#naturethroughart

“Nature reimagined. A bee’s world in digital bloom.” 🐝💫

#NatureDigitalArt

#BeePhotography

#DigitalNature

#FloralDigitalArt

#NatureArtistry

#SurrealNature

#BeeAndBlossoms

#MacroDigitalArt

#CreativeNatureShots

#ArtOfPollination

#DigitalWildlife

#BotanicalDreams

#NatureThroughArt

#HybridNatureArt

“It takes time to slow down, untangle our busy minds and daily schedules, and just stop and notice the world around us, the little things as well as the big things. Nature’s patterns are ours, too - day night, cold, warm, rain, sun, winter to summer and back again.” (Leslie, 2015, p. 16)

The ability to unveil nature as a producer and product of art is a sublime experience. It’s not a secret that only established students of painting, literature or adventurous travellers find through privilege. It is established through curiosity. A wonderment had by a child, a glance at field of daffodils in the month of May, noticing the burnt shades of Maple leaves in Autumn are all based through a curiosity of an object in a place, at a time.

Developing the skill of art in nature interpretation is one that requires constant inattention to the matter at hand - that is, the ability to be distracted by the instantaneous in the surrounding. The knowledge that with time comes change can lead to the ability of one to appreciate and absorb the value in art that is the natural world.

Passing on the gift of beauty is to understand the audience for what they hear, see, touch, smell or even taste. Knowing the visual landscape for those sighted means to ask for pause, the joy of sound is to be considered absent of human’s touch, the scent of growth and decay aside of any manufactured scent, and the bounty of fresh food in berry, fruit, leaf, etc. at our fingertips all exhibit the gift that is the immediate absent of intention.

The audience can be brought to, “intellectual and emotional connections” with the opportunity “to move audiences from complacency to compassion as well as address gaps in audience knowledge and assist in connecting the dots between causes, effects, and solutions” says Beck (2018, p. 97). What is meant by this is that interpreters have an ability, with practice, to make the audience care about the unimportant or important, as long as passion is held by the ‘visionary’ or interpreter in this sense. This drive doesn’t demand perfect knowledge, but a commitment to the topic and a wanting to share this knowledge in a transferable way or method that connects to others.

So how is nature best understood through art? Personally the challenge is not lacking the vision, but misunderstanding my ability to transfer and communicate that knowledge. Inspired by Clare Walker Leslie’s The Curious Nature Guide, I left my attention wander to the very basic scene ahead of me - colour. I drew from forest floor to sky as I stepped out of the car in Bowen Park, Nanaimo, BC.

Beyond this I found a small pinecone, the size of a grape. Maybe if I had spent more time integrating deep ecological knowledge, I could recite it’s Genus and species. Maybe if I’d spent my youth in the forest with the mentorship of those with Local Traditional Knowledge I could tell you what I found. Instead I found a small pinecone. My first draft drawing, or notes if you will, were crude. A few minutes later that same small pinecone when reconsidered, re-appreciated and drawn with more care turned out more to that expected of a Western Hemlock or Tsuga heterephylla (Polar, et.al., 2004, p.30).

“Art like Nature takes time.” - myself

References

Beck, L., Cable, T.T., Knudson, D.M. (2018). Interpreting Cultural and Natural Heritage: For a Better World. Sagamore-Venture Publishing LLC.  

Leslie, C.W. (2015). The Curious Nature Guide: Explore the Natural Wonders All Around You. Storey Publishing.