tips of the arching branches. Staking is helpful by late summer if you forget to pinch. Aster laevis is a great source of nectar for migrating monarchs and other late season butterflies. Holbein watercolors with Pitt Art pens in a Stillman and Birn sketchbook.

Chatham Lighthouse Beach

October 4, 2015October 6, 2015waynejacques4 Comments

Lighthouse Beach in Chatham, Massachusetts, is a beautiful, large beach close to the center of the picturesque town of Chatham. It is located across the street from a small Coast Guard Station and the Chatham Light lighthouse. This area was not much of a beach until the Great Barrier Beach broke due to pounding storm swells and hurricanes. The Chatham Break, as it is called, is a growing ocean channel between Nauset Beach and Monomoy Island. This new channel has shifted a significant amount of sand from the north to the south and created this magnificent beach. Nauset Beach protects it from heavy swells, but you can watch the waves crest about 200 yards away at the break. Beach grass, small dunes, and million-dollar homes surround the vast sand beach. Holbein watercolors in a Stillman and Birn sketchbook.

Cranberries

October 2, 2015October 5, 2015waynejacquesLeave a comment

Cranberries are low, creeping vines up to 7 feet long and 2 to 8 inches in height; they have slender, wiry stems that are not thickly woody and have small evergreen leaves. The flowers are dark pink. They are pollinated by bees. The fruit is a berry that is larger than the leaves of the plant; it is initially white, but turns a deep red when fully ripe. It is edible, with an acidic taste that can overwhelm its sweetness. Most cranberries are processed into products such as juice, sauce, jam, and sweetened dried cranberries, with the remainder sold fresh to consumers. Cranberry sauce is a traditional accompaniment to turkey at Christmas dinner in the United Kingdom and Thanksgiving dinners in the United States and Canada. Lamy fountain pen with Noodler’s Black Ink and Holbein watercolors in a Stillman and Birn sketchbook.

Highland Bog

October 1, 2015October 4, 2015waynejacques2 Comments

Fall in New England is almost all about the fall colors which are spectacular. The trees are just starting to turn here in southern New England as you can see in my sketch. The fall is also cranberry season in New England. This sketch of a cranberry bog near our house shows another vibrant color of the fall. This bog is being wet picked, which means that the bog is flooded with water and the berries are dislodged from the vines and float to the surface. The wind usually pushes them to one end of the bog where the berries are corralled and sucked up into waiting trucks. This method of picking can only be used for juices in that the berries get water logged and cannot be used as fresh fruit. A beautiful site as you travel around this area and see the flooded bogs with the vibrant pink-burgundy berries floating. Holbein watercolors in a Stillman and Birn Alpha series sketchbook.

Autumn carries more gold in its pocket than all the other seasons. ~Jim Bishop

September 30, 2015October 11, 2015waynejacquesLeave a comment

Autumn, interchangeably known as fall in North America, is one of the four temperate seasons. Autumn marks the transition from summer into winter, in September, when the arrival of night becomes noticeably earlier and the temperature cools considerably.Association with the transition from warm to cold weather, and its related status as the season of the primary harvest, has dominated its themes and popular images. In Western cultures, personifications of autumn are usually pretty, well-fed females adorned with fruits, vegetables and grains that ripen at this time (or a scarecrow in this case in front of our favorite coffee shop).

Falmouth Harbor

September 27, 2015September 28, 2015waynejacques1 Comment

A beautiful early fall day on Cape Cod. While Lisa was walking along Falmouth Heights, I sat on the seawall and enjoyed the view of the entrance to Falmouth Harbor. The sun was very bright and created a silhouette of the jetties that form the mouth of the harbor entry. Pelikan watercolors in a Stillman and Birn Alpha sketchbook.