This is a watercolor painting featuring a medley of life observed at Tinker Creek – Spotted Sandpiper, American Robin, Five-lined Skink, Eastern Scissors Grinder Cicada, Ebony Jewelwing, American Rubyspot, American Water-willow, Red-spotted Purple, Common Jewelweed, Stretch spider, and an unknown bracket fungus.

The painting measures approximately 11×14″ and is framed, at approximately 16×20″, and is ready to hang.

I knew from day one that to make this painting what it needed to be, I would need to spend quality time sketching, journaling, and observing on location at Tinker Creek. I visited different locations of the creek three times and sat at each spot with my journal, letting life happen around me. I sketched many iterations of what this painting could be based on what I saw – my first sketches included mallards and a kingfisher – before I became inspired by the blooming jewelweed along the dam at Mason Mill Park. I sat on the dam thinking and sketching (and trying to identify the many insects around me) before I finally landed on an idea that felt right for the experience.

I enjoy having parameters around my work, such as making sure all the critters I paint naturally exist in a location, so I very much enjoyed sitting at Tinker Creek and observing and taking notes on all the life around me that I hoped to include within this painting. Many species I knew – mallards, jewelweed, Yellow-crowned Night Herons – but many I did not. I used the iNaturalist app to help me identify them. I love knowing what I am painting, so including specific, observed species, instead of species I presumed might be present, made this painting reflect the real experience of sitting and being present at Tinker Creek.

I finished reading the book in the early stages when I was sketching and thinking. One of my favorite moments was when Dillard talked about trying to see muskrats and that she realized she had to fade into nature so that the muskrat forgot she existed. While I did not sit for hours like Dillard, I did find that sitting still (one day on a rock in the creek, another day on the dam) allowed me to notice more life and activity than I had on previous visits. This is certainly partly because I was trying to observe, but I like to imagine another part of it is that I began to blend into the background and the damselflies and mallards forgot to worry about me.

I really enjoyed adding so many critters into this painting. I had begun to populate my paintings with more than the main subject within the past couple years, however this was the first one where I added so much. I am excited to keep exploring this avenue.

I learned so many new species! Ebony Jewelwing, Powdered Dancer, American Rubyspot, American Water-willow, stretch spiders … the list goes on.