Sketching the Pandemic Year 2020 Week 18

 

Sketching the Pandemic Year 2020 April26-May2 Week 18

Staying home during the pandemic, I spent many hours watching  high flying, cruising birds. Mostly I resorted to hoping and waiting for them to get closer and  within the binoculars view.  We live close to an Air Force Base. So I am aware of ‘GIS’  short for ‘General Information and shape’ - fighter pilots’ and airplane enthusiasts’ way of spotting and identifying planes by their silhouettes, sizes, shapes, etc rather than insignia. On a whim, wondering if such a system existed for birds, I decided to google flying wing shape silhouettes for hawks and raptors. I had seen Osprey, Bald eagle, Black and turkey Vultures as well as  different sea gulls in the skies around our yard and in the neighborhood but never could tell them apart way up high! Knowing the silhouettes and shapes really helped. I have not come across any Red tailed hawks or Northern Harriers around here but I am a little better at identifying Osprey, Bald Eagle and vultures :)

The bronze and gilded Chariot shaft ornament in the form of the dragon head pictured on the Engagement Calendar 2020 is from c.400-300 BCE Late Eastern  Zhou Dynasty in China.  It was found at a royal burial ground. I wonder if the dragons ferrying the dead royals on their journey to the other world encounter any of these majestic raptors ! 

Raptor Silhouettes ink by Meera Rao 

Sketching the Pandemic Year 2020 week 17

Sketching the Pandemic Year 2020 April 19-24 week 17

Phragmipedium Petite Queillette  from Smithsonian gardens graces this page of the Smithsonian Engagement Calendar 2020.  The write up about the orchid reads : “.. is a hybrid of two parent species. One parent ‘Phragmipedium besseae’ is found only in the forests of Ecuador and Columbia, growing on the rocks and steep banks along fast growing streams. This rare critically endangered orchid is just one of more than 7000 specimens included in the Smithsonian Gardens Orchid Collection.” 

We have just one orchid plant -  cultivated variety of Phalaenopsis species - a gift from a friend. She gave it me about five years ago and every year it has bloomed again and again. The blooms last for months and the plant graces my coffee table all that time.  Rest of the year it’s in our sunroom enjoying the balmy hot conditions - pretty close to the tropical weather of its natural habitat.  When I received the plant it was February and in full bloom - but since then the timing of blooms has been creeping up a bit later every year. After the very first one blossom appears,  others come in quick succession.  The timing was just right for this page.  Once it starts blooming I sketch or photograph often capturing it in different lights.  

Orchids are works of art by nature - beautiful and ingenious in their form and function. The flowers are shrouded  in symbolism in every part of the world.  I learned that the word Orchid comes from the Greek orkhis meaning ‘testicles’! The everyday flavoring Vanilla comes from an Orchid too. There are more than 28,000 naturally occurring species in the family Orchidaeceae in the world - in every continent except for Antarctica! And  there are thousands of hybrids !!! But many species are also lost or critically endangered due to climate change, loss of habitat and indiscriminate acquisition by orchids hunters and ‘collectors’. There is an intriguing article ‘Orchid Fever’ in the Newyorker magazine by Susan Orlean - which later came to be a book ‘The Orchid Thief’.   I read in an article the Indian Newspaper ‘The Hindu’  that : “...in the Rig Veda and the Atharva Veda (1500-800BC) two orchids Rasma - Vanda tessallata and Sanjeevani - Flickingeria macrai have been mentioned as medicinally important. Subsequently, Sushruta Samhita /by Sushruta (Indian Hypocrates) and Charaka Samhita by Charaka listed about a dozen orchid plants used by Ayurveda.” The article continued with a list of orchids that are still used to treat many health issues in Ayurveda, and  traditional tribal Medicines world over. With thousands of species will we ever know all the marvels of Orchids ? 

Orchid dance  watercolor by Meera Rao 

 

Sketching the Pandemic Year 2020 Week 16

Sketching the Pandemic Year 2020 week 16  April 12-18 

Every year the Osprey pair return like clockwork  sometime in late March from wintering elsewhere. As always,  in no time at all they renovate their nest built on the ‘no wake’ pole at the bend in the river. The male searches and finds the sticks and the female does the necessary work of making the nest just right. There is no time to waste -  the nest has to be ready for the eggs and then the chicks! The bare branch of the tree on the riverbank is the male’s favorite spot to sit. He brings the fish he catches to the branch to eat. Sometimes he is perched there grooming.  The female usually sat in the nest - especially once she laid the eggs. A pair of fish crow appear in the nearby branch as soon as the Osprey lands with the fish. Mostly the crow were content to swoop down to the ground below and devour the bits that fall off.  Once there are chicks in the nest for the crows to tend, they get aggressive but Ospreys with parental duties also don’t tolerate the crows anywhere close by!

        Osprey Resting watercolor by Meera Rao

Sheltering at home meant that I was privy to all that drama. I had the time to notice how often they came to sit on that branch and recognize their calls. I made an effort to tell the difference between male and female Ospreys. I researched about their habits and life.  The binoculars were always on the table by the window and I was happy to spend hours watching the majestic birds flying, swooping to catch a fish, tearing into it with its sharp claws and beak to satisfy its hunger or feed the chicks. 

The photo of John Singer Sargent’s beautiful portrait of Betty Wertheimer in the Smithsonian Engagement Calendar 2020, like all his other paintings showcases his magnificent talent. There is only a small sketch - a study of dead birds attributed to him among hundreds of his works.  I am sure though, had he turned his attention to Ospreys, there would have been wonderful portraits of birds for us to admire. 

 

Sketching the Pandemic Year 2020 week 15

Sketching the Pandemic Year in Smithsonian Engagement Calendar 2020

Week 15 April 5-11

The photograph on the Smithsonian Engagement Calendar 2020 for the week of April 5-11 was Nicario Jimenez Quispe’s The Hat Maker Workshop’.  Quispe used wood, boiled potato, natural pigments, plaster and lamb’s wool to make this piece.  He is a Peruvian American retalbo maker. The caption explains that  his traditional alter pieces are made as “small wooden boxes filled with figures, animals, and other other objects that tell a story. The hats shown here are representations of those used every day in the peasant communities of the Andes, where they are made of lamb’s wool and dyed with natural pigments and sold in markets and fairs.”  

By April 2020 making masks had taken over the country and I joined in the frenzy too! For days I watched YouTube videos checking out the various kinds of masks that I could sew.  And then I selected appropriate  fabric remnants from my stash, gathered the elastic, and got to work. When the old sewing machine broke I called it quits on making the masks. I  bought handmade masks from crafters to do my part in supporting them. A friend shared two masks she made. I parceled out a few in a bowl by the front door, extras in my purse in ziplock bags, a couple in the car, and more in my coat jackets along with tiny bottles of sanitizers!! I was not going to be caught without a mask ! And for how long would this go on - no one knew for sure. 

Mask making  watercolor and ink by Meera Rao 

Sketching the Pandemic Year 2020 week 14

Sketching the Pandemic Year 2020 week 14 March 29-April 4 2020 

It would indeed be cool to drive a three wheeled sleek Pete Wozena Concept car 1961 pictured in the Smithsonian Engagement Calendar 2020f (week 14-  March 29-April 4). But if it’s a car that zips you around speeding by everything, it won’t do to go check out the cherry blossoms in full glory in spring! That calls for a leisurely drive ohh-ahhing the beautiful delicate pink blossoms that line the road on a particular part of town.  It also mandates a couple of back and forth cruising as there is no place to park along that road and walk under the trees.  The outing was a much needed respite while sheltering at home especially since by then we all were aware of the uncertainty looming ahead. 

Cherry Blossoms watercolor by Meera Rao 

 

Sketching the Pandemic Year 2020 Week 13

Sketching the Pandemic Year 2020 Week 13 March 22-28 

Sheltering at home gave us ample time to really observe nature by just looking out the window any time of the day or night !!! Every morning there were many pelicans and cormorants flying and swimming around to catch their meal. Pelicans glide low over the water or cruise high and then dive bomb into the water for fish. Cormorants ease their head into the water and dive to catch their pray and emerge elsewhere from the water. After a dive the cormorants sit on the dock or the poles in the water and spread their wings to dry in the sunlight. Often I see cormorants and Pelicans sharing the space on the dock sunning or resting peacefully.  This one time I saw these two birds among a dozen others standing next to each other - it looked to me like there were exchanging notes about where to find the best catch ! But during my research I discovered that they usually do co-exist peacefully most probably because they don’t fish at the same depths. 

Cormorants are an ancient species whose ancestors lived during the time as dinosaurs and the oldest Pelican fossils are from around 30million years ago. Once again my sketches go well with the photo for that week in the Smithsonian Engagement Calendar 2020 :’Tyrannosaurus rex - Hell Creek Formation, McCone county Montana’ at the National Museum of Natural History -.  And it was not a surprise that looking at  my  photos and sketches that week, this subject jumped out making it an easy decision. 

Pelican and Cormorant watercolor and ink by Meera Rao 

 

Sketching the Pandemic Year 2020 Week 12

Sketching the Pandemic Year 2020 week 12 

The silver lining during the pandemic started very early :) I have spent hours playing, reading and just goofing around with my grandkids- keeping them occupied while their parents worked from home. I am eternally thankful to the inventors and technology for giving me this time with my grandchildren living miles and one even across an ocean/a continent /a few time zones away!!! 

The glow in the painting ‘Evening glow at Mono Lake, n.d’ by Chiura Obata watercolor on paper  is not that different from the glow I feel after these long distance play sessions from my grandchildren:) 

FaceTime Playtime March 15-21 

 

Sketching the Pandemic Year 2020 week 11

Sketching the Pandemic Year week 11 March 8-14

We had made it back home safe and healthy.  But the world over the magnitude of the health crisis was just starting to show.  Having dodged the virus while traveling, our instinct then was to  stay home just to be on the safe side. That meant observing nature in our back yard more closely and there is always something to watch, wonder and learn.  The finches, cardinals and sparrows were happily feasting on the crepe myrtle seed pods. We have a table and chairs under that tree where we often lunch or sip tea. I saw these seed pods that fell from the tree - may be dropped by the birds on to the table - with the long  dramatic shadows. Researching I found out that crepe myrtles are not native to USA but were introduced from Asia in 1700s. And it is an acquired taste for these birds :) 

The seed pods sketches were perfect against the coconut that is from the National Postal Museum- a coconut that was mailed from Hawaii by Raymond Boulder to his wife in Springfield, Massachusetts in 1944 during WWll ! He carved the address on the coconut shell and affixed the postage to a piece of cardboard that was attached to the coconut by a wire !! According to an article in Smithsonian June 2019, apparently there is such a thing as mailing a coconut - at the Hoolehua post office in Hawaii, ‘The coconuts are free, all customers have to do is payoff shipping and the USPS will mail their decorated coconuts to addresses around the world!’  Right now the question is when will we be able to check that out ? 

Crepe myrtle seed pods in the sun. Sepia Ink and watercolor by Meera Rao 

 

Sketching the Pandemic Year 2020: Week 10

Sketching the Pandemic Year 2020 Week 10 March  1-7

On one of our last days during the London trip, we stumbled upon Ben Wilson, the chewing gum man. He was sitting on the sidewalk and painting on discarded chewing gum  in Muswell Hill neighborhood.  I was excited to meet him as I had read about his ‘street art’  He says he is “taking thoughtless action and trying to transform them into something positive - it’s a form of recycling.’  People commission him to paint discarded gums and that morning he was painting gum in honor of Lola, Arielle, Hugo and Oliver :)  Coming home and studying the photos I had taken, I saw that one of his tiny paintings said “world within worlds /one world”  I laughed out loud at the serendipity of pairing for this week in the Smithsonian Engagement Calendar 2020 - ‘Cassiopeia A digital photograph made by processing x-rays detected by Chandra X-ray Observatory’! The caption reads : “Cassiopeia A is the debris field of a exploded star known as supernova remnant, located about11,000 light years from Earth. This exquisitely detailed image from the space- based Chandra x-ray Observatory shows the location of different elements in the remnant including silicon (red), sulfur (yellow), calcium (green), and iron (purple) 

Check here for a short video on Ben Wilson and @benwisonchewinggumman on Instagram to see his works of gum art.

World within worlds - one world  March 1-7 2020 watercolor pen and ink by Meera Rao

 

Sketching the Pandemic Year 2020 week 9

Sketching the Pandemic year 2020  February 23-29 week 9

Something about the colorful cables running on the long red brick wall, the green door,  the train tracks and a warning on the platform to ‘mind the gap’ grabbed my attention at the Paddington station, London.  We were on our way back from a short trip to Bath. Little did we know then how lucky we were to not have encountered the virus !!! And that it was to be the last of a holiday trip for quite sometime to come! I have photos of old fashioned pharmacy shop windows in Bath with handwritten signs that said ‘Face masks hand gels/wipes Forehead thermometers in stock’. I puzzled over the signs as I captured them with my camera. Those words were not yet in our everyday vocabulary! There were even a few tourists wearing masks in Bath.  But we were oblivious/ignorant of the pandemic in the making! 

The Lamina wallpaper in the Smithsonian Engagement 2020 is designed and produced by Assemblage, Witter, Arkansas and is at the Cooper Hewitt Smithsonian Design Museum. It is made by hand applied marble dust, mica plaster,  gold leaf and waterborne resin. The museum website describes it as : “Lamina is dark and  dramatic with horizontal lines with bold metallic stripes, creating a nice contrast between the dark indigo and metal leaf. Sporadic bands of mica and resin add a subtle sheen.’  I feel the industrial looking wall is a work of art itself - a tribute to ingenuity of man and science and has paired well with the photo on the opposite page! 

Mind the Gap  February 23-29 watercolor and ink by Meera Rao