If you were an animal in the rain forest, would you be a butterfly? A toucan? An iguana? A jaguar?
Rain Forest Backdrop by Carlin Springs students | tempera on muslin
In art club after school, Carlin Springs students painted a wild setting for the spring play. They discovered inspiring scenes of forest canopies in books from the Arlington County Library, including Little Kids First Big Book of the Rain Forest by Moira Rose Donohue, The Amazon by Tom Jackson and What’s Up in the Amazon Rain Forest by Ginjer L. Clarke.
Students wrote the script and acted as animals alarmed by changes in their habitat. Katie McCreary and Ashley Hammond of the Educational Theatre Company led the writers and directed the performance — all in the spirit of learning through the arts!
With sleet and snow blowing across Arlington streets, the birds have disappeared from sight. Looking for inspiration, kids in art club discovered the Audubon Society’s North American field guide. Their imaginations took off with drawings of colorful owls, finches, hummingbirds, tanagers and flamingos.
Winter Birds Around My Home published by the Iowa State College Extension Service
In a box with books from my childhood, I found a paperback published in 1948 by the Iowa State College Extension Service. It includes information on 24 birds with drawings and instructions for coloring. Never miss an opportunity to use your color pencils!
On the crow, authors Thomas Scott and George Hendrickson wrote, “The ability of this crafty creature to perform such misdeeds as eating bird eggs, pulling corn and the like is due to its high degree of social cooperation. Although these birds are with us all year they are seen at their best in the large flocks which form in groves during the winter.” (page 20)
I hope your neighborhood is full of feathered neighbors. It’s not too late to put out birdseed. This handbook says cardinals prefer to feed off the ground and like seed plus a little fruit and insects.
Do poets wander alone “scribbling in notebooks, peering across moors, feeding ducks…?” In “Mary Oliver and the Naturesque,” Alice Gregory suggests that Oliver writes and invites us to ramble with her. As the poet says, “the world offers itself to your imagination, calls to you like the wild geese, harsh and exciting.”
So … yesterday I wandered. After watching reports of far away blizzards, I followed sidewalks dusted with snow. It was my first time out taking photos, because last October I chipped a bone in my foot. Since I am just beginning to paint again, I’m posting this sketch.
Duck | watercolor | copyright Liz Macklin 2018
Gregory’s article appeared in Poetry magazine on February 16, 2011.
A fox ran past our house the other night. I spotted it under the streetlight. My neighbor saw it, too.
My favorite book from childhood, The Anthology of Children’s Literature, included “The Wonderful Tar-Baby Story” by Joel Chandler Harris. You might also remember the story from the Disney movie, Song of the South. Brer Rabbit and Brer Fox trick each other. The fox catches the rabbit with a very sticky ruse, the Tar Baby. To avoid becoming barbecue, the rabbit pleads, “Please don’t throw me into the briar patch!” Of course, the fox flings the rabbit straight into the thicket.
Virginia Hamilton retells this story in her anthology, The People Could Fly, and the rabbit cries, “Hot lettuce pie! This is where I want to be,” as he lands in the briars — free and safe.
Peter Spier’s The Fox went out on a chilly night features a roguish fox that fares better. He races through town and country and arrives home with dinner for a den full of kits. Emily Gleichenhaus sings this melody on the CD for her program, Sing Books with Emily. You can catch her performances for children at libraries in Northern Virginia.
Note: I noticed today (May 14, 2015) that my copy of The Fox went out on a chilly night, the seventeenth printing, has only “The Fox” capitalized in the title. The other words are written underneath in lower case. As the photo on Emily’s web site shows, more recent printings capitalize using familiar rules, The Fox Went Out on a Chilly Night.
This painting was sold to benefit The Reading Connection in 2012.
The Owl and the Pussy-Cat
by Edward Lear
The Owl and the Pussy-Cat went to sea
In a beautiful pea green boat
They took some honey, and plenty of money,
Wrapped up in a five-pound note.
The Owl looked up to the stars above,
And sang to a small guitar,
“O lovely Pussy! O Pussy, my love,
What a beautiful Pussy you are,
You are,
You are!
What a beautiful Pussy you are!”
The Anthology of Children’s Literature, published by Houghton Mifflin in 1935, includes several stanzas of this poem plus a short biography of Lear. He was born in 1812, one of twenty-one children. He began his career as an illustrator of nature studies and was known for his colored drawings of birds. While living in the home of the Earl of Derby, he entertained the children with silly rhymes and drawings. Those high spirited activities lead to the publication of his first Book of Nonsense.
As a landscape painter, Lear divided his time between Britain and the Mediterranean. The article in the anthologysays that he taught drawing to Queen Victoria, but using a quick internet search, I’ve been unable to confirm the fact. Please let me know, if you find a source that gives an account of teaching the queen!
Lear is famous for his limericks, and you can find more information about his life and writing at the web site for the Poetry Foundation. One of my favorite poems is this verse about the Quangle Wangle. In March my first grade students will learn about animals and their homes. I hope to have them draw their own version of the tree with the Quangle Wangle and his houseguests!
The Quangle Wangle’s Hat
by Edward Lear
I
On the top of the Crumpetty Tree
The Quangle Wangle sat,
But his face you could not see,
On account of his Beaver Hat.
For his Hat was a hundred and two feet wide,
With ribbons and bibbons on every side
And bells, and buttons, and loops, and lace,
So that nobody every could see the face
Of the Quangle Wangle Quee.
II
The Quangle Wangle said
To himself on the Crumpetty Tree, —
“Jam; and jelly; and bread;
“Are the best of food for me!
“But the longer I live on this Crumpetty Tree
“The plainer than ever it seems to me
“That very few people come this way
“And that life on the whole is far from gay!”
Said the Quangle Wangle Quee.
III
But there came to the Crumpetty Tree,
Mr. and Mrs. Canary;
And they said, — “Did every you see
“Any spot so charmingly airy?
“May we build a nest on your lovely Hat?
“Mr. Quangle Wangle, grant us that!
“O please let us come and build a nest
“Of whatever material suits you best,
“Mr. Quangle Wangle Quee!”
IV
And besides, to the Crumpetty Tree
Came the Stork, the Duck, and the Owl;
The Snail, and the Bumble-Bee,
The Frog, and the Fimble Fowl;
(The Fimble Fowl, with a corkscrew leg;)
And all of them said, — “We humbly beg,
“We may build out homes on your lovely Hat, —
“Mr. Quangle Wangle, grant us that!
“Mr. Quangle Wangle Quee!”
V
And the Golden Grouse came there,
And the Pobble who has no toes, —
And the small Olympian bear, —
And the Dong with a luminous nose.
And the Blue Baboon, who played the Flute, —
And the Orient Calf from the Land of Tute, —
And the Attery Squash, and the Bisky Bat, —
All came and built on the lovely Hat
Of the Quangle Wangle Quee.
VI
And the Quangle Wangle said
To himself on the Crumpetty Tree, —
“When all these creatures move
“What a wonderful noise there’ll be!”
And at night by the light of the Mulberry moon
They danced to the Flute of the Blue Baboon,
On the broad green leaves of the Crumpetty Tree,
And all were as happy as happy could be,
With the Quangle Wangle Quee.
————————
Note added February 27, 2012: I amended the biographical info to say that I was unable to confirm that Lear taught drawing lessons to Queen Victoria. Also, I have seen his first book called both Nonsense Book and Book of Nonsense.
Note added February 26, 2012:
The Anthology of Children’s Literature, which, since my childhood, has been one of my favorite books of stories and poems, was edited by Edna Johnson, Carrie E. Scott and Evelyn R. Sickels and illustrated by N.C. Wyeth. It was published by Houghton Mifflin Company, Boston. The copyright for the first edition was 1935, and my edition was copyright 1948.
Korean Garden (detail) | watercolor | 3.5″ by 5.5″ | copyright Liz Macklin 2010
Sunday afternoon at the park. Enjoy the animals — owls, hawks, tortoises, snakes. Drop by to watch and talk or bring your sketchbook and your paints.
Students from HB Woodlawn school will host activities for kids and demonstrate a variety of art techniques.
I’ll be painting, and I’ll be eager to discuss gardens, nature drawing, book design, popups and inspiration from the far east, especially Korean kimonos and embroidery.
Stop by and say hello!
Potomac Overlook Regional Park, — Marcey Road off Military Road, Arlington, Virginia
Hickory Dickory Dock | watercolor | copyright Liz Macklin 2005
At my house it’s been the coldest January since 1994. I wake up to the glow of streetlights on what remains of the December snow. Last week I saw a fox run run down the street in the moonlight. Even a sly hunter might find it hard to catch a midnight snack when ice coats the hedges and all the squirrels have hidden in hollow trees.
This month my illustration Hickory Dickory Dock is on display at the Lombardi Comprehensive Cancer Center at Georgetown University Hospital in Washington, D.C. The exhibit includes work by artists who teach and volunteer with the Arts and Humanities Program at the hospital.
You probably remember the nursery rhyme:
Hicklory dickory dock
the mouse ran up the clock
the clock struck one
the mouse ran down
hickory dickory dock
Liz Macklin -- Writer & Illustrator 