Soup and Walk -- June 19, 2010

Soup and Walk, June 19, 2010


Saturday was a hot day but the Soup and walk was planned to be in the cooler forest and stress ferns. How much cooler could we choose to be?
I got there early and docents were already setting up for our visitors. We were expecting a large group from Methodist Manor House from Seaford, DE plus others. That group arrived a little early and had plenty of time to check out the bookstore and the shop. Visiting with them I found some folks had been here before but most had not, also among the group were several retired teachers, a minister, and a nurse. Of course since I came from DE we had to compare notes on who knew who.
We gathered on the patio and walked to the entrance to the forest. One of the visitors asked about the history of the arboretum so we talked about Leon Andress and his desire to keep place from being flooded for a lake and saved for the trees.
At the first bridge we talked about the outstanding group of ferns, and we talked about what caused such a lush area. It had what ferns need to grow and flourish –water and shade Julie had picked a lady fern frond and a New York fern and we pointed out the things to look for to identify them.
Though it was a fern walk, folks asked about the paw – paw, I pointed out the fruit and mentioned that this is the farthest north it grows in the wild. Everyone seemed impressed with the huge leaves. One of the visitors broke out in the Picking Paw Paws song.
At the next bridge we talked about naming the parts of the fern, it was a fun exercise to see how many remembered the after I first pointed out the parts, the rachis, the rhizome, the pinna, pinule, spores and frond is made of the blade and stipe. I made a fiddlehead from a pipe cleaner to demonstrate one because there weren’t any in sight.
The cinnamon fern does not have the fertile frond right now but it is tall and impressive, after making note of the beads on the back of the frond and pointed out the wooly tufts at the base of the frond used by ground nesting birds to line their nests, which led to a discussion of uses of ferns in the environment.
Everyone was interested in the tall bracken fern with its three triangular shaped fronds and that it is found worldwide. We discussed the dangers that creatures including humans take when they eat ferns.
We checked out the netted chain fern and tried to compare one to the sensitive fern. It was getting warm even in the forest and most everyone seemed to be managing except one lady she had a portable fan and seemed warm but she said she was fine and wanted to continue on.
I knew the last three ferns were all together further up the trail so we did not stop for the ebony spleen wort. Up the trail past the downed log is a wonderful area of Christmas fern, a rattle snake fern and the ebony spleenwort. Wort an unusual word, means used as medicine so I explained the doctrine of signatures. I explained the rattlesnake fern is in the adder’s tongue family and looked carefully at that fern. One visitor disagreed about naming it rattlesnake and said it looked like a ballet dancer, we all could see that comparison too. The last fern was the Christmas fern they all loved the pinna shaped like a stocking, We discussed how many ferns have the spores on the back of the blade and pointed out the the fertile fronds on the Christmas fern and the ebony spleenwort.
As we walked out of the forest the visitor that was having trouble with the heat was having to stop more often and for longer so Shirley and Zaida went on with the rest of the group and Zaida went down to the nursery for the golf cart and brought it back to us. It was a welcome sight, because that lady needed to have a rest, air conditioning and some water even though she kept protesting she was ok. Michelle met her with a cool glass of water and we went into lunch. After lunch she said she was feeling better. I really am glad Zaida went after the golf cart. It was a relief to see her coming like the Lone Ranger to save the day. It is my opinion the golf cart should be up at the visitor’s center to be available in case it is needed when we are leading walks. All docents should know where the cart key is kept and how to drive it also.
Bev

Paintings by Elissa O'Loughlin on View at Adkins Arboretum

Elissa O’Loughlin is in love with color. When she paints a blue sky, there are countless shades of blue, and when she paints daffodils, their leaves are a multitude of greens, yellow, grays and earthy pinks. Her paintings are on view at Adkins Arboretum’s Visitor’s Center through May 28. A reception to meet the artist will be held on Saturday, April 24 from 3 to 5 p.m.

O’Loughlin paints small, exquisite landscapes and plant studies in gouache, an opaque watercolor medium especially suited to subtle color effects.

The show’s title, Notes & Essays—Eastern Shore Paintings, comes from the varied approaches evident in O’Loughlin’s paintings. Some, such as “Nor’easter #1” with its ominous sky swept with quick brushstrokes, are the “notes,” simply and swiftly painted to capture a fleeting moment. The “essays” are more detailed scenes portraying specific places.

In “Scarlet Clover at Moore’s Farm,” huge clouds billow in a deep blue sky above a house and barns. The buildings shelter against the deep greens of summer trees, where sunbeams highlight a row of cedars edging a sliver of red—a field of brilliant crimson clover.

O’Loughlin earned a BFA from Moore College of Art in Philadelphia, where she studied with the well-known landscape painter and teacher Ranulph Bye, but she put painting largely on hold to work in conservation. She has been a paper conservator since 1986 and has worked for Baltimore’s Walters Art Museum for the past decade.

Having daily contact with the works in the Walters collection has kept her mindful of the nuances of color that make the paintings of the Old Masters so rich and vibrant. Through her work as a conservator, she learned to make her own paints by grinding raw pigments.

“Mixing colors has always thrilled me,” she said. “And I’ve taught this in adult education classes at the Walters. The class is called ‘Make your Own Watercolors.’”

Most artists take the simple route, purchasing the standard colors available from paint manufacturers, but O’Loughlin finds commercially available paints too limiting.

“You’re trapping yourself in someone else’s color sense,” she explained. “Instead of looking like my art was all painted with one brand, I start with my own colors. It’s not what you get in a paint box. Now I have five different ultramarines and seven whites.”

Multiple shades of blue, from milky pale hues through cerulean, cobalt and Prussian, mingle with delicate light grays, pale pinks and near lavenders in the sky behind the rolling storm clouds in “Cloud Study #1.”

This is a show that’s full of the low-lying landscape and strong weather so characteristic of the Eastern Shore. Many of O’Loughlin’s scenes are painted close to her home in Galestown.

“I go out and drive, and I see paintings,” she said. “‘Nor’easter’ was really during the nor’easter we had last fall. I just sat in the car and watched it.”

O’Loughlin does her best to remember the particular colors she sees during storms and bursts of sunlight so that she can capture them in the studio. These moments of drama and subtlety are what bring her paintings alive.

“I enjoy the challenge of painting the Eastern Shore,” she explained. “And there’s a great plein-air tradition here that I’d like to think I’m part of.”