Soft-Medium-Loud

Whooping Motmots – Two of three that visit at the end of the day….

“I can write best in the silence and solitude of the night, when everyone has retired.”- Zane Gray

Poza Honda – Manabi Province – Ecuador

Thank you all for your great response to the recent painting of the Green Kingfisher;  it was painted over a series of nights, and the final session lasted until 5 in the morning!   True to most any ‘laborer’ who signs out after a day’s work, I have no problems falling into a deep restorative sleep after those painting sessions.

Mornings are almost always silent, aside from the random sounds from my neighbors the birds.  The Whooping Motmots get their name from a very-low ‘Whoop-whoop-whoop’ sound that might frighten skittish people walking through the woods in the twilight!  They are most vocal in the first hours of the morning, and at the end of the day.

End of Day – all is calm.   Whooping Motmot

When the habitat is almost void of other sounds, one can hear the Motmot’s ‘other’ ultra-quiet whisperings.  Barely-audible to my range of hearing, they utter, “Cluck. Cluck. Cluck.”

Only a few yards from one of the birds, the camera video records the subtle movements but the extracted audio is barely perceived.

Gartered Trogon

The Trogons add their own unique sound to this quiet area of the bosque; it’s hard to draw or paint in the daytime when this sound echoes outside my window:

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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!