Tuesday, October 05, 2010

A little bit of Thoreau..

With this perfect Autumn weather here in the Midwest, I am enjoying and capturing all the beauty. This week I am leading students on environmental walks through the woods and culminating this with sketching.

We sit on logs or leaf-lined pathways as jewels of scarlet and tangerine leaves tumble down upon us as we write. Today's work brought us patches of sunlight and shadow, the calls of cardinals and crows, and the echoing of a woodpecker probably wondering what we were doing.

The assignment is to look for all the beauty in nature, the small pieces that we miss...the vein of a leaf, the shape of the acorn or the deep purple asters filling our woods these days.

Why do I do this? Oh, it would be nice to bring out some Plein Air painters, but most of all, I want them to appreciate the beauty of this world.

Another woodland walk tomorrow.

Tonight? Line-dancing!

Congratulations Trine!!

  My first glimpse of our monument decked in Trine blue took my breath away. I was coming home from the Thursday night game with Aaron and R...