Home » Archive by category "Art and Conservation"

If you haven’t been out to the Bob Jones Nature Center and Preserve, you should really take a short trip out there. Set in the heart of Southlake it is a beautiful 76 acre example of the Cross Timbers ecosystem. There are hiking trails, birds, and wildlife to be discovered and explored. Ever couple of months we put up a new exhibit in the Nature Center building, right now it is all about hummingbirds, but soon will be replaced by creatures of the night. On Saturday, November 5th from 7pm until 10pm they will have have their major fund raiser “Naturally Sweet” this years theme is “Creatures of the Night. The event is $50.00 per person which gives you

Unlimited Dessert & Savory Samplings
Complimentary Wine
Sweet & Savory Tastings from North Tarrant County Chefs
Silent Auction and Themed Gift Baskets
Gallery Offerings from Local Artists

Not to mention you will be supporting the Bob Jones Nature Center and Preserve. I will be one of the Local Artists at the Event, buy a ticket and come on out!

Bob Jones Nature Center

I stumbled across the Prayer Flag Project as I was reading Jane LaFazio’s blog site. I was inspired to create two artist prayer flags that are now hanging in my side yard. The one with the sunflowers on it is a prayer for my family, as all families have, we have issues from time to time and this is a prayer to Trust in God and he will guide us to work though those issues in his own time. The other one is a prayer to live a simpler life according to God’s plan, not my own; not always an easy thing to do. I love that I see my prayer flags every time I go in my side yard (with three dogs, that is many times a day, to take them out to potty). What a wonderful reminder to send up a little prayer each time I see them. I am not a fiber artist, by any stretch of the imagination, but I have enjoyed adding fabric to my mix of creative outlets.

I am co-teaching a pilot project out at the Bob Jones Nature Center, in conjunction with the Fort Worth After School program. We have a group of about 25 students, middle school and high school, from Rosemont and Daggett middle schools and Eastern Hills High School, that are traveling over to the BJNC to experience Nature and Art. The Program called Ollie’s Greening Up, in honor of Darrin Oliver No. 28, pitcher for the Texas Rangers, a Southlake resident, outdoor/nature lover, who is helping to fund the project. We will be covering two citizen science projects, the Urban Bird Watch and Monarch Tagging; as well as conservation issues. Marshall Grain in Grapevine will be providing a tour of their facility, along with information about the green nursery business. The students will get to plant some milkweed seeds, that will be kept at the greenhouse at BJNC. These will eventually provide food and habitat for Monarchs. All of the information presented to the students will be incorporated into an art journal. Students will be creating their own art journals, depicting events and aspects of nature that they will be exposed to in this project. The students are really enjoying creating in their journals and we are all enjoying nature and art!

I have been working quit a bit in my visual journals. I have several of them going at one time, so I just switch off, depending on which one I feel like creating in. I have an experimental journal, that I am trying new techniques, new ways to use old techniques, etc. Just experimenting, being creative, giving myself permission to just make art. I also journal some favorite quotes, songs, verses, or whatever strikes my fancy, on some of those pages. Of coarse I am still adding to my gardening art journal, and have created several new pages in that journal. I love looking at the two. They are both evolving in such different directions. I feel like these journals have helped me to loosen up in my work, become more creative and just paint because it is what I love.  If you are interested I am starting up a sketchbook crawl group, our first meeting is Saturday May 28th, 10 am until about 12pm, at Central Market in Southlake. Hope you can come out and join us.

Last weekend, I painted at the Grapevine Botanical Gardens with several other artists in honor of National Public Garden Day. The Gardens were beautiful and the weather was very nice, a little warm, but breezy. I enjoyed talking to all the folks that came out and I really enjoyed drawing and painting. I was inspired by a very interesting tree trunk, I sketched in a few more roots and made it a little more gnarled, then painted it with watercolor. Working in my experimental journal, I sketched the tree in lightly, getting things where I wanted them, then began to glaze with my watercolors. I had already created the background colors with some acrylic inks and then began to put the transparent glazes of the watercolor on top, building up the beautiful colors. I’m not sure the image does the colors justice, but the tree and background are done in a vibrant yellow oranges and very earthy browns.  Once I got home, I added the interesting handmade paper on the right side of the tree and then journaled a favorite verse of mine from a song by Joni Mitchell.

“They took all the trees and put them in a tree museum

And they charged all the people a dollar and a half just to see’em

Don’t it always seem to go, that you don’t know what you’ve got till it’s gone

They paved paradise and put up a parking lot.”

Monday evening I was so very proud to attend the North Richland Hills City Council meeting. As city council meetings go it was pretty much business as usual, however, what made it so nice, was one very special recognition on the agenda.  The City Council took the time to recognize all the many folks that had a hand in getting the Common Grounds Garden off and growing.  They gave each of us, individual recognition for our contribution, complete with a beautiful certificate “suitable for framing” and a nice set of garden tools with “Common Ground NRH founding Supporter” on the handles. Thanks so much to the City of North Richland Hills and to all the community member who have contributed so much of their time and energy to make Common Grounds Community Garden a reality. The Common Ground NRH Community Garden Ribbon cutting will be Saturday April 30, 2011 at 10:00 am at the garden, 5302 Davis Boulevard, NRH, Texas. They will also be unveiling the outdoor art piece I did, “Common Grounds”. Hope to see many of you there.

Check out the Common Grounds website

I am working away on my pages in my Common Ground Art Journal. These are not only fun to draw and paint, but I am leaning so much about organic gardening, bugs, worms, and butterflies OH MY!  The Red Wiggler Earthworms are great for using in a worm farm, they create the worm casting (worm poop to some of us) that is so fantastic on gardens, providing a much needed source of organic fertilizer for those growing veggies. I also took the small watercolors of the Painted Lady and the Gulf Fritillary butterflies I did a couple of weeks ago and put them each on a page. I then sketched and painted in watercolors, some of their caterpillar plant favorites.  To attract the Painted Lady butterfly, plant mallow and thistle in a container. To attract the Gulf Fritillary butterfly, plant a passion vine. These plants will attract the butterflies, who will in turn lay their eggs on them; then the caterpillars will have a much loved food source to munch on as they grow. I’m just “sayin” in gardening combined with art, the information is endless, the drawing and painting opportunities abound!

February’s sketchbook Challenge theme is opposites. I did a couple of sketches, one is of butterflies, who would of guessed. I did a black swallowtail, a painted lady, a couple of made up, not true monarchs. The small butterflies are on 2.5″ x 3.5″ watercolor paper, about artist trading card size. All four are done in watercolor and black felt tip pen. I’m going with the fact that butterflies have wings on the opposite sides of their bodies. The second one I did is the red cardinal, the contrast of this bright red cardinal and the neutral winter landscape are at opposite ends of the spectrum. Also included an image of my February create a calender page. For February I did pansies, once again in graphite a 5B and a blending stump. As always, thanks for looking and I hope you enjoy what I’ve shared.

We had our first meeting for the NRH Common Ground Community Garden Saturday morning and it went fantastic. The house was packed with enthusiastic gardeners and there was so much good information shared by all. The Common Grounds Painting was unveiled and received enthusiastically by all. The painting will now be framed and then mounted on the outside of the East side of the new garden shed, under the pergola. I can hardly wait. Although it is winter, the garden looks really good. This warm weather has many catching the first indication of spring fever. March and April can’t come soon enough, with their abundant planting and beautiful colors. The coming months will bring many opportunities for our community to come together, in planting, in fun and in fellowship at our wonderful NRH Common Ground Community Garden.

Things have really been busy this month, both on and off the canvas. I have been involved with the new NRH community garden, called Common Grounds. This garden will be a group effort between The City of North Richland Hills, Davis Memorial United Methodist Church and a very enthusiastic group of community volunteers. Our hope is to build a sense of community pride and to act as a center for educating and encouraging others to participate in gardening communities wherever they live. We promote organic growing and being good stewards of our earth. We will also encourage our gardeners to share a portion of their bounty with N.E.E.D. and The Community Enrichment Center. The process of building the beds, the garden center, and all the amenities will begin November 6th. Home Depot and Team Depot are major sponsors in this project, supplying materials and man power to make this garden a reality. I am so honored to have been asked to create an outdoor piece for the Common Grounds garden. Keep NRH Beautiful will sponsor the 3′ x4′ piece that I will design for the outside of the garden center. I’ll be posting progress on the garden and the art, as the project begins.

https://sites.google.com/site/nrhcommunitygarden/garden-artist

Our city is in the planning stages of a community garden, called Common Ground. I am so excited about the ability to have a larger garden plot than we have in our small side yard. This community garden will provide the opportunity for people to participate in a venue that will not only allow them to grow some fresh vegetables, yum, but to educate folks about organic gardening, beneficial and harmful insects, plant diseases and organic controls, as well as getting kids involved in gardening and becoming better stewards of our earth. We are, as I said, in the planning stage, but I am so excited to be getting in on the ground floor of what promises to be a wonderful adventure. There has also been talk of an art component to the garden, which would allow me the opportunity to do some of my work in a format that could withstand the Texas weather; providing vibrant colors in the Common Ground Garden all year long. Can’t wait to see the end product. The city is planning to break ground in October and be ready for spring plantings. I’ll keep you up to date on the progress.

I started my next Zebra Longwing painting. It has a spectacular Zebra Longwing, with wings fully open, sipping nectar from a Deep Pink Penta Flower. Once again, my inspiration for this piece came from one of my visits to the Butterfly house at Texas Discovery Gardens. I love the contrast of the massed pink penta against the black of the Zebra Longwing. This is evolving into one of my favorite pieces, but who am I kidding, all my paintings are each my favorite piece, in there own special way. The Zebra Longwing is the mascot butterfly for Texas Discovery Gardens. It is actually a poisonous species due to the host plant it feeds on, they advertise this with their brilliant black and yellow- white markings. Slow but dignified, the Zebra Longwing is a weak flier. Long antennae and a slender body are typical of these butterflies, which are at home in the tropics, but can sometimes be found as far north as Kansas. The Penta, is an evergreen bush (Alas, not here in North Texas) that, in warm climates, will light up the landscape all year with colorful star-shaped clusters. Hummingbirds and butterflies will often visit the Penta blooms before they visit other flowering plants. Although penta can survive an occasional light frost, it won’t tolerate a hard freeze. If you live in a cold climate, either grow Penta as an annual or plant it in a container and bring it indoors for the winter. These plants are great nectar plants for most any butterfly or hummingbird. Plant some this spring, the rewards are endless! Enjoy a work in progress:

It feels like Christmas! Having my work on exhibit in the Gallery at Texas Discovery Gardens is so amazing. I feel so very blessed to be able to intertwine my art with such a beautiful venue that supports our environment. My work will be on exhibition beginning March 22 and ending July 31, 2010. There will be an Opening Reception for the Exhibit on March 26th from 6:00 pm until 8:00 pm at the Gallery. Texas Discovery Gardens’ 7.5 acres offer a wonderful diversity of garden styles and botanical collections. The Gardens feature native plants and plant species from other regions of the world that are adapted to the challenging climate and soils of North Texas. Plants are also selected for their benefits in providing habitat for native wildlife, including butterflies, bugs, and birds. You can also enjoy more than 15 native species of butterflies in the Rosine Smith Sammons Butterfly House and Insectarium, as well as many new tropical butterflies. They offer many fun, hands-on environmental education programs for children and adults. What a great place to spend a Saturday enjoying art, flowers, butterflies and fun!

I have almost finished my piece “Zebra Longwing and Jatropha”. This is the piece I am doing for the Organic in the City event for Texas Discovery Gardens. I was able to get pictures of the Zebra Longwing and the Jatropha plant on one of my visits to the Butterfly House and Gardens at Texas Discovery Gardens. The Zebra Longwing is the mascot butterfly for Texas Discovery Gardens. It is actually a poisonous species due to the host plant it feeds on, they advertise this with their brilliant black and yellow- white markings. Slow but dignified, the Zebra Longwing is a weak flier. Long antennae and a slender body are typical of these butterflies, which are at home in the tropics, but can sometimes be found as far north as Kansas. According to Wikipedia, Jatropha is a genus of approximately 175 succulent plants, shrubs and trees, from the family Euphorbiaceae. The name is derived from (Greek iatros = physician and trophe = nutrition), hence the common name physic nut. Jatropha is native to Central America and has become naturalized in many tropical and subtropical areas, including India, Africa, and North America. As with many members of the family Euphorbiaceae, Jatropha contains compounds that are highly toxic. Below is a glimpse into the work in progress:

I am beginning a new painting called “Zebra Longwings” which I will be donating to the Texas Discovery Gardens for their Charity event Organic in the City Fashion Show and Auction. This event is one of the major fund raisers for the Texas Discovery Gardens. Texas Discovery Gardens is an educational organic garden facility in North Central Texas, that advances the knowledge and skill set of the community to restore, conserve and preserve nature in the urban environment. They accomplish this using their conservatory, greenhouse and 7.5 acre outdoor gardens in urban Dallas along with a full array of teaching programs developed for children and adults.  Their reach begins with small children and adults new to gardening and continues up to and through the Master Gardener level.  Texas Discovery Gardens serves thousands of inner-city students each year.  With the opening of the new Rosine Smith Sammons Butterfly House and Insectarium and the new indoor children’s classroom, Texas Discovery Gardens is now able to offer its EarthKeeper’s® Children’s Education Programs year round.  These programs are educational and fun and they promote excitement and interest in learning math and science via the natural world, they expand student knowledge and understanding of living sustainably, and help youth appreciate and embrace nature. The Organic in the City Fashion Show and Auction is an exciting, fun event eagerly anticipated by fashion, gardening and green living advocates.  Through this event Texas Discovery Gardens will raise thousands of dollars for the expansion of the children’s EarthKeeper’s programs and to bring Butterfly Gardens to schools across Dallas. For more information on Texas Discovery Gardens and this event, click on the link below.

http://www.texasdiscoverygardens.org

I am just about finished with my small canvas “Sunflowers and Gulf Fritillary Butterfly”. I have just a little bit of detail work to do, but it is almost there.  I was surprised at the time it took to do this small canvas. From beginning to end it was about a days worth of painting. For some reason, I feel like with such a small canvas, it shouldn’t take that long, but the detail work is time consuming. Oh well, I enjoyed working small and will probably do some more. The star in this painting is the Gulf Fritillary, which is a Brush-footed Butterfly, this family of butterflies is very large with about 3,000 species worldwide. This lovely bright orange member is found primarily in the South.  As I mentioned in a previous blog, the caterpillars of the Gulf Fritillary, love passion flowers. One of these vines in your yard and some nectar flowers will provide a nice habitat for these beauties.

According to an American Indian Legend – If anyone desires a wish to come true they must first capture a butterfly and whisper that wish to it. Since a butterfly can make no sound, the butterfly cannot reveal the wish to anyone but the Great Spirit who hears and sees all. In gratitude for giving the beautiful butterfly its freedom, the Great Spirit always grants the wish. So, according to legend, by making a wish and giving the butterfly its freedom, the wish will be taken to the heavens and be granted.

Most People just like butterflies, whats not to like, they are graceful, beautiful, colorful creations. I don’t think any other insect has been the inspiration for so many, artists, writers as well as naturalists.

However butterfly populations all over the world are being threatened by loss of habitat. Butterfly gardening, is a great way to provide additional habitat for butterfly species in your area. The species of butterfly vary by region, but by doing a little investigating and planting both nectar plants to attract the adult butterflies and also planting larvae foodplants for the caterpillars, you can increase the local population of butterflies in your area. Not to mention increase your gardens beauty with these colorful winged flowers. Throughout the country, the general requirements for butterfly gardening are the same: full sun, nectar source plants, larval host plants, a pesticide-free environment, and knowledge of the local butterflies. Many butterfly-attracting plants are natives and require little attention, as they are naturally adapted to the region in which they live. Butterfly gardens are best planted in the spring with younger plants or in the fall with mature plants that will become dormant quickly and re-emerge in the spring.

Butterfly Attracting Plants

Common NameAzalea Black-Eyed Susan Butterfly Bush Butterfly Weed Egyptian Star Flower Ironweed Joe-Pye Weed Lantana French Marigold New England Aster Purple Coneflower Swamp Milkweek Blazing Star Vervain Zinnia

Scientific NameRhododendron spp. Rudbeckia hirta Buddleja davidii Asclepias tuberosa Pentas lanceolata Veronia baldwinii Eupatorium purpureum Lantana camara Tagetes patula Aster novae-angliae Echinacea purpurea Asclepias incarnata Liatris spp. Verbena spp. Zinnia elegans

Host Plants and the Butterflies they Attract

Host PlantWillow (Salix spp.) Black Cherry (Prunus serotina) Pawpaw (Asimina triloba) Spicebush (Lindera benzoin) Hop Tree (Ptelea trifoliata) Senna (Cassia spp.) Fennel (Foeniculum vulgare) Milkweed (Asclepias spp.)

ButterflyRed Spotted Purple (Limenitis arthemis) Tiger Swallowtail (Papilio glaucus) Zebra Swallowtail (Eurytides marcellus) Spicebush Swallowtail (Papilio troilus) Giant Swallowtail (Papilio cresphontes) Cloudless Sulphur (Phoebis sennae) Black Swallowtail (Papilio polyxenes) Monarch (Danaus plexippus)

Look for an opportunity in your area to participate in a butterfly release. This is one of the most phenomenal events you will ever attend.  We attended one this weekend at the Texas Discovery Gardens at Fair Park. It was their first annual “Come to the Tropics Butterfly Release”. We had a great time. While the outside temperature was about 12 degrees Fahrenheit; we were browsing the booths, listening to tropical music, then releasing a butterfly and observing many other butterflies, all in the warm and humid Tropical butterfly house. I released a very large Paper Kite, or Rice-paper Butterfly, which is white with black lines, it had about a 3-4 inch wing span. Carter released a Zebra Longwings butterfly, which is the mascot butterfly of the Butterfly House. We really had a great time, taking pictures and watching the people and butterflies. I now have lots of photos for new flower and butterfly art!

Check out the following sites for more info on butterflies:

http://www. TexasDiscoveryGardens.org

http://www.dallasbutterflies.com

This work is a collaborative effort between Karen and I. Our inspiration, the Gulf Fritillary Butterfly and the beautifully intricate passion flower.  We have so many of these Fritillary Butterflies in our side yard, the reason we have them, is because we have several passion vines planted. These butterfly lay their eggs on the leaves of the passion vine, they are very small yellow spheres, which eventually produce the caterpillar. These guys have a ferocious appetite and could easily strip all the leaves on the vine. The leaves grow back, and the vine continues to produce its beautiful flower, as the chrysalis transform into the Fritillary butterfly. It is spectacular to come out in the morning and have 30 or more butterflies scurrying about our yard. Plant some passion vines, if they will thrive in your area,  you will be providing much needed habitat for many varieties of Fritillary butterflies.

I have finally finished my painting “The Painted Lady”.  The focal point of this piece is of coarse, the Painted Lady Butterfly. This is one of the most familiar butterflies in North America, as well as around the world.  If you want to attract these pretty ladies to your yard, plant thistle, hollyhocks, common sunflowers, yarrow and mallows. The butterfly will lay their eggs on these plants and the larvae ie. caterpillars will feast on these when they hatch out.  The painted lady has to lay her eggs on or very near the right food plant for the eggs, otherwise the caterpillars will not survive. These babies have a ferocious appetite and begin eating as soon as they hatch. The sweet nectar plants for the painted beauties are thistles, asters, cosmos, blazing stars, iron-weed, and Joe-pye weed. Try planting a few of the host plants and nectar plants in your butterfly garden. For those plants that are invasive or less attractive, plant in containers, creating a smorgasbord for the painted ladies. Butterflies are threatened more and more everyday by loss of habitat, plant some host and nectar plants for butterfly conservation!