Author Archives: makielb

In Spring, 2002 we went to Washington, D.C. because Susan won a Presidential Teaching Award. Additionally, she got to testify before Congress on the state of education in America. As I tell people, I went along as her arm candy. During the day, while she was at meetings and working I found interesting places forContinue reading “Art challenge – keystone and a trip to Washington, D.C.”

When most people think about a desert they think about dry sandy areas. Well, that’s what we have at Whitefish Point. In fact we live on a sand dune that is over 300 feet deep. When we had our well put in they had to go through 300 feet of sand before hitting clay, thenContinue reading “Art challenge – desert”

Before getting to the art challenge for the day, we had to run errands and decided to do this in a “logical” step-by-step way. First we visited a bog where Susan wanted to look for cranberries. She found some, they were Vaccinium oxycoccos, the small cranberry that tends to bloom before the typical large cranberry.Continue reading “Art challenge, a walk in a bog and lunch”

Spending a lot of time at our cabin we have gotten used to the sound of fog horns, which are rather pleasing as each freighter has a slightly different sound. But when the infamous storms of November arrive it is a different story. The winds blow, frequently all day and night, north winds crossing LakeContinue reading “Art and the sounds of Whitefish Point”

After intense periods of illustrating, which is completely different from drawing, I would take a figure drawing class. Typically, the models for these classes were women, not like the wild ginger which was part of the large project that lead to this. One of those classes got me to drawing women, which is the restContinue reading “Art challenge – wiggly? No! Women.”

The art challenge for toady is “colorful.” The above photo of my friend Heidi’s paint palate perfectly defines “colorful.” But I also wanted to use something that I had done. So here it is in two steps. First there’s the illustration that the watercolor was done from. The above illustration of a buckeye, one ofContinue reading “Art challenge, friends and family”

We were visiting friends in Petosky recently. They had been gifted lots of English walnuts by their neighbor. I immediately thought that this was perfect for my Sciartober challenge today which is “shelled”. We went to visit the tree that these were from. Nearby there was a tuliptree and a ginkgo. None of these nativeContinue reading “Shells and friends”

The other day I ended the art challenge for evolution with this drawing of the fossilized remains of this ancient bird. It is a great transition to the post for today – prehistoric. Brontops, an ancient mammal, drawn from a diorama at the Field Museum in Chicago. Smilodon, the skull of a saber-toothed cat. IContinue reading “Prehistoric art challenge”

The challenge for day was called “leafy.” As a result I first choose an illustration that I had done for Along the Huron, back in the mid-1990s. Then I thought about a sketch in the woody plants journal that I did in 1995. Finally, I’ll add a photo from the Baltimore Aquarium that I tookContinue reading “A leafy art challenge”

The squash is all in, and the last of the tomatoes and green beans will soon be in as well. There are still a few hot peppers in the garden as well as two small eggplants and some herbs. Soon the garden will be put to sleep for the winter, except for the kale. TheContinue reading “Art-challenge and the garden”