Broad Strokes

Today, Spring Island's Landscape Ecologist, whom I share office space with, asked if I wanted to visit one of our resident's garden... I grabbed my sketch bag before he even finished his sentence :)

I've been hearing about Ann's garden for two years.  It is incredible. Loaded with native plants and in one small area she has a butterfly garden that does have a few non-natives.

As we approached, the Joe Pye Weed and Thoroughwort plants caught my eye.  I could go no further.

We visited during lunch and didn't have a lot of time, so I concentrated on capturing the shapes and colors that initially caught my eye.  This can sometimes tear at me as I do love the details of plants... But, lunch is lunch and I hadn't eaten yet!

The majority of this page was painted within 20 minutes.  I penciled in the names of the plants, but not in the position you see them now.... just scratched them in as reference.  Upon returning to the office, I wrote the plant names on a separate sheet of paper, erased my pencil notes, then began the lettering.  But, there was an awkward empty spot near the bottom of the page.... hmmm.  A perfect spot for Otto!  I had taken a few photos of butterflies during our time there.  Otto made it into one of them.  I'm glad I had a reference image of him!

I must go back to Ann's garden.  The majority of wildflowers are getting ready to bloom... Autumn in the lowcounty is a wildflower delight!