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.