Sunday Afternoon Cyanotypes from Forest and Sea

 

 

I brought back a few treasures from the forest and the beach on Malcolm Island to experiment making more cyanotypes. I thought this coral algae would make a good print.

 

 

I was also fascinated by these long individual strands of Methuselah's beard lichen on the forest floor. They got a little bit dehydrated in my backpack so I revived them by soaking them in water for a bit.

When rinsing the print I realized the giant garry oak in my friend's back yard was reflected in the water. Such a magnificent tree!

Gumweed Palooza!

 

 

It's that glorious time of the year when the gumweed is blooming in Vancouver Island. Who's hiding in the sticky stamens?

 

Here's a blue-eyed beauty with exceptionally furry pollen pants: Ms. Melissodes microsticta! She's just taking a breather in between trips to drink her nectar powerade and collect pollen to provision her nest in the ground.

She deserves a break!

 

And in a flower nearby, her long-horned male counterpart is chillin' too. 

 

He's doing a bit of grooming on his long antennae to look good for the ladies.

 

And while he's sipping nectar, the female gets right back to work.

 

 

 Meanwhile, back in the boudoir, the Dianthidium subparvum are makin' baby bees. These lovely black and white resin bees use the pollen and nectar from gumweed as food, and the resin as nesting material.

After mating, this female goes right back to work. Note the pollen on her hairy belly.

 

 

 The males like to perch in the grass on leaves and stems.

Mr. pebble bee is ready for his closeup.

 

There were a couple of other critters hanging around the gumweed patch, including this tiny shiny fly.

 

Sand wasps (Bembix spp.) also nest in the sand around the gumweed. Take the time to do your own gumweed bee safari and bee sure to post your findings on iNaturalist! These photos were taken in Victoria on the shore of the Gorge near the Craigflower Schoolhouse. If you are in Victoria on July 11-13, consider joining in the Uplands Park Insect Bioblitz. It's gonna bee a blast! Hope to see you there.

More Studies in Blue

 

Three Plant Portraits in Blue

 

 

Bleeding heart,

alumroot,

and oceanspray.

Forest Light

 

 

Darren and I walked the forest paths, the birder and the beespeaker, listening for the songs of the creatures we love so much. We each have our own agendas, but they happily overlap.

Creating cyanotypes of plants has sharpened my eye for the details of pattern, shape, and light. The forest edge is full of beautifully complex relationships among the native and introduced plants there on the sides of the path. I want to be fully present to appreciate and celebrate every stamen and petal, every leaf miner pattern and leaf edge.

 The dappled forest light is glorious, lighting the salmonberries from within like enchanted lanterns.

 

This bush in particular was growing berries that reminded me of salmon roe.

 

There are bumble bees that travel along the edge of the forest, pollinating the delicate flowers on the sides of the path, spotlit for their pollinators, as if the stage was set for them.

 

 

Darren found a sad little boy on the path, lost and dusty. I put him on a log for a chance for him to warm up and fly again.

Beach Pea Bees

 

 

Thanks to the Comox Valley Art Gallery, I am currently the artist in residence at the cottage in McLoughlin Gardens near Merville, BC. I am doing a deep dive into local keystone plants for native bees using photography, writing and creating botanical cyanotypes. I'm also working on costumes inspired by insects such as leaf miners, caddis flies, lacewing larvae and bagworm moth caterpillars. Finally, as a board member of the BC Native Bee Society, I am networking with other artists, naturalists and scientists who live in the area in order to create future events merging art, science, and the conservation and celebration of local native bees. My longtime dear friend and collaborator Lois Klassen is in the Comox Valley Artist residence in Courtenay and we are supporting each other with food, conversation, feedback, and inspiration. We are also here to see the show in the gallery with wonderful art by our colleagues from Winnipeg. I am also grateful by hcma in Victoria for financial support for this project as part of my residency with them.

Every day I have here at the cottage I have been searching the beach peas for bees.

Most times I see Bombus flavifrons sucking back that nectar. She's got a long face, but she still goes face deep into each flower.

You can see she's got a bit of pollen on her back legs.

This shot shows her lovely colour morph. The B. flavifrons I see on the Japanese spirea here have a darker colour pattern on the lower part of their abdomen.

So cute to see them grooming as they drink.

You can see little holes in the petals made by the tarsal claws as she clings to the flowers.

I love how the veins in her wings echo the veins in the petals. There are three other key plants here that Bombus flavifrons are foraging in here: Japanese spirea, oceanspray, and snowberry. 

I thought the giant vetch had finished blooming, but found one patch that was still juicy and a B. flavifrons was face deep in these flowers too.

Look how she clings to the flowers with her little tarsal claws!

Love how the colour of her pollen load matches the petals. After finishing with all the giant vetch, she switched to the beach pea flowers nearby.