Iris tenax , “Tough-leaved Iris” or “Oregon Flag” makes a brief appearance in late spring. This roadside plant lasted long enough to do a drawing of the actual flower, create a color chart, and take photos.

    I transferred the drawing into the “sketchbook” and the final watercolor was completed after the bloom had wilted.

Impatiens capensis, “Jewelweed” is also known as “Touch-Me-Not” because the seed pod explodes if touched. The explosion scatters seeds widely, enabling the plant to dominate an area. It was fascinating to study under the microscope. Two types of flowers grow on the plant: The orange, sometimes spotted, flower that attracts pollinators; and a small, self-pollinating flower that grows later in the season as a last-ditch effort to propagate. See the sketchbook page above for the detailed dissection drawing.

The large leaf was difficult to render in watercolor because it threatened to buckle the paper and ruin the previous page of the Sisterhood Sketchbook. I used colored pencil to finish it, but didn’t really capture the yellow-green tones. The leaves of Jewelweed can be crushed and used to soothe poison ivy rashes.

Traveling Paints update. Here are sketchbook contributions for March, April, and May.

The Common Garden Vetch (Vicia sativa) is a good example of my favorite type of botanical subject. This weed was growing in a construction zone along I-205 near my day job in Clackamas, Oregon. If I hadn’t been looking for a March specimen, I might not have given it more than a glance. But once I brought it home and started drawing, I was enraptured by the delicately twisting tendrils, the jaunty attitude of the leaves, and the shapely pink-violet flowers. The flowers and fruit have the same anatomy as other members of the Pea family (Fabaceae), such as Sweetpea.

In April, I went directly to Lewis & Clark State Park for a specimen of the Candy Flower (Claytonia sibirica) since I had seen it last year. The tiny white flowers are plentiful in lightly forested areas and sweet to observe under the microscope. Each petal has a “peppermint candy” stripe and the pink anthers look like tiny Race for the Cure ribbons.

May 2016: Back at Lewis & Clark SP. There were lots of Mary Blue Eyes and Bleeding Hearts, then I saw this Wallflower (Erysimum capitatum) dangling broken from the climbing wall at Broughton’s Bluff. I try to collect specimens thoughtfully (and mostly legally). This Wallflower was going to die. But now it has a page in the most beautiful sketchbook of the year: one of the Traveling Paints Sisters wrapped her book in copper and hammered a design on the cover. Wish I had scanned it!

At the end of March, I was lucky enough to have a spot in Colleen Barry’s week-long Anatomy of the Figure class at Gage Academy in Seattle. Colleen (colleenbarryart.com) is classically trained and IMHO, Greatest in the World of contemporary classical artists. She is based in Brooklyn, NY, but travels for teaching.

I first took the class in June 2014, and it was revelatory. I had never heard of Bargue drawings, sight-size, and the other classical methods she taught. I was trained to construct the figure beginning with ovals and cylinder shapes.

How did I have 7-½ years of art training and miss the day my instructors talked about the Russian and French Academies? Answer: They never did!

Colleen’s class taught me a whole new way to approach drawing that works not only with the figure, but with plants and landscapes. We started with measuring and blocking in — creating a “constellation” of points and lines. Then we spent a couple of days of defining shadow area shapes, followed filling in the “twilight” zones where dark turns to light. Finally, we gave the figures a “flickering flame,” strengthening certain lines of light and dark.

My anatomy background definitely gave me a jump start, and I really like the look obtained with the Academy methods. My first effort, the male model, was better than this year, the female. Beginner’s mind.

This year a group I belong to, Oregon Botanical Artists, launched a project called, The Sisterhood of the Traveling Paints. We each bought a Stillman & Birn hardbound sketchbook, 5.5 x 8.5 inches. And beginning in January, each month we fill a page or two with botanical sketches, notes, and even fully colored paintings. Then the book is passed on to the next artist. At the end of the year, the sketchbooks will have traveled through the entire Sisterhood and return to their owners filled with pages of paint and colored pencil.

The first plant of the year was a carnivorous Sundew (Drosera capensis) that I bought at the Curiosity Gallery art fair. The sticky tendrils, in which a fruit fly may find itself, are very hot pink. I used Dr. PH Martin dyes and a crowquill pen. This is the partly completed page. I forgot to scan the final before shipping it on. But I’ll get it back next December.

There aren’t many wildflowers in early February, but mosses are plentiful. Wendy and I took a Valentine’s Day hike at Oxbow Park not far from our house. I was looking for Lover’s Moss (Aulacomnium androgynum), but found lots of Capillary Thread Moss (Bryum capillare) instead.

It was fascinating to observe this moss under the microscope. As it dried, the translucent, avascular “leaves” curled to the right (dextrous spiral), but a drop of water brought them instantly back to life.