Is it Poison Ivy or Virginia Creeper?

Is it Poison Ivy or Virginia Creeper? A very important question! If you don't know the answer you could end up with quarter-sized blisters that ooze, burn and itch, like these:

Poison Ivy blisters

 

 

Yikes! Nobody wants that, right? The two plants can appear to be similar at first glance, especially in the middle of summer when they are both growing like crazy. In fact, they do have a couple of similarities: both can be found as a vine climbing trees, etc., and both can appear as a small shrub or growing along the ground.
But there are three good ways to tell them apart.

The first way is by looking at the leaves. The Virginia Creeper has leaves in groups of five, with finely-toothed edges.  Poison Ivy leaves are in groups of three, with irregular teeth, and tend to be shiny.

Virginia Creeper

Poison Ivy 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Secondly, Virginia Creeper is held in place by small, branching tendrils, and Poison Ivy has a woody vine that looks like a hairy snake! The Poison Ivy vine is really visible in winter, when there are no leaves to hide it.

The third way to tell is in mid to late summer when the berries form. Virginia Creeper has a bluish-black berry that resembles a small grape. Poison Ivy has smaller, whitish berries that hang in clusters.

Both plants provide food for wildlife. Neither the leaves or berries of Poison Ivy seem to have any negative effects on animals. But humans need to stay away from the plant. It's not that difficult to tell them apart, just make sure you don't get too close while you're looking!

Adding layers

I am frequently asked "How is the mural coming along?" My usual answer is "It's coming right along". And it is. At a steady pace. A nice unfolding. A little each week. Here are some examples of the latest additions:

mama bear sketch

Completed mama bear

Mama bear was very fun to finish. Layers of thin color put on with choppy strokes gave her coat depth and made her look shaggy. I'm very pleased with the way she came out.

I had spent a few weeks over in the "bear corner", and even though there is still more work to be done there, like finishing the turtle and the possums, I felt like I needed to pull back and look at the bigger picture once again. So I moved over to the center portion of the wall, and started adding new stuff there.

Center wall

 You have already seen sketches of the raccoon, bobcat, domestic cat, copperhead snake and kingfisher. Now you can see them in relation to the landscape, with more trees and plants sketched in too. There is the outline of a  hickory tree in the foreground, which will be home to some songbirds and a native vine, a twiggy little dogwood tree, the skeleton of a cinnamon fern, and the cardinal plant, so named for it's bright red flowers, which will be added later. There are more plants and details to be added to this section, but it's starting to fill out nicely.

Probably the most important improvement is the addition of the layer of hills in the background. Right now they are just a wash of green, but already they make the foreground pop out.

I have never seen a beaver, but I've seen lots of evidence that they live here. It's amazing how quickly they can gnaw through a tree trunk. You can be hiking one day and there is a healthy tree, and the next day it's chomped almost all the way through! I keep thinking that someday I'll actually see the beaver. Sometimes the damage is so fresh looking I swear the beaver is hiding somewhere nearby laughing at me. But for now I guess I'm just happy that they are here, so I have included a couple of beaver-chewed stumps in the mural.

Beaver-chewed stumps

I'm not sure what's coming next, but I've been thinking about where I'm going to put the vulture I had to take out earlier. Maybe on the hill behind the stream. And I need to get all the hills sketched in more firmly before I start to define the trees more. Maybe I'll put in some turkeys, since Thanksgiving is coming. They aren't on the list but I have a great shot of some turkeys running up a hill. I keep telling myself that if I don't stop adding things to the mural that aren't on the list that I'm going to run out of time and space. But there is still plenty of time, and nothing is looking crowded or forced yet, so I'll just keep going!

More flora and fauna

We're smack in the middle of fall here in central Virginia but I'm still thinking about flowering plants and trees in their summer plumage. Not that I don't love fall, I do! But the mural is a depiction of the fullness of summer.
Every time I went for a walk or saw something I thought "Oh, I've got to add that!", so the list of plants and animals has grown. I've been concentrating on one corner for a while, and am very pleased with the way it is starting to look. It's one thing to see it sketched out or have an idea in my head, but it's really great when the spaces begin to get filled in with form and color and things start coming to life.

Rufous-sided Towhee

I love it when I am surprised by a Rufous-sided Towhee scratching around in the leaf litter.

Here is the Towhee again, with the soon to be completed mama bear and chipmunk, with the Virginia Willow, the Cutleaf Coneflower, and the Southern Lady Fern.

Soon I will add details to the hollow log, and flesh out the chipmunk and the pile of baby possums.

Also in the works is a Piliated Woodpecker.

This is the completed Belted Kingfisher on his perch (not yet detailed) overlooking the stream.

And here is the basic stream bank, without any plants added yet. What looks like the horizon is really just the opposite stream bank as it curves around. There will be plants and some beaver-gnawed tree trunks there to define the contour.
That's it for now!

A big step forward.

Yesterday I was alone with the mural. For three whole hours! Not completely alone; the turtle, bearded dragon, and a few other creatures that inhabit the nature center were there to keep me company. For a variety of reasons, it had been a while since I had gone to work on the mural. The room had been temporarily unavailable, there was an earthquake, then a hurricane, then one of my beagles got really sick...just a series of things that made staying home seem like the right thing to do.

Driving over there with all my stuff, I knew that, since camp was over, there wouldn't be any kids around.  I was looking forward to some quiet time and getting a lot done. There can be a social aspect to painting, but for me it is mostly a solitary activity. I do my best work when I can give it my full attention. So I went into the room, turned on the lights, and looked at the mural. It only took a moment for her to speak to me.

"You're here!" she said.
"Yes, I'm glad to be back. What shall we work on today? Maybe I'll put in the kingfisher or work on the copperhead" I replied.
She laughed, but she was firm when she said "Oh, no you won't! Just sit down and spend some time with me, and I'll tell you what I need".
I hesitated, knowing that it had been a while since I'd worked, and really wanting to "get something done". But I agreed to sit, just for a minute.
"What about all the plants?" she asked. "It's fine for you to detail a bird or two, but I think you could make some important progress if you skipped the details for now and looked at the bigger picture."
"Hmmm....." I mused. "Maybe you're right."

And she was right. Aside from the trees, I had only chosen a few other plants and needed many more to make the mural full and complete. What were they, and where would they fit? I knew I needed shrubs, flowers, and grasses. It was time to get out the reference books and take a look.

I buried myself in the books with great results. Just to name a few, the Virginia Creeper will go on the Mockernut Hickory tree along with the holes made by a yellow-bellied sapsucker. Poison Ivy will go on the Tulip Poplar. The Southern Lady fern will give shade to the chipmunk, and the Cardinal flower will not only give a great splash of color, but it will provide food for the Eastern Tiger Swallowtail butterfly and the Ruby-throated Hummingbird. The Virginia Willow has a delicate white flower, and the Twisted Sedge and Appalachian Bluet will fill the nooks and crannies among the rocks on the stream banks.  It was a cross between planning a garden and working on a jigsaw puzzle, and I loved it. The three hours flew by, and look how much I got done without even lifting a paintbrush! I am feeling newly inspired.

There aren't any photos of this part of the work, so I will leave you with a photo of a large painting I did a couple of years ago. This painting was also a "jigsaw puzzle" of sorts, the different sized and colored pieces needed to fit together perfectly to make it work. The main difference is that the mural is realistic and this painting, my version of the Tree of Life, is pure fantasy.

Tree of Life, 24x36, acrylic on canvas

Steady Pace

It's been a while since my last post, but that doesn't mean I haven't been working on the mural. I was hoping to finish the water, get it photographed, and then do a post, but it took me a lot longer to finish the water than I thought, and I'm still working on it. I am building the shoreline as well, and will have pics hopefully next week.

The ed center is being used for other purposes for a few days, so I can't really get in there to work, but it gives me a chance to reflect and plan. I get excited when I walk into the room now, and see it growing day by day. Working on the images close to the ground is tough. I have to sit on a low stool or on the ground and hunch over. Many times I'm thinking about how much it hurts instead of what I'm doing. I'm looking forward to working my way up, so I can work standing, or at least sitting in an upright position. I'll be able to do longer days that way.

It's been fun working while camp was in progress, seeing all the kids enjoying themselves, and getting to know some of the counselors too. Camp ends this week, and it will be a different experience when I get back in there next. A lot quieter, for sure!

For now I will leave you with a before and after picture. The Great Blue Heron is the first creature I have done detail work on. While the sketch takes a few minutes to put on the wall (not counting the initial sketching time and prep work), adding the details takes several hours. I will go through this process with everything in the mural.

Great Blue Heron sketch

Great Blue Heron detail

The list keeps growing

Just when I think I'm really getting somewhere, I think of something that I need to add or change, and I'm back to square one! The turkey vultures had to come out because I needed another tree in the foreground, or I would not have a home for all the songbirds, which have to be up front because of their small size. I plan to add the TV back in, but perhaps use one TV instead of two, and put it more forward to show better detail of the head, which is really quite beautiful if you consider what it was designed to do. They do a nasty job but somebody's got to do it!
If we're talking about straight up numbers, I am slightly less than halfway with all the species (plants and animals) that need to be placed. The good news is that the large ones are in, and now it is time to start figuring out where the small ones will go. There is a lot of work to be done before I get to some of them. For example, I will be doing all the life stages of the dragonfly and the monarch butterfly. Those can't be done until I get the water done, and certain plants in place. Some of the smaller species may not get their home until the very last.
The pictures tell the best story, so here's what's new! Remember, these are just sketches.

Copperhead

White-breasted nuthatch

Barred owl

Downy woodpecker

Decaying log with Eastern box turtle, chipmunk, and fungus

Red fox and brook trout

Great blue heron

Another day, another species.

Since my last post I have added seven new species, but didn't have the camera with me on some of the days I was working!

 Just a couple of new photos today. The Turkey Vultures with their carrion are an important addition. Nature isn't always pretty, but it's always efficient, and scavengers are a vital part of the ecosystem. I have always wanted to do a portrait of a TV, but couldn't find a logical spot in the foreground to do it, so I opted to put them on a hill in the background. Still, they are unmistakable. 

Turkey Vultures with carrion

This raccoon made it to portrait status. He's big enough to really stand out, but small enough to be shown near life-size. He'll be sitting pretty on his log in the foreground. I really love watching raccoons. They are so smart and curious about everything, and it's amazing the way they use their dexterous forepaws.

  Things are progressing smoothly. Most of the bigger creatures have been placed. But there are so many more decisions to be made...there are still at least 35 more species of plants and animals to be placed! And I definitely need more trees!

This view of the wall is actually four or five separate images "stitched" together, to show more detail. It doesn't include all the work so far, but it's an experiment to see if we could get a good pic of the whole wall. I think it will work once more color and detail are added.
Up next (when I have the camera): Red fox, barred owl, brook trout, downy woodpecker, and white-breasted nuthatch.

Why is there a domestic house cat in the wildlife mural, and what does it have in its mouth?

House cat with prey, a Carolina chickadee

True, the house cat is not wildlife. But its impact on wildlife is profound, therefore it is included in this mural. Unfortunately, that is not a ball of string in its mouth, it is a chickadee.

 Did you know.....

• Nationwide, hundreds of millions of birds, and more than a billion small animals are killed by cats every year?
• Cats can transmit disease to wildlife?
• Cats compete with natural predators?
• Invasive species, including cats, are the second most serious threat to bird populations worldwide?

 It is a myth that well-fed cats don't hunt and kill birds and other wildlife. Well-fed cats kill birds and other wildlife because the hunting instinct is independent of the urge to eat. In one study, six cats were presented with a live small rat while eating their preferred food. All six cats stopped eating the food, killed the rat, and then resumed eating the food. I'm talking about Fluffy and Snowball here, not feral or native wild cats, such as the bobcat. Even putting a bell on your free-range cat doesn't help, because cats can learn to stalk quietly, and birds do not recognize the sound of the bell as something dangerous.

Things you can do to help:

•   If at all possible, for the sake of your cat and local wildlife, keep your cat indoors. Keeping your cats indoors helps protect the wildlife around your yard and prevents your cat from picking up diseases from strays or getting injured.
• Neuter your cats or prevent them from breeding, and encourage others to do so.
• Locate bird feeders in sites that do not provide cover for cats to wait in ambush for birds. 
• Don't feed stray cats. Feeding strays maintains high densities of cats that kill and compete with native wildlife populations.  

For more information, visit the American Bird Conservancy's website www.abcbirds.org and read about their program called CATS INDOORS-THE CAMPAIGN FOR SAFER BIRDS AND CATS.

Lions and tigers and bears.....

OK, so there are no lions or tigers, but there is a bobcat and a bear. Two bears, actually; a mama black bear and her cub. The fun part starts now! Prepping the wall and laying out the landscape was tedious (so I can only imagine how boring it is just reading about it), but painting the critters is why I signed up for this job.

mama black bear

The original plan was to map out the entire mural, with exact locations for all the plants and animals, before starting to paint any of them. After many attempts, and many wasted hours staring at blank paper, I realized that I needed a new plan. In the famous words of some marketing genius, I decided to "just do it". Using the original concept sketch as a guide, and correcting for scale, I have put up the first of the mammals. This feels like a much more natural way of working for me, and if the mural really is going to "evolve" then the methods should be able to adapt as well. The animals are just sketched in at this point. The details will come later after I make sure everything is in its proper place.

black bear cub

 I started with the mammals for several reasons. First, they are generally larger than the other creatures and I have to make sure I fit them all in. Second, they can become focal points around which I design little vignettes of plants and animals. Third, they're just cool!

white-tailed doe and fawns

gray squirrel

But just because an animal is large doesn't mean that I will paint it large in the mural. If I made them all life-sized there wouldn't be room for everything. For example, the white-tailed doe and fawns are placed on a hill in the distance, so the actual size of their image is about the same as the image of the gray squirrel, who is represented life-sized, and sits on top of one of the doors right up "front". I could not resist having one large life-sized mammal, so I chose the mama and baby black bear. They definitely take up a lot of room in the foreground, but once I get all the details in and fill in their environment with plants and other small creatures, I think it will become a very effective vignette. I have to save room in the foreground for all the smaller creatures, because if I put them in the distance they would be too tiny to be recognizable.

bobcat

As I have said before, the room I am working in is used for teaching and there are usually kids and counselors around while I'm working. When I was working on the layout no one spoke to me much or asked me any questions about what I was doing. But the critters really draw people out. I now get all kinds of questions and comments. The purpose of the mural is to teach and inspire, so I am pleased to say that it is already working, even though it is still several months to completion. A young man asked me yesterday "Are you a good artist?" I hesitated with my answer, but finally said "Well, I work really hard and I enjoy what I do." Maybe there is a kid out there who has a secret desire to be an artist. If so, I hope that kid finds me. I'll tell him that being an artist is more about working hard, believing in yourself, and doing what you love than it is about talent.

spotted skunk, curled up asleep at the base of a tree

Rock(y) Week

The plan last week was to head out to Triple C Camp to work on the mural twice. I wanted to get the rocks sketched in to the stream and its banks and start placing the large mammals. Things did not turn out exactly as I had planned....

An unexpected trip to the ER early in the week really threw me for a loop. It was for a family member, and everything is going to be OK, but it was scary, took a whole day, and really made the rest of the week "rocky". I know, it sounds corny, but sometimes art really does imitate life, or is that vice versa?

I did manage to get the rocks sketched in. Some people might be able to think "boulder" and have just the right shape and size materialize from their brush. But not me. I need to look at boulders, or pictures of boulders, for that to happen. Since I cannot actually haul large boulders in to sketch from them, I had to look at lots of pictures and try to put together a montage that I thought would fit nicely into the contours of the little stream running through the mural. I looked at lots of pictures, put it together, scaled it down, and was ready to paint.

Let's just say I'm not exactly happy with the way it came out. Who knows, if I'd been having a better week I might have spent more time looking at photos, or whatever. Part of the problem is that the stream is front and center in the mural, and now the rocks just stick out like a sore thumb. And I thought I had chosen some cool-looking formations, but they look all jagged and fake. Also, I used a gray wash which is a bit darker than the other washes I have used so far, so they stand out even more. It can be fixed, in fact it will be an easy fix once I get working on the details in that area. It's just the first time (of many more times to come) that something didn't come out quite right at first.

The good news is, at least the rocks are in the right place and the scale looks right. I could go in there and fix them right away, but I'm going to wait. They stick out now, but as I add layers of color and more details to the mural they will blend in and become part of it. I will wonder why I ever thought they were wrong. Sometimes the things we think are "boulders" in our lives are like that too. At first they seem huge and it's hard to see around them, we wish they would just go away. Then, as we change course to adjust and add layers of experiences to our lives, they seem to soften and become an integral part of the scenery. I know the mural rocks will do just that.

Jeez, I couldn't even get a good picture of the bad rocks! There are even more in a different part of the mural.

 

So this week will be on to the big mammals. I have to look at lots of photos, try to find the ones that best match my vision for the composition, and adjust them to scale, just like I did for the rocks. I am going to put a nearly life-sized bear cub clinging to a tree right in front, with his mama peeking out from behind. It should be fun looking for images to match what I have in mind. For now, I am over the rocks and on to the next thing!

Sketchy Beginnings

Time to put some paint on the wall! And I did put lots of paint on the wall, though it doesn't look very colorful at this point. The locations of the mountains, large trees, and water have all been sketched in. The reason it does not look very colorful at this point is because I have not begun to use full-strength pigments yet. I have been mixing the pigments with a watered down white wall paint, to create what is called a "wash". I mixed up three of these washes: a slightly brown one for the trees, a blue tinted one for the water, and a greenish one for the mountains in the background. You can see the difference just enough to make out the shapes.

 The room was actually full of people while I was working, so I wasn't able to stand back enough to get a shot of the whole wall, but you get the idea. The room is a classroom and I knew I would be working while it was being used, so I was a little worried about noise and interruption. Turns out it didn't bother me at all. In fact, it kept me focused, and I enjoyed listening to the conversation going on around me as I worked.


There is one thing I may have to change: using the ladder. If I had set up a camera to take timed images of myself while I was working, I'm sure I would not see myself doing any painting in the time-lapse version. What I would see is a seemingly endless dance of moving the ladder, climbing it, climbing back down, moving it a bit, climbing up again, climbing down again, and them starting all over again. It wasn't very efficient. Also, I cannot directly face the wall while I'm working. It was OK for the big brush strokes I was using to put up the sketch, but it won't work when I am doing the detail work. I'll have to figure something out.

Next task is to go through hundreds of photographs of rocks and streams to see which piles of boulders I want to put in the water. Then I will draw those to scale on the grid and sketch them in the same way I did the trees and the mountains, using a different color wash. More details about that next time!

Prepping the wall

The mural project is very exciting. Unfortunately, this part of the process is not very exciting! But it must be done, and it must be done correctly, if everything that follows is going to succeed. You know the old adage: "Measure twice, cut once. Measure once, cut twice". The prepping deserves to be described because, though rather boring, it is time consuming, and it is something that I learned from.

The wall originally had a couple of coats of what appeared to be a semi-gloss wall paint. This was not suitable for this project, due to the non-absorbent quality of the paint. We applied two coats of a flat primer. The first coat was white, and the second coat a light blue. I chose light blue to act as a unifying color for the entire mural. This is such a large project that there may end up being small (1/4" or less) areas that don't get painted. But there will be a non-white color in these spaces that will make it complete. The light blue color will make it seem as though a little bit of sky is being reflected throughout.

Normally I would use gesso (pronounced JESS-oh), a thick, acrylic-based primer, to prep a canvas. It acts as a sealant and tightens the canvas as it dries. It also provides "tooth" to the surface, which is to say that it gives it a little roughness for the paint to cling to. It is quite flat (no gloss) and somewhat absorbent. It is also very expensive, and would have cost a small fortune to put two coats on a 10x26 wall. Hence the decision to use wall primer instead. It's nice and flat, has some tooth, and took the blue tint nicely. It will work perfectly well for a fraction of the cost.

The next step was to transfer the grid to the wall. In this case the grid is made up of 3' squares. This provides a backbone for the mural, to make sure everything goes into its proper place. I had a few ideas for ways to do this. One was to use chalk lines. I tried one chalk line and didn't like it. Another was to put a push pin into each corner of every square, and I could use the pins later to hold my drawings in place while I was working. For those of you who speak pig latin, I decided to ix-nay the in-pays. I ended up using the KISS (keep it simple, stupid!) method to apply the grid. Working methodically with a ladder, a tape measure, a level, and a straight edge, we drew the grid with a pencil. Like I said earlier, not very exciting!

Here's Minal helping me put up the grid.

 

 

You can see the light blue color, though it's prettier in real life. Normally I am not the measuring type. And the kind of work I have done has never really called for it. But in this case it was essential, and because of it I can work with more freedom and confidence.

The next step will be to rough in the landscape contours and trees. For this I will begin to apply color! It's actually a little scary...I'll let you know how it goes.

Embarking on a year-long project

Ever have one of those great opportunities that just falls into your lap at the perfect time? This actually happens to me fairly frequently. There isn't really a trick to making this happen. It's quite simple, actually, and involves three steps: I focus on the things I am grateful for, try to use my best talents, and try to make choices based on the advice from my inner voice. This invariably causes me to be in the right place at the right time to receive whatever gift the universe is trying to give me. And it's usually just what I need.

In this case it is a commission for a 10'x26' mural. For a couple of years now I have been painting local wildlife portraits, birds mostly, and selling my little canvasses at C'ville Arts, an artists co-op I belong to in Charlottesville. http://www.charlottesvillearts.com  I love painting the creatures, and I also love waiting and watching for them, both in my semi-rural yard and out in the woods. And I love being part of my co-op. It's a great group of artists and like-minded individuals that have also become friends. But I was beginning to feel a little...stale, and I think my work was starting to show it. I was sure I was doing what I was supposed to be doing, but I just needed a change, or a challenge.

The challenge came in the form of an e-mail from Mike Bruscia, Executive Director of The Green Adventure Project. http://greenadventureproject.org  Mike had seen my wildlife paintings at C'ville Arts and wondered if I'd be interested in having a conversation with him about a mural project he had in mind for his new green-built education center at Triple C Camp, located just south of Charlottesville. http://www.tripleccamp.com

To make a long story short, we met, and after hearing his vision for the mural, learning that he wants to use it to teach and inspire, and visiting the lovely site, I knew for certain it was something I wanted to do. I took some measurements, gave it a lot of thought, and submitted a proposal, which was accepted by Mike and by H and Libby, owners of Triple C Camp. We were ready to start!

So where DO you start with such a big project? By defining it, of course. Here is a brief definition of the mural: It will be 10' high and 26' long. It will be a summer scene in Central Virginia, depicting local landscape and more than fifty different species of local plants and animals, both native and invasive. All species will display key identification characteristics. Easy, right?

NOT! Well, picking the species was easy. We mostly agreed right away on that. And painting them will be the fun part. But deciding where each one will fit into the mural, and getting the scale and perspective right on the whole thing is where the real challenge comes in. Though I did a few smaller murals back in my college days, this will be by far the largest and most complicated of anything I have ever attempted. This gives me the little edge of fear that usually causes me to increase focus and can lead to some really great learning, and hopefully, great results!

Why blog the process? The mural will probably take the better part of a year to complete. Since I will be devoting such a large chunk of time to it, I thought it would be fun to document it. It might help me focus on a problem area, or be interesting to anyone who happens to see the mural in progress. If one of the students who happens to be in the room while I'm working is curious, I can direct them to the blog. But basically, it's just something I want to do.

Here are photos of the wall and the original concept sketch.

 And Mike, if you're reading this, thanks for your vision and for your confidence in my work. I know this is going to be great!