World Wetlands Day – 02/02/2022

Tags

manabi province ecuador, parque las vegas, portoviejo ecuador, world wetlands day

Parque las Vegas/Portoviejo/Manabi Province/Ecuador

Feb. 2, 2022   02/02/2022 – a lovely number!

New Moon.  New Month.  New Chinese Year of the Tiger.

Bravery.  Wisdom.  Strength.

All of these traits are important to moving forward, being stronger, having the courage to believe in yourself – and your own unique destiny.  Trying to stay neutral and centered – being on the offensive so that you’re not in the defensive.

This drab little bird appeared in mid December. Migratory? Juvenile – ? – small yellowish bird. Where are its travel mates? More on this lone bird later…

The year of the Tiger; here’s a small tigress in search of birds

Sometimes we can be brave, wise and strong –  and still be caught off guard. Like a tiger pouncing from a concealed location, our planet continues to express distress.  Maybe it’s not premeditated – our earth’s wrath, but an involuntary reaction to its own pain.   The headlines from Quito illustrate that point:

The month started with disasters that stretched around the world.

With so much misery, and two years with a virus that seems to stay one step ahead of mankind, it’s sometimes hard to share sunny stories – yet without hope for positive, we would all wither.

The Vermillion Flycatcher has returned! Yay! What must it be like to be blessed with colors like this?!

Parque las Vegas celebrates its four year anniversary.  A token phoenix that emerged from 2016’s 7.8 earthquake, the park now offers a solace for healing and reflection.

Today it also gives us an extra bonus for observing World Wetlands Day.  The area along Rio Portoviejo and the little pond give the visitors an easy glimpse into natural wetland habitats – and the birds are thriving!

Male Green Kingfisher

There’s that little bird again! It almost always shows up after 5 and loves what must seem like a jungle of cattails.  It is slowly evolving-changing colors – note the subtle streaks on its chest below:

Thanks to Daniel Arias (eBird/Urban Ornis) for pointing out those streaks!

One or two Striated Herons lurk in the shadows most every day.

Many birders ask me to please let them know if this rare Green Heron ever returns to the park. (Photo from Jan 10/2021)  I continue to watch, but there are plenty of ‘common’ species providing nice eye candy.

A large Saman tree anchors the ‘far’ side of the footbridge. Someone is building a new nest… Can you guess who/what it is?

Two loud raucous Yellow-rumped Caciques will be raising a family – in easy view from the bridge!

They have their own watcher or three:

Yes, we should take a moment to appreciate our wetlands, even little postage-stamped sized ponds can provide easy refuge to many species.

Recently another symbol of hope stepped into the scene while I admired the species from the bridge.  Arturo, a student of ambiente at the nearby university sidled up to me and asked, “Is it bad to feed rice to the birds?”

His question led to a rewarding conversation, and he told me that he’d seen me from the family’s upstairs window, which overlooked the park.  Then he described a bird that visits, which we concluded was that stunning yellow and black cacique pictured above.   I think that they plan to put a banana feeder outside their window – a great upgrade from giving rice to the finches and gallinules!   They might even ‘draw’ the nearby Whooping Motmot that lives in the neighborhood, but is not often seen.  This image from Poza Honda inspired him:

What would we do without a connection with nature?  We’d probably destroy the entire planet!  Emotions can be passed along a current of invisible energy that flows from person to person through subtle and sometimes obvious ways.

A greeting like this will always enhance the quality of one’s day.

In honor of World Wetlands Day – and in honor of PortoParque’s compassion for the wildlife that shares this park, I share some photos from my many visits to the park – a salvation for this child of nature.

What stunning eyes you have, Neotropic Cormorant!

Previous lumped under ‘Tropical Gnatcatcher,’ this adorable species now claims its own name, “White-browed Gnatcatcher.”

(The male White-browed Gnatcatcher has a darker crown.) They love th fruits of the ‘Frutilla’ tree.

There’s that yellow bird again!

The Eastern Kingbirds are back – and this one was swooping with the look-alike Blue and White Swallows!

To the joy of many, we watched the wetland areas recover from last year’s makeover, and there is abundant habitat for many species.   The petite Yellow Warbler, a new species for the park, appears each day around 5 in the afternoon and flits between the grass, lower limbs and the cattails.  How did this one lone bird find the park?  Did it get lost from its group?  Are others nearby, just not an extrovert like this one which stays in perpetual motion?

Six weeks after it first appeared, it’s yellow colors are emerging, and the streaks in its breast are more easily seen. Keb’s ‘City Boy’ continues to resonate while my base remains here in the city and close to the museum.  Parque las Vegas provides an easy access to nature and almost total removal from the caustic sounds of the city.  Without the park and its wetlands, this would be a more challenging chapter of my life.

I’ll leave you with a peek along the river, where one lone Sora appeared in January.  With so much cover, it’s hard to locate that VIP visitor from the northern hemisphere.

Across from this shady setting is a little grassy island where the Masked Water Tyrants have raised the newest generation

Oh, but beware of the predators that swim strong currents to reach the occupants of that nest.

Beware! Beware!

Pacific Parrotlets add sweet music and lovely colors – they are happy to have seeds at ground level – and near easy cover – what a photo op for anyone with a camera!

The trees are reclaiming their natural shape – and the birds are loving the new nesting options! Thank you PortoParques!

Groove-billed Anis – another easy photo op.

Pale-legged (Pacific) Hornero – always prowling for worms and insects.

Rains and high water destroyed their nest, but the Masked Water Tyrants relocated to a thick area of protection near the water.

One lone ‘Frijol de Palo’ provides food for many species. Yay – another easy photo op!

The Golden Grosbeak also loves those frijoles!

Wetlands add variety to our landscape – and at times we find poses that make us smile!

Sending you all my love – of course there is a lot to share – hopefully more soon!  I’d best get over to the park and show my appreciation for World Wetlands Day!

A Second Birding Apprentice – and A Village of Hope!

Tags

Backyard Bird Count 2020, Chestnut-headed Oropendola, Manabi Ecuador Birds, poza honda ecuador

“A man needs a little madness, or else… he never dares cut the rope and be free.” ― Nikos Kazantzakis

(Poza Honda Ecuador)  “…As I write while noting the sweet and varied sounds and calls of nature, a not-so-soothing instrument asserts its caustic voice. Incongruent with the morning’s rhythms, a chainsaw slices through the natural harmonies. Compared to the never-ending sounds of the city, the distant chainsaw seems minor and insignificant, yet it grates on my psyche much deeper than the urban distractions…” from: Many Birds at a Time – Sept 2019 – Brunetti

Manabi Province, Ecuador – Approaching quietly on his motorcycle, the guard for the dam (reservoir Poza Honda) stopped and turned off the engine. I expected Antonio to politely ask me to park elsewhere, which I usually do – but had not on that late afternoon. On my way back to the city, I stopped to video the 40 or 50 Chestnut-collared Swallows careening in and out of nests beneath the spillway bridge. Turning off the camera, I stood and smiled. His words took me by surprise and touched me greatly.

Antonio proudly posed yesterday at Poza Honda.

With sensitivity and respect, Antonio asked, “Why did you leave? Where did you move?” (I’d been basically absent for four months after living there for two years.)

With equal respect, I asked if he had time for a ten-minute answer, and if he was serious as to ‘why.‘

“Si,” the clear-eyed Antonio replied.

I said that two years ago the sound of the chain saws was rare, but for the past year it seemed to be almost daily – and most days the sound came from two or three different locations. He nodded and agreed. The rate of deforestation had increased. I mentioned the cutting and run-away fire way too close to my residence (2018) – and he distinctly remembered that fire.

Foto taken from the steps of the house.

I said that some days the sound of the saws made me angry; other days it made me profoundly sad and sometimes it was like a blow to the stomach, and at those times I cried. “It’s a protected forest, yet no one speaks up – and the authorities don’t enforce the law. It’s as if the logging is invisible, including when the loaded trucks drive past the guards, though the gates and out of the protected forest.” I mentioned the times when logs were stacked near the road, yet it wasn’t until dark when the trucks arrived to transport the material out of the area. I asked if it was legal to cut near the water, and we discussed a clear-cut area that increases each year. Higher toward the southern ridge, a new visual wound brands an area near the dam.

Three weeks later a new scar:

This past weekend delivered a new visual blow – a new chunk cleared on the neighbor’s forest.

Antonio, as with all of the locals, observes the ongoing clearing; it’s part of a lifestyle the farming and ranching community has always known.    Does having more knowledge of current events, of climate change, of pesticide dangers, of vanishing species, of the melting glaciers — does it make it more simple or more complicated when trying to live in harmony with these beautiful people?   Our conversation resumed at an easy pace, and we discussed the burning that often follows, leaving strips of parallel scars along the barren hillsides.

“Our planet is sick, and it needs more trees, more canopy – we have to respect the planet. The monkeys need tree bridges – when the area is cleared, the monkeys are forced to leave.” I said that I loved the area, and that I missed everyone – but I also did not want to end up like another Chico Mendes.

Changing the topic, I told him about the just-finished bird census, where ‘Don Jorge,’ Luis and I documented 87 species in one day, and our hopes to share our birding enthusiasm with others in the area.  I squinted toward the water’s edge and stated, “Limpkin?” He asked about the cluster of black and white birds near the Limpkin. “Those are stilts,” I said, “ but look -” and I turned on the camera, which pulled in the image of the brown Limpkin. He laughed and said he would never have seen that bird.

We then checked the field guide index and flipped to the correct page. He quickly grasped the map index for each species, and he repeated the word, “Limpkin” with clear enunciation. We turned to the stilts, and he repeated, “Black-necked Stilt” several times. We discussed the Brown Wood Rail and located its range map in the book, and we discussed extinctions and the endangered Gray-backed Hawk photographed a short distance from the dam. He learned that the Osprey prefers fish over chickens and that Laughing Falcon devours snakes.

Antonio, our second Bird Specialist in training, quickly recalled the names of the birds he had just seen. He enjoyed pronouncing the new words, and I easily imagined a small group of locals – all repeating the names – or answering the question ‘Que Ave?” then seeing which person answered first – and giving little prizes to the person who remembered the most names.

Instead of Bingo gatherings, would the locals embrace Birding gatherings? The creative mind finds many ideas for rewarding the participants: the person who asks the most questions, a new ‘star student’ who reports seeing the most birds – or interesting bird behavior — or acknowledge the person who told the most-encouraging story re: “I placed the papaya scraps on a feeder and the Orange-fronted Barbets were there almost instantly! Those birds have never been so close to our house!’

It’s doubtful they would embrace my invented method of detecting hard-to-find birds:

“…Noting the continued absence of many species (birds, butterflies and the oh-so-important bees) I slowed my pace and wondered how to increase my awareness of what might be lurking nearby. Remembering posture lessons from long ago, I imagined – not a book balanced on my head – but a bowl of clear water. ‘Let the water’s surface mirror the sky and the treetops,’ I silently coached myself. Seeing my mischievous smirk, a voyeur might think that I was tripping on experimental drugs. No drugs are needed when one fine-tunes with nature…

…Every so often my mind wandered, but a quick mental glance to the imaginary bowl on my head steered me back on course. A duet of weak chirpings meandered from deep shadows of the nearby under-story. Rufous-headed Chachalacas chanted from the distance. Careful not to swish the water on top of my head, I fine-tuned my attention to the chirpings. Silhouetted against a sunlit spot on the far side of the thicket, one petite bird flitted from ground level to low branches to 8 or so feet high then back again. The camera focused on tangled vines in the foreground, on the sunlit patch in the background, but repeatedly failed to capture the small bird. The baby birds’ grumblings halted; the adult became equally still.
Perhaps they were practicing the same bowl-balancing exercise?
This species has mastered the art of adaptation. What happens, however, when man removes their home of ‘undesirable’ undergrowth?” – Lisa Brunetti – from “MANY Birds at a Time”

………………..(Warning – this is a long post!)

Timeout for Art – “Believe in Yourself”

Tags

believe in yourself, painting watercolors of nature

“In order to succeed, we must first believe that we can.” Nikos Kazantzakis

Every so often Life presents tiny-yet-humbling gifts as if orchestrated strictly for my benefit. Sometimes it’s a mystical interaction with a bird – like when the pelican swam across the river, walked up the boulders where I was sitting – and gaped at me from about a meter away. Then it returned to the rio, swam back to the other side and joined its companions. Did they dare that pelican to interact with the human who fought to save their habitat?

A very long time ago in Louisiana, while making a farm-road detour around a fierce thunderstorm, I approached a rainbow not far from the malevolent clouds.  The left side of the rainbow grew closer and closer and almost touched the car.  Navigating an ‘S- curve’ very slowly, I noted that the rainbow came through the driver’s window – I was dumbfounded and full of bliss – driving slowly, trying to comprehend this rainbow in my lap while approaching another curve. As I turned slowly to the right, the other side of the rainbow came through the passenger window!  There I was with the left side of the rainbow in the driver’s window, and the right side streaming through the passenger side!

A very-subtle rainbow last month at Poza Honda Ecuador

Trying to comprehend this unexpected gift, I exclaimed to the rainbow, to the entire universe, “Thank you thank you thank you” and pondered that no one would ever believe me if I shared what happened! I still marvel and wonder about the science that allowed that ‘just-for-me gift.’  When I emerged from the curve to the straight road, the rainbow stayed behind. Next was the intense rain – and ten or so minutes later, I was home.  The magic was gone, but never forgotten.

Other gifts are not so dramatic, but they leave behind an imprint of gratitude. My neighbor Melissa, with her natural aptitude for drawing and painting, showed me some of her latest work. It speaks for itself – and for her:

The Lovely Masked Water-Tyrant

Tags

Ecuador art, Masked Water Tyrant, One Bird At A Time, poza honda ecuador, Watercolor of birds

Masked Water-Tyrant – Fluvicola nengeta

“I never for a day gave up listening to the songs of our birds, or watching their peculiar habits, or delineating them in the best way I could. ” John James Audubon

Poza Honda Ecuador – These highly-active and perpetually-happy Masked Water-Tyrants served as good-will ambassadors in every location I’ve lived in Ecuador.  Attired year ’round in crisp white and black/brown, they chirp, chatter, dance and build nests – always near the water.   At Casa Loca along Rio Jama, they foraged along the mud flats at low tide;  in Mindo they nested in locations just above the water, and now at Poza Honda they thrive in an ever-changing playground of water hyacinths.

While I worked on the Common Tody Flycatcher study, the Water-Tyrants tolerated my presence;  ignoring the artist, they frolicked and provided ample poses for my growing collection of photos.      Painting these birds would be challenging yet rewarding.

Masked Water Tyrants – Watercolor in progress by Lisa Brunetti

Working at night from reference photos, I also worked during the day by the water’s edge.    The bi-polar moods of the weather often sent me scampering up the hill to protect the painting!

Just as I began the watercolor wash, the skies began to baptize the painting!

Within a week, water levels leaped to maximum levels, which brought those handsome birds (and the invasive water hyacinths) closer and closer to the human’s turf.  They provided a grand assortment of poses – as if to benefit no one except the human that studied them! 

Trust vs Self Doubt

Tags

painting birds in watercolor, poza honda ecuador, self doubt, smooth-billed anis ecuador, southern house wren ecuador, watercolor art of ecuador birds

Smooth-billed Ani in Calabash Tree – Poza Honda/Manabi/Ecuador

“… If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you – and make allowance for their doubting too…” from the poem If by Rudyard Kipling (for the complete poem go HERE)

Self doubt can sabotage one’s concentration. How well I remember standing at the free-throw line and hoping that I would not miss the final shot for a Jr.-high basketball game.  Aware of my teammates, of the coach, of offensive/defensive choices if the ball missed the basket, of the next team waiting for the buzzer and warm ups; I also considered the home-town fans and strangers in the packed gym. Would my team win, would we lose, or would we go into overtime? The possibilities provided many distractions for an inexperienced young-teen! * That moment taught me an important life lesson: block out the conflicting variables and focus on the goal.

The same self doubt inflicts the creative process. When I painted the watercolor study of Smooth-billed Anis, I used an ultra-smooth Bristol Board which is very unforgiving. Once applied, the dark pigments required for the Anis could not be lifted without staining(ruining?) the paper.

Smooth-billed Anis – Watercolor in progress (Black and white image)

“The greatest mistake you can make in life is to be continually fearing you will make one.” Elbert Hubbard

Quite social and affectionate with each other, Anis stay in family clusters. Sometimes while foraging they are scattered but remain in sight of one another; they also huddle – and even cuddle – during periods of rest.  The Smooth-billed and the Groove-billed Anis prepared a little slide show introduction:

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

Painting just one bird would not illustrate the true behavior of the flock.

The painting advanced one bird at a time, and with each bird – self doubt peered over my shoulder and whispered, “Are you sure you want to add another bird? What if you make a mistake? The painting might be ruined.”

Nomadas en Manabi – Opens Tonight at Museo Portoviejo!

Tags

Nomadas en Manabi, portoviejo ecuador

Portoviejo/Manabi Province/Ecuador – Thanks to the magic of scheduling a post to be published at a specified date and time, this should reach you when the inauguration  of Nomadas en Ecuador begins.    What follows is my ‘Artist’s Statement’ written specifically for this event.  Enjoy!

Orchestrated Timelines?

Tags

Grey-backed Hawk, Museo Portoviejo, Nomadas en Manabi

Museo Portoviejo sponsors and encourages the arts. (Image from 2012)

El Ministerio de Cultura y Patrimonio
a traves del Museo Portoviejo y Archivo Historico
(Portoviejo Ecuador)
Invita a la inauguracion de la exposicion
NOMADAS EN MANABI
Expositores:
Sigrid Tidmore (Estados Unidos)
Alfonso Endara (Quito)
Crystal Hayes (Canada)
Lisa Brunetti (Estados Unidos)
Yuliana Shevchuk (Rusia)
Abigail Herrera (Venezuela)
………
Direccion: Calle Olmedo entre Sucre y Cordova (Edificio la Previsora)
Fecha: Agosto 15 de 2018
Hora: 19h30
(05) 2652235 – 2652279
………………………..
“

“The only reason for time is so that everything doesn’t happen at once. ” – Albert Einstein

When one steps into a gallery or museum, they probably don’t think about the stories behind the paintings. Painting can be hard work, especially when ‘the good brushes’ no longer hold a point, and locally-purchased new ones make poor replacements. It is difficult to ‘nail’ the snippet of light on a bird’s eye or sign one’s name when using a brush that flares at the point! Even one AWOL hair on that brush will leave its renegade signature where it doesn’t belong!  Aside from my friends and family in the USA, I also miss the convenience of buying my favorite art supplies!

Painting for me is easy when compared to the next step of matting and framing those works – and having places to store the paintings. There are no ‘Michaels’ or ‘Fads and Frames’ that offer good quality brushes, paints, mats, ready-made or custom-made frames. The larger cities have better options, but what if those cities are hours and hours away? Over the years I’ve adapted, and now use thin plywood as ‘mats,’ which I sand and paint. Just like selecting custom mats at a frame shop, I usually draw and hand paint those windows; when the paint is dry, the original is carefully taped in place.

Ready to paint that window!

“Tres Toucanes”

Because many panes of glass have broken over the years (ha, and in earthquakes!) I now use very-thick clear plastic, which protects the paintings from dust and fingerprints. The curious public can sometimes damage a drawing or painting by touching it…

Ugh; I often forget to photograph the work until it’s beneath the plastic.!

Frames are made by local carpenters; I dole out the requests a few at a time, and almost always they are ready when promised.

What Happened to Google Earth?

Tags

ecuador butterflies, google map where are the images in google maps, Lisa Brunetti art, Museo Portoviejo

Google Earth has sent ‘congratulations’ notices to say that a few of my images – like this one of Poza Honda – were very popular.

Poza Honda/ManabiProvince Ecuador – Have any of you ever added images to Google Earth-Maps?   It’s always been interesting to peruse those images and explore areas that we know well or to ‘cyber travel’ to new destinations without leaving home!  The Satellite Image option helped me fine-tune my search for a new place to live, and reference images were very helpful.

This past week on Google Earth, I entered some GPS points for where I live –  before passing them along for scientific reasons; almost immediately I hit a glitch.  I could not find a place to type the coordinates.  Perhaps that option is somewhere on the page, but I did not find it.     Next I looked for my pinned images, and they were gone!  In fact, there were no pinned images to anything on the map.  Towns and places of interest were marked by name only.  The letters were small and difficult to see – and my laptop has a large screen!

Google Chrome browser… note how tiny the bottom right options appear. That’s where one finds the photo options.

Eventually I found the image option, which on my windows browser showed in a long horizontal strip at the bottom of the page.   There were photos from different areas, and mine could not be accessed until scrolling east on the map, leaving the house site out of view.  After I selected and enlarged one of my ‘popular’ images, a little arrow-type bar zipped from the photo and pointed into the middle of the lake!  Ha, I had to laugh – it was several kilometers from the right location and was obviously submerged at the bottom of the reservoir!

Opera browser provided slightly-easier to view options.

The Dec 3rd earthquake, which rattled the house for almost a minute, must have nudged this particular GPS point into the lake!

Unable to drag it back in place via the old system that worked well, I opened a new window and did a search which took me to a Google Earth/Maps forum.  Oh my, demons must have firmly attached themselves to those who make decisions for Google Earth/Maps, and they have made a lovely mess of what was once a well-managed site.

I moved to another quadrant that I know well – the area around Jama, and I remembered that someone had posted a picture of a Royal Poinciana/Flamboyant.  I was curious to see if it still marked the correct spot.  In real life, the tree was within view of where I once lived near the mouth of Rio Jama.

Royal Poinciana (Delonix regia)still stands, though the nearby farmhouse was destroyed in the April 16, 2016 earthquake.

Flamboyant/Royal Poinciana paired with the Green Kingfisher for a great photo op –  The rear balcony of Casa Loca. 2013

There were zero photos of that area, but there were new ones from 2018 of the community of La Division.   Checking various photos in the town a few kilometers inland, I discovered that the lovely flaming Poinciana tree had been magically transplanted to Jama!  (Jama, still recovering from the earthquake, could actually use several dozen of those lovely trees!)

Channeling da Vinci – Timeout for Art

Tags

art and society, getting quiet, Leonardo da Vinci Thoughts on Art and Life, The psyche of an artist

45. – “The painter should be solitary, and take note of what he sees and
reason with himself, making a choice of the more excellent details of
the character of any object he sees; he should be like unto the mirror,
which takes the colours of the objects it reflects. And this proceeding will seem to him to be a second nature.” – Leonardi da Vinci  Thoughts on Art and Life – Translator/Maurice Baring via Gutenberg.org

Manabi Province- Ecuador – The past few weeks have been physically demanding as I’ve worked on renewing my passport and getting it ‘in hand’ (10 more years – yes!) and also finished the move from Casa Loca.   Since the Dengue/chikungunya illness, my body needs more attentive time for recovering from these trips – as well as unpacking and resuming projects.  Of course it could also be that I am not as young as I once was, and it’s part of the cycle of growing older!

My new home offers an amazing immersion in nature – with wrap-around windows with tree-top views like this:

Yellow-rumped Cacique

Scarlet-rumped Cacique

Look who raids the feeder!

First to feed at dawn and the last to feed at dusk… Whooping Motmot

The Slaty Becards are listed as Endangered, but they are the little starlets at Casa Poza Honda. (female)

Male Slaty Becard – “Howdy!”

Great Antshrike

Staining frames, painting ‘mats’ – there are always tasks to fill each day.

There are always tasks at hand, so every day or so I take a timeout and walk the very-short distance to a little roadside pond.  Sitting there, I quickly merge with nature and leave all thoughts behind… I do not think of the past or of tasks in the future.  The surroundings bestow me with an acute attention to what’s in front of me – and behind me – and overhead!

Rufous-headed Chachalaca

The Chachalacas often lure me away from the house with their raucous calls that sometimes last for hours!   There at the pond I often illustrate Leonardo’s approach (see above quote) for observing nature.  I sit on one of two rocks and observe the subtle changes from day to day.    Not only is my body recharging its batteries, but I am also engaging in a task that Leonardo describes as essential to the seriousness of an artist’s work.  It’s also essential to the health of my soul!

What WAS that flash of red – and blue – and yellow?

The lovely Ecuadorian Trogon, attired in bold colors as well as a fashionable circle of red eyeliner!

Do you see two birds?

The Ecuadorian Trogon and the Whooping Motmot provide eye-candy rewards for my quiet disconnect at the pond.  They are two of a revolving cast of unique birds that visit this pond.

Detail of Motmot’s tail feathers – Photo taken from a more-convenient ‘perch’ from the house….

One can work from photos and capture a strong likeness to the birds, but when one studies the birds in their natural surroundings, it’s easier to capture the true essence.  This is true for any slice of nature… only through hours of observation will one grasp the nuances of each subject.

There are nuggets of discovery everywhere, even underfoot.

Recently, through the gift of the online Gutenberg.org site, I downloaded and enjoyed reading Leonardo da Vinci’s “Thoughts on Art and Life” — it was as if I had been channeling his advice during my visits to the nearby pond!   Here are more of Leonardo’s words paired with images from the little ‘healing pond’ at Casa Poza Honda.

About those Spirals…

Tags

drawing spirals, painting spirals, Spirals, whirlpools

Nicolas critiques the energy of the swirl…

Inspired by an artifact in Casa del Alabado/Quito Ecuador

Creative Ops with Corn – Feed the Birds!

“We are not going in circles, we are going upwards. The path is a spiral; we have already climbed many steps.” -Hermann Hesse

The spiral design is one we’ve all drawn or doodled at one time or another.  When I share with others the joy of drawing, we often start with drawing ‘tornadoes’ – a repetitive round and round and round type motion that helps us adjust to the pencil as well as slowing down our thoughts in an almost-hypnotic approach.   After going around and round countless times, it’s almost effortless to then – with the same light touch –  draw an ellipse.

Many times I find myself drawing spirals in that same easy-going style; not thinking of anything, I draw those flowing lines that spiral from outside to in – or inside to out. It’s like a form of meditation – no thought involved, just relaxed and soothing lines, a bit like watching a ballet or tapping into the natural flow of music.  Sometimes a second set of lines wraps inside the other.  There are times when my mood or life is less relaxed, and the fluid movements are replaced by geometric grids and cross hatching, as if my internal computer is analyzing every pixel while searching for the ones that need attention!