Behind my parents' house in Wisconsin is a huge empty grassy space we just called "the field." My siblings and I spent a ton of our childhood wandering around in "the fields," full of tall grass and shrubs and locusts and moths and turtles and one time, an abandoned washing machine. Later, the city added (beautiful!) drainage ponds to the fields, which brought geese, ducks, and a great blue heron. It was really a sacred, special place to me.
Now I live in Virginia, and I'm learning to feel like it's home. It's different and sometimes weird - especially in winter. I'm not used to winter that's not blanketed in snow, and for a while I found it hard to see the beauty in a whole lot of drab, brown, naked trees.
However. I now live near this incredible, wonderful, breathtaking park along the Potomac. And in that park, there's a pond - an achingly familiar pond with geese and ducks and yes, a great blue heron. And it has tall tall grass, and little shrubs, and all kinds of little miracle plants that have taken on such lovely shapes.
So, this drawing turned into a tribute to those two spaces, and to finding beauty even in winter. The colors are still beautiful, really - it's just a different palette. The dead & dormant plants have a really different, delicate quality.
This piece is 18"x24", colored pencil on paper - and not (yet) photographed very well, because photographing art is hard! I'm learning.
Below is an in-progress shot & some of the photos I took in the park when I was gathering reference.
