Sketching the Pandemic Year 2020 week 42.

Ripe Bitter-melon Pod with Red Seeds watercolor by Meera Rao 

Often, we miss picking vegetables from the plant because they are well hidden and we don’t see them till they are ripe and bright! That’s what happened with this bitter-melon (a delicacy!).  When we finally picked it off the plant, I placed it on a shiny stainless steel plate and decided to let it dry in the sun.  It soon burst open exposing the bright red seeds against bright yellow-orange fleshy insides. Of course, I had to sketch the beauty :) 

Sketching the Pandemic Year 2020 week 42 October 11-17

Nature’s color selections are amazing. The bitter-melon looks like it’s competing with the Scarlet Macaws (Ara macaw)on the opposite page in the Smithsonian Engagement Calendar 2020 for week 42. According to the write up on the page, the digital photo of the Macaws was taken by Sean Mattson, in July 2016 at Coiba National Park, Panama Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute. They are nearly extinct in the mainland but ‘lead a boisterous life on Panama’s Coiba Island, the largest landmass in the Tropical Eastern Pacific. The Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute runs a research station on the neighboring Coibita Island, providing scientists with access to fauna, flora, and coral reefs in this park, a UNESCO World Heritage site.’

 

Sketching the Pandemic Year 2020 Week 41

Sketching the Pandemic Year 2020 week 41 October 4-10

The photo on the Smithsonian Engagement Calendar 2020 for the week of October 4 is a colored planographic print of Le Tricolore balloon1874 at the National Air and Space Museum. “Claude Jules Duruof (1841-1899) became one of the aeronaut-heroes of the siege of Paris when at 8 am on September 20, 1870, he flew a balloon out of the city. This lithograph, signed by Duruof, shows his balloon Le Tricolore. In 1873 he and his wife ascended in it amidst threatening weather. When the crowd questioned their courage, he remarked, ‘Let us show then that we are not afraid to die.’ The pair disappeared into the mist and were forced down and presumed lost. Their rescue by an English Rescue boat was much celebrated.”

These balloon travels though pale in comparison to the Monarch Butterfly migration which is a unique and amazing phenomenon. They do a two way migration like birds do. Some fly as far as 3000 miles to overwinter in Mexico. The eastern population of N.America’s monarchs overwinter in 11-12 mountain areas in the States of Mexico and Michoacán from October to late March. Monarchs can fly 50-100 miles a day and take up to two months to complete the journey.  As I watched the butterfly emerge from the delicate chrysalis, it’s wings so dainty, I marveled at the nature’s miracle. Slowly as the sun rays warmed its wings the monarch butterfly stretched and took a couple of hours to get ready to fly off  and continue its adventure! 

Just Emerged Monarch Butterfly by Meera Rao 

 

Sketching the Pandemic Year 2020: Week 40

Sketching the Pandemic Year 2020: Week 40 September 27-October 3 

Sometimes things just present themselves - like what happened on this particular day. To better see the process,  I had moved the glass jar in which a latecomer monarch caterpillar was going into chrysalis stage. Looking from above I could see the design from the plate under jar. And what a match for what was on the page for that week in the Smithsonian Engagement Calendar 2020.  ‘Josephine Folies Bergére c.1926 in watercolor and gouache on paper is by an unknown artist and is at the National Portrait Gallery.  ‘Josephine Baker (1906-1975) was barely twenty years old when she first performed at the famous Parisian music hall the Foilies Bergére, wearing nothing but a skirt made of artificial bananas. Bakers combination of comedic flair and athleticism created a sensation and for many embodied the exhilarating modern style of Art Deco.’

Caterpillar to Chrysalis  watercolor and pen by Meera Rao 

 

Sketching the Pandemic Year 2020 Week 39

 

Sketching the Pandemic Year 2020 week 39 September 20-26 

This was an eventful week - still mourning the loss of Ruth Bader Ginsberg,  on day 2 of early voting period, we masked up, drove to city office and did our civic duty.  We were very impressed with the arrangements,  professionalism and thoroughness with which early voting was made possible - the experience was the same as if we had voted on Election Day. This year of course there were extra precautions due to the pandemic- plexiglass barriers, social distancing to be maintained and sanitized pens.  

The other highlight of this week was waiting and watching the emergence of the Monarch Butterfly from its chrysalis. As the day came closer, I could see the colors deepening, the gold lines and dots shimmering brightly and orange/black patterned wing showing through the chrysalis shell.  Early Friday morning we watched in awe as the butterfly gently broke open the shell, crawled out of the cocoon, took its time warming up the wings and took to the open skies. I wondered, will we see it’s progeny come back to our garden next year ? 

Monarch Chrysalis by Meera Rao 

Photograph of Scrarecrow  hat worn in the Wizard of Oz , 1919, now in the collection of National Museum of American History graces the page for the week in the Smithsonian Engagement Calendar 2020.  The scarecrow in the story desperately wanted a brain and as I was sketching I wondered what happens to the caterpillar brain during metamorphosis. Does the butterfly remember its caterpillar days?  I came across a study done at Georgetown University scientists D.Blackiston, E.Casey and M. Weiss, which examined if larval experience can persist through pupation to adulthood in Lepidoptera. The study showed that yes, they did remember and carry over a conditioned odor aversion into adulthood ! Please check the link to check out the details of the study. 

An Art Show

Showing My Art : Poquoson Public Library  August 1-31, 2021 

Showing My Art : Poquoson Public Library  August 1-31, 2021

Showing My Art : Poquoson Public Library  August 1-31, 2021

I found I could say with color and shapes 

That I couldn’t say any other way -

Things I had no words for.

~ Georgia O’Keeffe ~

Seventeen of my paintings from this past year are on the Poquoson Public Library art wall for the month of August :) I am grateful to be able to see them exhibited all together. I hope some of you from this neck of the woods will stop by sometime this month and check our my paintings :)  As always I will donate half the sale price of any painting sold to a charity. 

 

Sketching the Pandemic Year 2020 Week 38

Sketching the Pandemic Year 2020 Week 38 September 13-19

Real change, 

enduring change 

happens one step at a time 

~Ruth Bader Ginsburg~ 

September 18, 2020 was a tough day.  The world lost Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg. It came at difficult period in US history. In fact, her life and death have had a major impact. Fortunately her legacy as a legal pioneer in gender equality and many of the changes she engineered will last and shine a light to many around the globe. I was lucky to have met her in person and listen to the wise words she spoke to a small group of attorneys newly inducted to the Supreme Court Bar in 2015.  I was there as a proud parent - my son was one of the inductees.  I sketched the special occasion that day as no cameras are allowed inside. Later, I painted the scene for my son as a keepsake. Please check out that blog post here. 

Lin Manuel Miranda, photograph for the week in the Smithsonian Engagement Calendar 2020 needs no introduction.  I was glad to have the groundbreaking composer, playwright and actor featured on that page. 

Ruth Bader Ginsburg pencil by Meera Rao

Please note: if you get my blog posts via e-mail, Google is taking away Feedburner email subscriptions next month. I am not sure how to replace it with another service - you will just have to surf on over to my blog to see new posts.  Please send me an e-mail if you you would like to continue receiving the blog posts.

Thank you very much - I really appreciate your support 

Meera 

Sketching the Pandemic Year 2020 : Week 37

Sketching the Pandemic Year 2020 :Week 37 Sept 6-12 

Nature is just so awesome with a never ending supply of surprises ! Summer means there are so many insects in the yard singing away merrily- katydids, cicadas, crickets, grasshoppers …along with the chorus of chirping frogs. I have to often get  help at songsofinsects.com. with identifying the insect songs and I have spent many hours during the pandemic stay-at-home year doing just that - though I may now be more confused as well ;) 

This cicada - Neotibicen davisa davisa (identified by insect experts in INaturalist ) was by the pine tree (alive) in the yard by the pine tree. It stayed around just long enough for me to photograph. I had misidentified it when I first saw and sketched it - hence the wrong info below the cicada. The photograph of the Rhinoceros spearbearer (Copiphora rhinoceros)katydid in the Smithsonian Engagement Calendar 2020 paired nicely for the week.  Unlike the cicada I found in the yard, these awesome conehead  katydids are found in the rainforests of Nicaragua, Costa Rica and Panama. They have powerful jaws to feed on plants, other invertebrates and even small reptiles. Staying home during the pandemic though has helped me see  and document by either sketching or photographing so many different creatures in my own yard ! 

 

Sketching the Pandemic Year 2020 Week 36

Sketching the Pandemic Year 2020 week 36 Aug 30- Sept 5 

Along with the dragonflies, I discovered there are a few different kinds of cicadas in our yard.  I usually go to the iNaturalist App to identify whatever I am not familiar with after I have taken a photograph. This is a Northern Dusk Singing Cicada Megatibicen auletes- largest of the N. American Cicadas. As the name implies these cicadas sing at dusk and are quite loud! Their  peak appearance is in August but are found July- September. Mostly I don’t see the cicadas unless they have dropped to the ground ( dead or almost) but hear them loud and clear somewhere in the Oak tree.  BTW, There are more than 3000 species of cicadas and they are members of superfamily Cicadoidea.

How cool is that Nick Cave’s Soundsuit is the photograph of the week of Aug 30 in the Smithsonian Engagement Calendar 2020? “This is a wearable art inspired by Nick Cava’s background as both a fiber artist and a dancer. Brightly colored yarn, found object, and thread woven together in a variety of patterns and textures to creates vivid disguise, shielding and protecting the wearer’s identity from the audience.” 

Northern Dusk Singing Cicada 

 

Sketching the Pandemic Year 2020 week 35

Dragonfly in sepia ink  by Meera Rao 

It’s very far away, 

It takes a about half a day to get there.

If we travel by my, uh, dragonfly 

~Jimi Hendrix~ 

The dragonflies were everywhere in the garden week of Aug 23 2020. I spent many hours quietly tracking and following the beautiful creatures with delicate lacy transparent wings, multifaceted eyes and iridescent body. I was hoping for one good photograph !! They are strong fliers - my research says hawker dragonflies have been recorded going 20 miles in an hour. They can hover, fly backwards and have high maneuverability.  Once again I found a perfect subject to sketch in the Smithsonian Engagement Calendar 2020.  The photograph by Eric Long shows Grumman FM-1(F4F-4) Wildcat- World War II fighter aircraft. After Pearl Harbor, Wildcat pilots held the line and stopped the Imperial Japanese Air force when it seemed invincible.  

Sketching the Pandemic Year 2020 week 35 Aug 23-29