A Sanibel Island Workshop

“The sun shines not on us, but in us.”
  ~ John Muir

The back of the Bailey Homestead and the native nursery.
Any wacky angles are the artist's, not the construction!

A workshop
Last Wednesday (March 11, 2020), I facilitated an introduction to nature journaling workshop.  We spent a sunny and serene tropical afternoon in the pavilion behind the Bailey Homestead Preserve at the Sanibel-Captiva Conservation Foundation (SCCF), on Sanibel Island, Florida.

It’s a good memory today, because of increasing concerns about the spread of COVID-19.    Rather than dwell on a subject that’s over-done and everywhere, let’s share something far more pleasant.   It will be so much better for our immune systems.  :- )

A group of us met for three hours under the pavilion behind the native plant nursery, the light breeze bringing the promise of ocean air, and that soft, yet bright sun’s heat that I associate with mid-March in Florida.  The light is clear and clean, with none of summer’s dusty tiredness and intense heat and humidity.  The sky still has traces of winter’s cool blue, with puffy clouds that don’t yet build into summer’s cumulus towers.  Greens are still fresh, with that particular color of crisp spring green emerging here and there.  

Starting off

We are in just a small part of the Bailey Homestead Preserve, which is just a small part of the overall conservation foundation.  To the front of the preserve is a restored Florida house, to the back are trails and wilder areas.  There is a wide open lawn for events, the native plant nursery and retail sales, and an open-air pavilion with chickee-hut-style roofing. you can see us in the pavilion in the photo below.  I'm standing behind the table while Jenny Evans, Native Landscapes and Garden Center Manager, is starting us off.

The breezy open air pavilion - with nature everywhere!

 At break, we get to chat and to browse through the many reference books I like to bring along (yes, I have way too many books!), plus a collection of my past nature journals.  Some of my sketchbooks are over ten years old, but have held up remarkably well – so I can tell the care that others use when handling them.  Thank you.

Drawing time
After our break, we choose a spot and draw individually.  This is the time when I try to visit each person privately, to help with a challenge or to admire their progress. 

A group of twelve is about my maximum, but even then it can be hard to find the artists once they scatter.  I apologize to those who found secure hiding places from me!  We typically spend the first part of our time together on introductions and a presentation on the large screen of different ways to create a nature journal. 

Bright lemon- and buttery-yellow sunflowers and daisy-like flowers abound.  Beach sunflower, coreopsis (tickseed), and gaillardia (blanket flower) are all blooming.  Vibrant shades of pink-to-lavender-to-violet:  verbena, railroad vine, and iris.   And a dash of bright scarlet – tropical sage.  Mmmmmmm… heaven for the artist within.  These are just a few of the flowers along the brick walkways of the native garden center and preserve!  I found myself longing for the entire week to explore this magical place.  However, fledging nature journalers  await.

And time to share
Our next step is to group back in the pavilion to share our experiences,  This (to me) is where a lot of our very real learning takes place!  Sharing our work is always optional.  Our group is here to provide a safe and supportive place with like-minded folks. 

Taking time to share, to learn, to grow.

We see our work through their eyes, and suddenly (!) the parts we felt were failures become successes.   This is not about comparing and competing - we ALL start at the beginning of this journey.  We all have good days and bad.  The important thing is that we're DOING.  So... let the judgements go.  Use those powers of discernment to get to where you want to go.  When we change our internal dialogue, we do much better, plus we're happier.  :-)

When we share, we experience the joy of someone’s new paint color, we thrill to a sketchbook of exotic paper, we learn the name of an unidentified species.  I always learn something new.  It’s exciting to me to see our natural world through the eyes of architects, nurses, or accountants.  Each of us has a different lens of experience that informs our work as an artist.  How cool is that!

Thanks for letting me share my Sanibel adventure – I hope you get to feel a bit of the tropical sun and the breeze feathering your hair... 
And remember to let yourself shine.

Watercolor sketch media:

Canson CP watercolor paper 140 lb.

Mechanical pencil .7mm

Sakura Micron Pigma black artist’s ink pen 01
Molotow making fluid pump pen 2 mm

Daniel Smith watercolors

Round WC brushes #8, 12

A glimpse into our nature journal class…

...and an invitation

We are currently in the middle of Nature Journaling: Botany Through Art. Our class meets Monday mornings at the Naples Botanical Garden for 3 hours as part of an 8-week series underwritten by a grant from Aroha Philanthropies.  This foundation supports creative expression in  the arts through community involvement in a variety of ways.  Our class series is part of their Vitality Arts  program – creative expression for adults 55 and over.  

Sue Slick, one of our talented participants, created the video below of our last class as we sketched and painted on the Performance Lawn.  She took video clips and photos, put them together and made something wonderful to share.

Our class wasn’t publicized because of the full waiting list, so you won’t find us on the Garden’s calendar.  What you will find there is the art show we’ll be having at the end of February!  You are invited to join our nature journalers and visit with them as you view their final art project and enjoy a tour through their nature journals.

Nature Journaling: Botany Through Art Show

10 am-12 pm ~ Saturday, February 29, 2020 

(Included with regular Garden admission)

Kapnick Hall Terrace, Naples Botanical Garden

4820 Bayshore Drive, Naples, FL 34112

We range from beginners to practicing artists, with varied backgrounds that shape our connections to nature and art.  What you will see is the unique story each artist tells through the skills they’ve learned.  None of us need to have the skills of professional artists – our nature journals reflect a very personal journey and our learning process.

This is the important take-away: this connection to place, our creative insights, even the missteps.  These are all part of the process.  We hope we inspire others to make their own personal connections to the beauty of nature found throughout the gardens inside.  There is a new adventure open to us all, no matter our age or limitations.  This is it.  Nature. A page, a pen, a brush.  And you.  

Last session: preparing materials
for plein air sketching.

Last session: capturing a landscape!

Overlooking the lake
in the Florida Garden.

Collections: the joy of small things in my nature journals

Sandstone rocks, Red Rock Canyon, Nevada

There is a magic in the small things of life.  All my life I have been a collector of bits and pieces of nature. 

 I’ve had soda crates filled with rocks under my bed, nests and feathers tucked into a shoebox, bits of leaves and flowers pressed into books, shells and driftwood in plastic tubs.  My parents begged me to leave the rocks behind when we moved.  How could I?  They were from places visited and each one held a memory – my own little Cabinets of Curiosities.

I love the tiny pieces of life that tell a story of the world around me. It might be a leaf; it might be an acorn cracked by a squirrel.  It might be a broken shell, maybe be a piece of wave-washed coral.  Altogether, these parts tell a whole story.

Things from my yard, Naples, Florida

I do my collecting in images now.  The act of drawing or painting an assortment of natural objects brings me joy.  Each page is a cabinet of curiosity, and each natural object relates to the other.  

 

What is it about humans that drives us to collect, store, and display these bits of the natural world?  I’ve only collected found objects, but there are big game hunters and orchid collectors and pot hunters who are not so benign.  I’ve often wondered at the motivation to gather these items.  What deeper meaning drives this behavior?  How does this shape our relationship to Nature?  

For me, it's because they tell of my travels and I want to revisit that story.   They represent discarded remnants (a fallen nest), or clues of a past meal (the cracked acorn), or a story of the passage of time (a fossil shell).  These are important things.  They are treasures, and they hold magic.  The magic is in the life that went before, and the story told now. 

On your next hike or visit to the ocean or park, look for those small pieces of nature – let them fill your life with that same magic of discovery that fills every joyful five-year-old child.   Let their story connect to yours.  These connections can fill us with humility, wonder, and awe of the vibrancy of life, until we are filled and overflowing, then to share our story.

Things from along the Upper Iowa River prairie bottom
Decorah, Iowa

Things from my yard, Naples, Florida

Things from the shore, Gulf of Mexico
Naples, Florida