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.