Painting birds and other wildlife on rocks and slate...

Matty and I are home from our Shawnee adventures. We had so much fun and can't believe the time is already over. We did a lot of work this year including handling the snakes at the nature center and helping kids and adults get over their fears of them like we did last year, but we added a few new things in too! Jenny knows I love to paint birds, and she knows Matty is an artist too, so she wondered if we could put on a painting workshop to teach kids and adults how to paint wildlife on rocks and slate tiles. "Of course we can do it," I said (even though I'd never done anything like that before and had no idea what to do), but after doing a little research and putting together templates from my bird paintings, Matty and I came up with a workshop we thought would be fun. I'm so glad we did it because everyone had a fantastic time and created beautiful and wonderful artwork! When I asked Matty what he wanted to say about the workshop, he said without thinking, "It was like we were all a big family." I guess a mutual love of the earth and all its wild creatures creates a quick connection among nature people, because it really was like we were one big family of artists painting nature!

...young nature artists use acrylic paints to create beautiful nature art on rocks.

Matty helps by answering questions, getting paints, changing water...and just laughing with the kids.

...wherever you looked, birds, snakes, salamanders, turtles, and frogs were coming to life under the skilled hands of young nature artists! (If you look closely, you can see the gentleman on the right has created a beautiful Northern Cardinal. Unfortunately because of the angle of the rock, we can't see the colorful Common Yellowthroat the gentleman on the left created...)

...everybody joined in to create beautiful art in nature!

...some artists preferred free-form expressionism...

...while others went for realism.

(I see a happy little Chiggy coming to life here!)

...it was thrilling to watch everyone focus and really get into their art. The variety of styles and subjects was amazing...

...big kids joined in too!

(You should have seen the stones after these two lovely ladies were finished. They were gorgeous!)

...even Jenny's mom attended and created a beautiful Hooded Warbler!

...towards the end of the workshop, Matty sat down and painted a stone too. He created a beautiful frog.

If you're in the area, be sure to check out Jenny's calendar of events. She always has something scheduled at the nature center, and if you live in Cincinnati, Shawnee is only two hours away. The lodge is lovely, and escaping into the forest feels like you've gone worlds away. If your child is at all interested in herpetology, you need to visit Jenny at the nature center. She is the most hands-on naturalist I've ever met. She has an unsurpassed talent for awakening a love of nature in children. You will be amazed at how much your child will learn from just a few minutes with Jenny...

p.s. Matty and I will be volunteering for a week next year at Shawnee too, and we're going to put on the free workshop again. Maybe we will see you there. I'll be sure to post the date next summer.

...also...painting on rocks is really fun! We used really smooth rocks, and I loved the way the creamy acrylics would glide over the surface. I painted a Hooded Warbler on one side of the rock and then flipped it to paint a Northern Cardinal on the other side. I'll write more on that later...