Keeping a Nature Journal

192 Pages·2003·34.616 MB·English

by  Clare Walker Leslie, Charles E. Roth

BOSTONPUBLIC LIBRARY
Copley Square
D
Whole
iscover a
New Way
Seeing
of
World Around You
the
&
Clare Walker Leslie Charles E. Roth
Foreword by Edward O. Wilson
Illustrations by Clare Walker Leslie and others
Storey
Books
Schoolhouse Road
Pownal, Vermont 05261
The mission of Storey Communications is to derye ourcudtomerd
bypublishingpractical information that encourages personal independence
in harmony with the environmen
t.
Edited by Deborah Balmuth
Cover design by Meredith Maker
Cover illustrations by Clare Walker Leslie
Cover photography b\^ Giles Prett
Text design by Meredith Maker and Mark Tomasi
Production by Erin Lincourt
Indexed by lagerty & lollowav
I I
©
Copyright 2000 by Clare Walker Leslie and Charles E. Roth
All rights reserved. No part ot this book may be reproduced without written permission from
the publisher, except by a reviewer who may quote briefpassages or reproduce illustrations in
a review with appropriate credits; nor may any part ot this book be reproduced, stored in a
—
retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means electronic, mechanical, photo-
—
copying, recording, or other without written permission from the publisher.
The information in this book is true and complete to the best ofour knowledge. All recommen-
dations are made without guarantee on the part ot the author or Storey Books. The author and
publisher disclaim any liability in connection with the use of this information. For additional
information, please contact Storey Books, Schoolhouse Road, Pownal, Vermont 05261.
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Printed in Hong Kong by C & C Offset Printing
98765432
10
1
A hardcover version of this book was preciously published under the title Nature Journaling:
Learningto ObserveandConnectwiththe WorldAround You (Storey, 1998, ISBN 1-58017-088-9).
Library ofCongress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Leslie, Clare Walker.
Keepinga naturejournal: discoverawhole newwayofseeingtheworld aroundyou
/Clare Walker Leslie & Charles E. Roth: foreword bj^ Edward O. Wilson; dlustrations
by Clare Walker Leslie and others,
p. cm.
Previously published as: Nature journaling, cl998.
Includes bibliographical references (p. ).
ISBN 1-58017-306-3 (pbk.)
—
1. Nature. 2. Natural history. 3. Diaries Authorship.
1. Roth, Charles Edmund, 1934- . II. Leslie, Clare Walker. Nature journaling.
III. Title.
QH81 .L595 2000
508—dc21 98-14497
CIP
edication
This book is dedicated to my daughter, Anna,
because she has been with me throughout the whole process.
It was Anna and her triends who gave me the courage and the support
—
to find a way through to publication suggesting exercises, offering
their own drawings, being women naturalists of the future.
Clare WalkerLeelie
would like to dedicate this book to my mentor — naturalist-educator
I
Charles Mohr, who guided my early ventures into natural history — and
to my five grandchildren, who may each find in these pages a way to
develop their own sense of place in a changing world.
Charier E. Roth
$
iii
o n n
e
t t s
Acknowledgments
vi
.
Foreword by Edward O. Wilson
Vll
.
Preface
VIII
9
G art 1 Getting Started
:
1. Discovering Nature Journaling . . .3
2. Beginning Your Journal . 17
A
3 Sampling of Journaling Styles .37
.
c7
art 2 Journaling through the Seasons
:
4 The Ongoing Journal 65
. .
5 The Autumn Journal 73
. .
6 The Winter Journal .89
.
7 The Spring Journal 105
.
8. The Summer Journal 121
<£Part 3: Learning & Teaching Nature Journaling
9. Getting Started with Drawing 139
10 Teaching Journaling to Groups of All Ages 155
. . . .
11 Journaling with School Groups 163
.
John Busby
Suggested Reading 172
Resources 175
Suggested Scale for Teachers to Assess Nature Journaling Skills 177
Index 178
I
Thanks to
Our Students cknowledgments
For years students have been
badgering us to get into print
what they have found to be an
extremely useful method for writ- Both ol us would like to acknowledge and many other schools and teaching
ing, drawing, and reflecting on our debt to the life work of artist- centers across the country where Clare
what lives around them. This naturalist-teacher Roger lory Peterson. has taught and is still teaching.
We trust hewould find in these pages We also thank Lucy Patton, Clare’s
book is a truly collaborative an extension of his efforts. secretary, who braved many a storm
effort, containing not only our We would also like to thank the with the calm of a fellow mother, part-
observations and art, but also many fellow artists, naturalists, and ner, and believer. And we thank Edward
the work of some of our students journalists who have shared in the O. Wilson, Research Professorat
and professional colleagues. developmentof this book over the tour Harvard University, for believing
years of its making. Space does not enough in our ellorts to take precious
In over twenty-five years of
permit us to list all ofyou, but we must time from his own important work with
teaching nature drawing and
give special mention to: nature to write our foreword.
journaling, we have encountered Bill Hammond, I lannah 1 Iinchman, This book would not be in existence
hundreds of students, young and Cathy Johnson, John Elder, John without the commitment, intelligence,
old, in and out of academic situ- Busby, Steve LindeII. Bill Fox, and creativity of our editor, Deborah
ations, and with tremendous Audrey Nelson, Ron Cisar, John Balmuth, and the creative team at
Pitcher, Marcy Marchello, and Storey Books. They have made the task
ranges of skills in either nature
or drawing study, who, in taking J. WPaerkaerre pIaIrutbiecru.larlygrateful to of pulWleingalesvoeroywtehiangvetroygestpheecriaaljodye.bt of
on their own naturejournals, thosewho have supported and piloted love and gratitude to our respective
became their own learners. the ideas presented here and who spouses, David and Sandy, for putting
Increasingly, people think that believe in this work. We especial^ up with the messes in the houses and
nature is only found in nature thank the teachers of the Hardy our mental absences while we strug-
reserves and parks. Journaling School, Tobin School, Caryl School, gled to bring order out of a chaos of
Massachusetts Audubon Society, papers and ideas.
can help you discover that
Carleton College, Williams College,
nature is actually all around.
All you need is heightened
perception and awareness.
LPJC
o
7oreword
W
liat is natural history? It is vir- rest of life. What we most enjoy, sional publications to creative art
tually the whole world around including a clean, healthy natural envi- whose principal purpose is to convey
you. It is the vista ofa great forest ronment, also serves the interest of the aesthetic pleasure.
from a mountaintop, and a swath of human species. The art of natural history, as
weeds growing along a city sidewalk. fhis combination of pleasure and KeepingaNatureJournal shows very
It is the breaching ofa whale, and the practicality is what makes the kind of well, servesyet another, equally impor-
protozoans teeming in algae in a drop illustration promoted in Keepinga tant function. To a degree greater than
of pond water. Everywhere the world NatureJournal important. For centuries photography, it involves the illustrator
is alive, awaiting exploration by those it has been the mainstay of represent- directly in what he observes. The illus-
who prefer, if only at intervals, real ing the natural world. For a time many trator re-create what he sees and does
reality to virtual reality. And as to the believed that natural history and scien- not merely record. Fie expresses what
wonders of modern technology, bear in tific art would be supplanted by pho- seems important, hence worthy to
mind that a sidewalk weed and a pro- tography and graphs. But these are stress and convey in a single com-
tozoan are each more complex than merely the extremes available to the pelling image. He can strengthen lus
any deviceyet invented by humanity. human eye, bracketing detailed rendi- impression with written description
Because humanity evolved in tion at one end and abstraction of data and commentary. This creative process
nature over millions ofyears, there is at the other. In between and just as is at the heart of natural history obser-
every reason to expect that we possess enduring is natural history illustration, vation, and it helps to make the best of
an innate capacity to draw deep excite- wherein the observer brings out those experiences also the most lasting in
ment and pleasure from experiencing features thought most important and memory for anyone wishing to enjoy it.
it. And because our species has been interesting in settings difficult for pho- Edward 0. Wiloon
exquisitely adapted to the razor-thin tographs and impossible for graphs to Research Professor, Harvard University
biosphere covering the planet by this attain. Nature journaling is also Honorary Curator in Entomology,
same evolution, our survival depends extremely flexible. It ranges from sci- Museum of Comparative Zoology
on understanding and protecting the entific figures designed for profes-
bro^t" v+Ao**'
vii
reface
W
hen wasyoung, played out- we can. I was fortunate enough to find People ask how I keep so manyjour-
I I
doors all the time. Nature was the teachers and kindly advisers I nals goingyear uponyear. Well, I
a part ol my dailyworid, as it was tor needed in Eric Enmon of England, answer, they have become myjob, my
my sisters and our friends. We never John Busby of Scotland, Gunnar source of reverence, my inspiration for
knew the specific names ol things, but Brusewitz of Sweden, and Marie books, and my best friends.
Henry, Libby Darlington, and Don have been developing the ideas
trees were towers to be climbed, bushes I
were caves, wooded paths were for Stokes in this country. To them I owe in this book over a number ofyears,
bicycles, and creek banks were for end- my drive and desire to bring outdoor but teaching about nature journaling is
less games. Today those woods are field drawing and journaling to this far easier than writing about it. Chuck
gone, but I am the naturalistand artist 1 country. It has not been as popular here Roth, a mentor and professional natu-
am now because of those magical days as in Europe, where it is still part of the ralist-educator, author and artist,
of play and camaraderie outdoors. traditional method ol studying science. agreed to join me in the project and to
Now teach and paint and write Now, twenty-fiveyears Liter, with add his own perspectives when
I
about the connections between drawing six books published, a marriage, two needed. The book has become a
and nature. People ask where I began kids, a double life in rural Vermont and moving experience of collaboration
mystudy; it is too long a story to tell urban Cambridge, and no studio to and search for a common voice. I am
here, but it goes back to those woods. 1 speak of, I wander throughout this more the artist, he more the scientist. I
left for college and then to teach art and country teaching. I use my ownyearly draw; he writes. I handwrite in pencil;
continue my training as a cellist. But journal as a source of information about he composes on his computer. But our
and connection with the ongoing pulse message comes through our collective
the out-of-doors kept distracting me.
I
tried connecting the teaching of art ofnature. I his, in turn, keeps me con- beliefs and through those of the stu-
with teaching about nature. It didn’t nected to the rest of life. dents and colleagues gathered in the
work. So I quit to learn the path of a In a box on my floor are myjour- pages of this book.
naturalist and a painter of nature on my nals, back to 1978. I even have the jour-
own. One day, canoeingwith a friend nals I began in the labor and delivery Clare WalkerLeslie
rooms tor my children, Eric and Anna. Cambridge, Massachusetts,d997
across awild stretch of open sea out to
an island off the coast of Massachusetts
to count migrating shorebirds, I knew I
had found my way. A lone peregrine
swept over us, swarming up a mass of
dunlins that were feeding along the
beach. had my drawing pad and
I
binoculars; I drew wildly in the rocking
canoe. And today I still have the print I
made from that startling event.
Many of us are self-taught, seeking
out courses, books, and mentors where
viii
I grew up an only child in a relatively That experience is etched in my My life work has focused mostly
rural setting. The world ofnature memory, and many more as well. But on training teachers andyouth leaders
provided my immediate playmates and most of the details have long since in natural historyand helping foster
playthings. Theywere a most intimate faded away. I wish I had kept a journal basic environmental literacy among our
part of myformativeyears. There were that recorded my childhood discoveries citizens. Clare has stimulated hundreds
not many adults around me who shared of nature, and people's reactions to of people to begin keeping nature jour-
my interests or knew much of anything them. I made many crude drawings of nals; we have even taught some nature
about the world ofnature. I recall being- tinngs 1 observed, but these have long observation workshops jointly in the
fascinated bythe calls ofspring peep- ago disappeared, probably into a vari- past. As a journalist I tend to be more
ers, and amazed that none of the adults ety of trash containers. writer than artist; for Clare, it’s just the
in my neighborhood could tell me what Itwas in college that I was first reverse. For me the primary task in the
made those loud noises. I was told vari- encouraged to make detailed field notes field is to observe carefully and intently;
ously that the calls came from turtles, about my natural history observations. later I record my observations and
snakes, and birds. The style I was taughtwas quite tradi- reflect on them in the journals. For
1 set out to find out for myself. tional, formal, and scientific, but in the Clare the task outdoors is to draw,
When I first found those tiny, 1-inch long run very useful tor reviewing a which helps her focus her observations.
frogs with throats blown up like bubble variety of observations. As time passed She works on the details; I search for
gum, I could hardly believe my eyes or I learned to add to this formal, scientific the gestalt, the bigger connections, the
ears. I caught several and brought them approach manyinformal observations, context in which the objects and events
home in a jar. My parents at first questions for future observations, are occurring. These are differentways
—
refused to believe that these little crea- philosophical ramblings on the meaning to approach the same thing an under-
tures were the real source of such loud of what I was observing, and other per- standing of the natural world.
choruses of sounds. Aboutten o’clock ceptions about the world around me.
that night, however, when the peepers These journal entrieswere to serve me Charles E. “Chuck”Roth
began calling in the jar, they became well in both laterwritings and later art Littleton, Massachusetts, 1997
believers; was awakened and told to projects; indeed, they continue to do so.
I
—
remove thatjar from the house
promptly and permanently!
UK