Exploring a tropical ecosystem- Costa Rica: Corobici River Rafting

I had a rough draft of this week’s blog already in the works from the series I’m working on the studio, but last week we escaped the cold and went to Costa Rica! If you are familiar with me or my work at all, you know I'm a loyal Midwestern girl. But it was very exciting to explore the tropics for a week!  Costa Rica is considered to be one of the 20 countries with greatest biodiversity in the world.  Its geographic position, its two coasts and its mountainous system, which provides numerous and varied microclimates, are some of the reasons that explain this natural wealth, both in terms of species and ecosystems. (-Institute Nacional de Biodiversidad)

While many people we met at the resort were setting up zip line or water park excursions, I was on a hunt to set up a tour based on seeing as much flora and fauna as possible. After asking around, we ended up booking a private tour with a local guide.  He knew where to go to avoid the crowds so that we would see more animals.  We started with a very early morning rafting trip down the Corobici River. 

Since it was during the dry season, it was loaded with activity. I added tons of new birds to my life list, had , swimming next to the raft, 

howler monkeys hooting and swinging overhead, (see my FB page for video to hear em howl!)
https://www.facebook.com/HolzFineArt/?fref=nf

(yes there is a whole family of monkeys in right pic- so included guide book illustration since ya can't see them!)

several agouti, and a sleek, long-haired, chocolate-brown tayra (locals call it tolumuco--a meter-long giant of the weasel family) prowling around in the trees down the shore.

 

 Birds were everywhere, and these were not necessarily camouflaged at all. Saw birds every couple minutes, rather than waiting by a bird feeder for hours....Even got to see a  redwing Macaw, and my new favorite, the Blue-crowned motmot, Nicaragua's national bird. 

  


TONS of osprey fishing, herons- the funkiest being the boat billed heron. 

   Bright and early morning I didn't expect to see any owls-but we got to see two tucked away into this little den carved into a cliff.  (upper left hand corner)

  

And too many kingfishers to count!!

While I was taking pictures, I was too busy being present and watching it all to take perfect photographs, so I've included images from the guidebook and research as well.

Plant wise it was hard to inspect close up from the raft- but our guide pulled us over to check out the sleeping plant, which closed up as soon as you touched it, and huge flowers like these just hung over the water- our guide plucked one so I put it on the raft for a portable centerpiece. :)

How will this impact my work in the studio? Sometimes directly, or it can be as subtle as a brighter palette, or tucking in a feather of a rare bird or tropical plant.  But I feel a Costa Rica series buzzing round my head, so I'll share as it develops.  But I guess what it really comes down to is that it just renews my faith and fascination what a huge diversity of life we have on this planet, which is what motivates most of my art! 

Pura Vida! my favorite new phrase....

Spanish for "pure life." 
The law of the land in Costa Rica. The expression is used in many forms, from a greeting, to a synonym for "excellent." Ticos follow this lifestyle and are some of the most wonderful people on earth. A synonym of "hakuna matata." Life is wonderful; enjoy it.
"Pura vida!" (Damn right!) 
"Que Me 'Ice Mae, Pura Vida?" (What's up dude, all good?)

A new Direction-Little Houses

So Valentine's Day is over, And I've gotten all those magentas, fuchsias, pinks and purples out of my system for now. Moving on.  Starting something new! My favorite thing…

Whenever I begin something new, I allow myself some "Couch time" to regroup, refocus. 

  

 I go back and look at my sketchbooks, and all the plans that I've made for future pieces (always more plans than time to make them), images I've collected, and the things that have been floating through my head. I put them all in front of me and settle into my cozy spot next to Bear on the couch with my sketchbook, pastels, art books, and perhaps some wine and chocolate:) While I was making Valentines blocks for the last couple weeks, I'm kept having this urge to cut the rectangles into house shapes. I look back in my sketchbook, and this” House urge" has been around for over a year maybe two. Time to do something about it. So quickest path to getting rolling was by using some panels I had and chopping off their tops at various angles to create a couple little houses.

I haven't done encaustic since before Christmas, and my torch was calling me! So thought these should be encaustic.  However I wanted to incorporate a couple different materials that I'm not sure would work well with wax. And although I love sculpture, and have always worked my pieces on all sides not just the front as a lot of painters do, this time I just wrapped the encaustic around the two sides, leaving top and bottom unfinished. So I taped them off and jumped into priming a couple of them, not sure exactly where they were going to go, but I had some ideas. 

The first one I tackled was very symmetrical roofline that I worked in a subtle blue-sky background but then faded down to a yellow/ochre -the color of Prairie grass. Dug through my image file for some birds in flight, played around scale and positioning, auditioned them with a piece of transparency, made a copy and transferred them on. This is one of the aspects that I love about encaustic!! If I wanted to do a transfer in acrylic, it would require a special paper, both layers to be coated with at least three layers of acrylic, and basically taking an hour and a half or so before I get to see the image I want on the surface. Immediate gratification! Amen! Or pretty close to it.

Any rate next up was to add some prairie grasses. This is where I love encaustic’s flexibility as well. This process in an acrylic painting could take days to a week, easily. With encaustic I just make sure I have a warm soft layer of encaustic medium, press this grass into the surface. Let cool, trim any stragglers, and cover with another layer of medium, fusing gently so as not to ignite grass on fire:-) 

Of course I had to address the sides too, so repeated the same sequence for the sides.

Now for the top/roof. I used the tacking iron to carefully peel off the painters tape I used to mask it, and wasn't sure how I was going to finish the roof.  Once I had it off, I knew I wanted to keep it rather minimal like a prairie sky. 

So I went into the back room, and dug around my wood piles and collections of bark and twigs to see if I could find a good fit. I came upon two pieces of a gorgeous sandy colored wood, I think I pulled them out of someone's fire kindling bin, but they are gorgeous, match the prairie grasses perfectly, and require no additional treatment. Played around with getting the miter for the top just right, then glued just the two parts of the roof together so that seam was secure. 

Let it dry overnight, then came back the next day to attach to the house. Used my handy dandy sandbags as usual to make sure it had good contact. 

I was considering perhaps some pine bark for the bottom or something else, but I think I may just paint the bottom and keep this one rather minimal. His neighbors in the series we'll have more going on in that area. You’ll see some of them next week!

  

One thing leads to another…or being led by your love of subject matter

I guess it started out with this large collage.

 I am always on the lookout for texts/books with a natural history slant, and a particularly fruitful visit to the Kane county flea market garnered me quite a few treasures…  so I started out with a collage from parts of an antique birding book, then thought perhaps I could use those wing diagrams that I found years ago, so I dug them up and made a silkscreen of them and included those as well. And that lead me to thinking of nests and eggs and spending way too much time looking at a field guide to bird’s eggs and evaluating their different patterns and how they are made.  So of course, I had to stop and make a screen of those as well. Fast-forward and here is the result.  

Nature Ephemera:  Flycatcher Fossil Fungus

http://www.cherylholz.com/art/detail.php?artid=124467

Well as it frequently happens, one piece leads to another.  Sometimes its preplanned and logical, but sometimes its merely not wanting to waste the rest of the palette you've mixed or that screen that's loaded with ink and will just go to waste, so why not put it on…. (she thinks as she looks at all the potentially eligible projects/problems/prospects on the wall…)  that one.   I found two potential recipients.  And so that's how these two what I like to call “peripheral pieces” were started….

And there they stayed for weeks, with countless options being considered for the center/focal point.  An actual nest and egg were an obvious choice-sure! That would be fun, and although I have a good collection of both- none of them were a perfect fit. So- they hung there bugging me.

   

   Then I did an acetone transfer onto an old page for another piece, and perhaps it was the palette of the old page that seemed to lend itself to the colors of my unfinished panels…or? But anyway it hit me that this could be the solution.  . …and as soon as I tried a very old birding illustration on that page- that was it. 

"Ovenbird"

"Tree Swallows on a Wire"

So not only did they provide the focal points for these two, it spurred me on to other pieces.  I greedily went thru pages of this old book, selecting birds not only for their beauty- but getting sucked into reading about their habitats and behaviors… not really what I should be doing with a big deadline looming on the horizon! But those passions fueled these small ATCs (Artist Trading Cards) and were the perfect solution for me to use more of that bird imagery- and my feather collection- on a small scale….

 

I totally enjoy playing around with pure abstraction of color and pattern- but it is just not enough for me.  I am compelled time and again to incorporate examples from nature that relate…. and if it leads to hours perusing birding guides, then so be it.    I guess I am really am a wannabe naturalist with an artistic bent.  I plan on continuing this birding series further…Stay tuned...