A Florida Walk

A Florida Walk, originally uploaded by Elizabeth Smith.

I took a walk this morning, down our neighborhood bicycle path and sidewalk. It’s probably not that much different from your neighborhood – filled with trees, plants, birds, and butterflies of one sort or another. It always amazes me the amount of life that abounds in even small areas.

When I got home from my walk I did a memory sketch – a composite of those things that I most vividly remembered, but believe me there was so much more left out! For example, I didn’t see any birds, but they were singing and calling and fussing all around me: crows in the pines, blue jays in someone’s backyard, mockingbirds in the cabbage palms, and somewhere… the “chip, chip” of a cardinal.

My drawing is a bit off in some areas, but free-sketching like this helps strengthen my observation and drawing skills. My snake is pretty symbolic, and the Virginia Creeper leaf is really not shaped like that. By the time I added that, all I could remember was “five lobes.”

Anyway, I hope you enjoy a vicarious outing in Southwest Florida. At least with a virtual walk there is no heat and humidity!

You can click on the image above to view it larger on my Flickr photostream.

Beautyberry

Another ink and watercolor pencil sketch – this time a detail of beautyberry in fruit. Although this shrub is sometimes a bit nondescript throughout the year, the bright purple-to-magenta berries can be quite breathtaking. I don’t think this sketch quite does the plant justice, so I’m including a photo showing a few more berries.

The leaves are a nice oval (almost heart-shaped), with crenate (scalloped) to serrate leaf margins. Small white to pink flowers attract pollinators such as bees and butterflies. This native shrub can get quite leggy, and sometimes has an open, sprawling growth – I often see it growing wild along edges of clearings. My reference plant came from landscape plantings at Freedom Park along the path on the higher ground around the ponds.

You can click on the drawing at the top to view it larger on my Flickr photostream.