Two new kids moved in down the road. They are black and white and have cunning little hooves. Their names are Thor and Clementine.
Goat kids have a certain vibe that enchants me. They are more playful than your average farm animal–leaping, frisking and gamboling, climbing on trees, seesaws and even children! They appear all over the place and my eye and paintbrush are always drawn to them.
I love the beach.
Maybe because I grew up in a Vermont-a landlocked state.
Sure, we had Lake Champlain, where I spent my childhood summers. It has a shore but not exactly a beach.
The unpredictability of what the restless waves wash up on shore gives an ocean beach LIFE!
Nowadays there is a LOT of plastic, which is part what got me started making these beach portraits.
I have found so much trash on the numerous beaches I’ve combed-from California to the Virgin Islands, and Italy to Maine. Along with the trash I always find intriguing shells, feathers, bones, and exoskeletons.
Using these elements I began making portraits of invented characters. I didn’t alway name them, but this one spoke up and said her name was Richard Thompson’s mythical Cooksferry Queen.
So, next time you find yourself on a beach-any beach, find a bag or bucket, pick up any trash and other interesting flotsam you find and make your own beach portrait. Snap a photo, give him/her/they a name, and finally, remove all the trash and leave the remnants of the face to nature.
After a long Vermont winter we all get a little blue.
We all need to get outside! We need to leave our coats and hats and boots behind. We need to wear sneakers, ride bikes, see some green, roll in the grass, play ball, ride a pony and dig in the garden. Spring fever is a real thing!
I recently visited the kindergartners at Orwell Village School and talked about writing and art, filling your page and adding detail. They must have soaked it all in–like spring sunshine. Today I received this video, made with the help of their wonderful teacher Josh Martin:
ttps://spark.adobe.com/video/64dt3EAOZWEpqhttps://spark.adobe.com/video/64dt3EAOZWEpq
If this doesn’t get your spring juices flowing, nothing will!
ENJOY!
2. a person or thing that brings bad luck.
3. Geology. a pillar of rock, usually of fantastic shape, left by erosion.
If you picked #3 you may have visited the strangely wonderful Bryce Canyon National Park, Home of the HooDoos…not to mention-the mysterious eye in the sky! (hint, upper left)
There are mushrooms EVERYWHERE! Days of rain here in northern New England have produced a sprouting, thrusting crop of fungus, some of them edible and choice.
Though I haven’t spotted any Chanterelles, like the ones Pumpkin is picking.
The shapes and colors of mushrooms make them fun to draw and paint. I have probably drawn them my whole life.
Lately I’ve been imagining them as tiny, secret houses.
You can own your own, hand painted mushroom cottage here.
His son Klaus drew and painted watercolors, Klaus’ daughter draws, paints, illustrates and takes pictures, my sister and sons draw too, though they don’t enjoy it enough to practice much.
A propensity towards written and visual creativity seems to run in our family.
The cover of a 4 page brochure about photographing children created by my paternal grandfather Dr. Paul Wolff.
Paul Wolff using a huge view camera, before he was introduced to the new, hand held Leica.
My grandparent’s wedding in 1914. Helene is 2nd and Paul is 4th from left.
Paul Wolff published at least 6 books of his photographs. They are mostly written in German, so I have not read all his commentary.
Paul Wolff took fascinating photos of a huge range of subjects. Thorsten Overgaard wrote an essay about one of his photos that is great reading. My favorite quote from this article makes my grandfather come alive for me.
“In his book “My Life with The Leica” Walther Benser recalls the period where he would assist Dr. Paul Wolff. Benser was a Leica employee who had gone through the full technical training in Wetzlar and later spent many years traveling with the Leica Slide Show. He recalls:
“Dr. Paul Wolff had skills which I found myself envying. Without any optical aid from the Leica viewfinder in the new (Telyt) reflex housing, he could dissect the surroundings with his naked eye in the search for a suitable subject and position. He invariably picked out the perfect spot for taking the picture with the focal length he had already selected”.
“He was a master at keeping his photographic intentions undetected for as long as possible. He never carried the camera in front of his body in the usual manner but kept it, suspended on its strap, hidden behind his back with his right hand. This had become second nature to such an extent that he kept his right hand behind his back even when he was not holding a camera”.
I’ve chosen just a few of my favorite images of his to share, focusing on ones that remind me most of the way I, too, see the world.
I can see where I’ve acquired the habit of framing a view with foreground objects, and my fascination with close ups of nature.
I love the shallow focal field in this photo of my Dad at play as a child.
This one-lit by car headlights-is my all time favorite. Oh, to have snows like this again!
I never knew my grandfather. He and my grandmother divorced and he and my father became estranged. I did learn that he went on to marry a fellow photographer Annette Beiger and they had another son in 1943. If anyone reads this and can put me in touch with my half uncle Stephen Wolff and his family I’d be grateful.
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and stoop down, look closely, listen to birds and the wind and pretend there isn’t a madman in the white house/a refugee crisis/global weirding/or white supremacist trolls…
I’ll see you there…
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It is one of the “Seven Natural Wonders of the World”
It’s about 270 miles long, up to 18 miles wide and a mile deep, Its walls contain rock layers that reveal a timeline of Earth’s history.
To make the illustrations for In The Canyon as good they could be, I had to explore the Grand Canyon. I took my intrepid sister, a wildlife veterinarian, for company and and in we went!
Dr. Peregrine Wolff and a friendly Big Horn Sheep-commonly found In the Grand Canyon.
Approaching Castle Crag on the South Kaibab Trail.
from RIM to RIVER…
Joking around at Ooh Ah Point on the South Kaibab Trail.
and back!
The main character of In the Canyon, written by Liz Garton Scanlon, speaks in the 1st person voice. She begins her narration like this:
“Here’s a map, some boots, a pack, a walking stick, a sandy track.”
I always enjoy working with a model and I found a lovely girl in San Francisco named Willa.
I spent a few hours with Willa taking pictures, and then used those to draw from while illustrating the book.
She gazes at the reader from the jacket, inviting you to join her In the Canyon.
As soon as you dip below the rim of the canyon you enter a vast, deep bowl that has no direct route to the bottom. The trails are constantly zig zagging down the steep walls. Occasionally you can spy the river, way down deep.
My sister Peri, seen from a few switchbacks above, with many more to go. The Colorado river, bright green, is crossed by 2 bridges. One is visible here.
If it is a cool spring morning on the rim, it is full, hot summer at river level. Along the way are blooming cacti and yucca, birds, lizards and curious squirrels.
I can’t get enough shots of the blossoming Beavertails.
a finished linoleum block and gouache illustration.
“Here’s a footstep, dusty red, another one and more ahead.”
To do this rim to river to rim hike one must be very fit and prepared for a lot of heat and exertion.
Some people choose to travel by mule. Mules are chosen from Tennessee and Missouri. They are used for pack supplies to Phantom Ranch and pack mail out of the canyon and later promoted to trail mules.
I used a photo of a family, gathered under an overhang, as inspiration for this illustration.
“Now here’s a tiny slice of shade, a yummy lunch, some lemonade. And a lizard, still as sand, his head all speckled, body tan.”
Finally, we’re at river level, where the deep shade around Phantom Ranch is most welcoming. Time to recharge and load up on water and salty snacks for the hike back out. Peri and I made it back to the rim by nightfall, a 16 mile roundtrip.
But the child in In the Canyon is luckier. She gets to spend the night, camping by the river.
“Here’s the dark and here’s the shine, and here’s the moon—it’s like it’s mine. To tuck inside me way down deep, Grand and wild, mine to keep.”
I’ll come back to the Canyon someday, no doubt with enough overconfidence to descend to the bottom and back in one day as I did with Peri.
After all, I have what it takes: “a map, some boots, a pack, a walking stick, a sandy track.”
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On evenings in early spring with the first relatively warm rains, salamanders and frogs move from upland wooded areas to breeding pools to mate and lay eggs. Often these migrations take the amphibians across roads. At a site in Salisbury, Otter Creek Audubon and the Salisbury Conservation Commission help these amphibians safely reach their destination, collect data on numbers and species, and raise public awareness of these migrations.
Important Guidelines for Data Gathering:
Learn how to identify all the amphibians (we will help you on site).
Make sure of your identification. If in doubt, ask someone with a clipboard. Do not guess.
Keep track of how many of each species you move and if they are alive or dead.
Be gentle with the amphibians. Handle as little as possible, preferably with moist hands.
Release all amphibians off dirt portion of road onto shoulder in direction they were headed.
Report your numbers to a data recorder with a clipboard before you start losing track.
Check under and around your car for amphibians when you leave.
Please approach the site and leave following the directions above to keep from adding to traffic over the crossing site.
Park outside the crossing area in the designated location.
Keep your eyes open for other crossing areas on your drive home and let us know if you find any.
We did not escort any Eastern Newts, like this one, but I hope to see them later this spring.
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Acres of new real estate, previously accessible only by boat, become available for exploration on foot.
Fisherman, cell phone photo
Fishing is the winter sport of choice. Whole towns spring up, populated by fun loving, hard drinking fisher-people.
Fishing village, gouache on brown paper
Give up the booty, gouache on brown paper
Four fishing shanties, gouache on brown paper
Up on top there is the bait, and the fish who take it.
bait fish, cell phone photo
land locked salmon, gouache on brown paper
Pike and lake salmon carcasses, fillets removed, cell phone photo
But I became fascinated with what was going on UNDER all that ice.
What’s down below, gouache on paper
My personal goal for this winter is to walk across my lake and to drink an Irish Coffee in a pub on the other side If this happens I’ll let you know!
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