20 Replies to “Nature’s Classroom”

  1. Tomaz – São Paulo, Brazil – I am a photo enthusiast. With no formal training and lots of books I try to get away with it! I also like cycling, skiing, swimming, nature, art, architecture, design, technology, traveling and beautiful things.
    Tomaz says:

    Beautiful colors!

    Reply
  4. drose4 – 3542-3652 Tamiami Trail, Punta Gorda, FL 33950, USA – I'm the proud mother of four wonderful children and delighted grandmother of a beautiful grandaughter. I have a great passion for the world around me and love photographing the wonderful things I experience on my nature walks so in turn I may share those experiences with others. I'm a novice writer currently working on my first novel, which has been in hiatus for the past year...so ready to start writing again.
    drose4 says:

    Beautiful! I wish we could watch the season changes here in Florida.

    Reply
  8. inkpaintwords – A feminist writer and artist with a penchant for all things French, living in Washington DC. My love of language led me, indirectly, to my pleasure in gardening, drawing and watercolor. It began with a book, a collection of New Yorker garden columns by Katherine White, wife of its founding editor E.B.White. Her enthusiastic appraisal of the literary merit of various garden catalogs led me to collect and keep her favorites as well as to hoard with them some more recently-emerged seed, bulb and seed catalogs. The beautiful catalogs inspired me to little by little turn our entire front lawn (our home had a wooded ravine close behind) into a garden. That grew into a lovely site with two simple arches, a gliding bench on a little sitting patio and modest slate paths winding through beds of shade lovers and whatever plants supposedly in need of full sun that I could manage to coax into colorful healthy bloom. A curiosity about color and color theory emerged as I became keenly interested in impressionist painters; that interest merged in some way with my urge to garden. I acquired more than one book about Monet’s garden and gardens of other impressionist painters, both French and American. One day I picked up a magazine for painters, and found inside an article about a painter I’d known. Among examples of her splendid watercolor paintings was her watercolor of her garden at that time. Suddenly I could think of nothing more exciting than painting my garden. I enrolled in her watercolor class in The Art League in Alexandria, VA. The influence that the collection of Katherine White’s columns about the literary merits of certain garden catalogs has had on my life has come full now. Ink, Paint & Words combines what has become an obsession with drawing and watercolor with my passion for language. Yes, I still garden. A table full of blooming potted plants sits on my apartment patio, backed by an ivy covered fence with park trees behind. My patio, and my larger environment of Washington DC, together provides wonderful vistas for drawing and painting. For a number of years annual trips to France gave me and my companions extravagantly colorful panoramas and charming tableaux for brush and pen. And yes, now I’ve painted in Monet’s gardens several times. But that, as they say, is another story.
    inkpaintwords says:

    Insightful words!

    Reply
  9. Mustang.Koji – Long Beach, CA – I have found that "family" around you is a product of twists of fate, world events and personal decisions made long ago. Anguish, happiness, despair and harmony. The effect of war on families and the resulting peace from the untold sacrifices made by the Greatest Generation. While I am not a writer, I hope to be able to bring to light the spontaneity of life. As I wish to be historically accurate, some quotes will be as I heard them...but there was no malice coming from those that spoke those words. They were reliving the past horrors of war - a war that you nor I fought in. They did.
    Mustang.Koji says:

    Indeed, nature is inspiring, isn’t it? Such grandeur and power.

    Reply
  11. Gretchen Del Rio – Crestline, California, USA – I first discovered the magic of water based colors when many years ago I began to paint with procion dyes on silk. I loved the unexpected quality of the process. It was so exciting to never be sure what the colors and water would combine to produce. It seemed as though the medium had its own passion. Painting with watercolors and paper is much the same. I love the color combinations and separations that occur spontaneously as the color floats on the water. You can never totally predict what effect will result. If you try to control the medium too much, your painting will be very tight losing its aliveness. The artist must be bold and decisive or the work will not be clear and fresh. It is really like a dance. It becomes a controlled folly in knowing when to let go and when to take charge of the direction that the painting is taking. The images that I paint reflect my emotions and are expression of my life experience. They are not extensively planned, but rather evolve as the painting progresses. I am always surprised by the end result since it comes into being because of what the medium and emotion has suggested. The paintings are from my heart and I always fall in love with the subject. I believe that we are all connected and, if an image touches you, it is because we all have the same heart even though our paths may be different. Most of all, painting what I paint makes me happy. The paintings are my own path unfolding. They are an opening door for me and contain my own passion for life.
    Gretchen Del Rio says:

    You just described what I have been feeling about autumn. thank you. ..Gretchen

    On Thu, Oct 4, 2012 at 3:20 AM, leaf and twig

    Reply
  12. Deborah W. Trotter – I'm a children's book author and lover of the great outdoors. National Parks in the western United States have been a part of my life for as long as I can remember.
    Deb W. Trotter says:

    You put it eloquently!

    Reply

  15. Such wisdom. Beautifully stated. Because of where I’ve lived, I hadn’t seen the seasons change in nine years. You’ve reminded me what to look forward to 🙂

    Reply
  16. Lyle Krahn – Saskatoon, SK, Canada – Humour connoisseur. Analyzer. Creative. Political arm chair quarterback. Unpredictably right. Cartoonist who can’t draw🥺
    lylekrahn says:

    Well said

    Reply
  19. Don – My name is Don Scrooby and I live in The United Kingdom. I feel that more than anything else, nature, and the objective things around us, convey a speech and a message we always need to listen to and follow. This kind of listening is life-giving and there is a certain form spirituality about it. In this blog, through the the photographic image and accompanying words, I’ve tried to share this experience as simply as I can. There is an underlying beauty in nature we all need to see and experience, especially in this day and age as we struggle to save our planet. Most of my shots are taken with a Fujifilm XT100 camera and my Iphone. I’m no professional Photographer, but I do enjoy outdoor walks with my simple gear trying to capture what I see and experience.
    Don says:

    Not an easy lesson to learn. Lovely words and image. Thank you.

    Reply

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