Julie R. Neidlinger: Lone Prairie Art Works

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Blue dragonflies.

written by Julie R. Neidlinger 0 comments link this post

Dad had just taken off in his Cessna from the grass runway out behind the yard, and dipped a wing in answer to my wave from down on the gravel road.

I usually, when going sketching outside, carry my supplies in a five-gallon bucket. Upon arriving at the site, I use the bucket, flipped upside down, as a chair. It's very handy. However, I couldn't find a bucket last week when I went out to draw what had caught my eye on my evening walk.

Small, blue dragonflies, hundreds of them, latched onto the thick grass in the ditch by the slough, jutting out like spikes. If I squinted my eyes just a bit, the breeze against the grass made it all appear holographic, a splash of blue covering the green for just a moment.

I ran up to the house, trying to beat the setting sun, and grabbed my Moleskine sketchbook and a set of colored pencils, the Moleskine pages being a great, smooth texture for the soft, waxy pencils.

No bucket to sit on, though. I sat on the road, right at the edge where the gravel flaked off into the dark slough. I hoped no cars or pick-up trucks would come roaring down the road in a blast of dust like they usually did.

Trying to find a comfortable spot in the waning light, I took off my glasses and started sketching.

As always, I find the most amazing worlds right there in the ditch. The smaller picture is almost always more fascinating to me than the huge, grandiose version.

It's not the greatest sketch, nor the most accurate, but that is not the point at all. This was about stopping and noticing and learning, through the use of a pencil, what these dragonflies and this grass was all about.

Two days later, the grass in the ditch was cut and this opportunity was gone for the year. I'm very glad I took the time to sit down in the dirt and sketch, biting flies and all, when I had the chance.