EP15: Water Strider Art: Drawing with focus and flow
The Wat’ry Mirror On this placid summer morn meandering up a forest stream i search for magic newly-born … sprinklings of fair nature’s dream and soon i find a sweet delight drifting, darting, left and right in pools beneath the riffled light … water striders, skimming near gliding on the wat’ry mirror casting shadows, sliding smooth … entranced, i watch their every move - Lang Elliott
This morning I am at the family cottage on Lake St Peter, Ontario, where the calm lake surface provides a rich opportunity to create with sparkling beauty makers called water striders, all this is happening as I am mesmerized by the pulsing patterns of light refracting through the water.
Art with nature encourages us to foster a balance between concentrated focused attention and a more relaxed, wandering gaze. Water striders, known as "water walkers" or “pond skaters” provide an opportunity to practice these different ways of looking. As we track the path of an individual strider we can simultaneously take in the unfolding ballet of multitudes skittering across the water’s surface.
How is it that they are not pulled below the surface, I wonder? Apparently their legs repel water, while the water’s surface tension is enough to keep them afloat. They have buoyancy built into their legs too! For a glimpse of a gorgeous water strider video entitled A Watry World: A Celebration of Water Striders visit Lang Elliot’s Music of Nature website.
It’s not long before I spot the water striders as they dart and twirl. Truly magical, they create beautiful ripples around their bodies as they dart every which way. Thousands of them, like miniature rowers, ride the lake currents from one end of the lake to the other, taking shelter in the quieter waters of coves and bays.
This morning, the wind has picked up as I too paddle towards shore, all the while noticing how much they bob, chase and jump after each other. They are simultaneously smooth movers and comical in a bumper car kind of way. The striders also seem to calm down as the water calms. I can never seem to get right up next to them though as the ripples created by Owlie, my plucky red canoe, prompt them to move off to a safe distance.
Water Strider Draw
I focus my eyes on one water strider and track her motion with my Sharpie. She stops and starts, darts and twists every which way. I love ignoring what my pen is doing to simply block out the world and focus on her alone. When she moves, my pen moves. She is clearly an individual making her own movement choices.
Then I soften my gaze on a group of striders as they make jutty motions every which way. They are never here nor there, yet always everywhere. Rarely do they take a straight line to a destination, theirs is an interesting varied multidirectional adventure.
I particularly love the ripples their bodies make. With each new jump new ripples are created. My pen stops and twirls around then starts up again in a new direction, only to suddenly stop to twirl around and around again. Over 20 years ago, I was at this same spot, drawing with these lovely creatures. I loved the ripples then too.
When I look at my old drawings I am reminded of the mapping of constellations- like when the ancients joined stars in lines on rocks, to support star stories of the gods and goddesses, forces that ruled their world. The dots joined to create meaningful shapes and stories.
After a few minutes, I stopped paddling and placed my paddle across the beam of the canoe and laid my paper and paints on top. The water striders had become dots of black in an ever changing pulsing palette of watery colour.
It was then that I noticed even more incredible water ripples in the bay- gorgeous multicoloured roundy rings of moving colour surrounded these creatures. I became lost in the vibrancy of that colour kaleidoscope, feeling dizzily seduced and swarmed by colour potency. I thought it would be fun to try and focus on the water striders and the psychedelic water ripples simultaneously as I drew and painted.
Focusing on the water striders while staying connected to the motion of the water and the larger swarm, requires a leap of faith, a soft trusting focus. It is hard to do both at the same time. When I focused on the water striders I no longer saw the swirling motion. When I opened to the swirly motion it was as though the water striders didn’t exist. With each switch in perspective I’d swear the other was not there. At first, I didn’t seem able to do draw both simultaneously, rather I changed channels back and forth from one to the other. But soon, the smoother the change the more I felt in synch, in the flow of this peaceful ballet. Slowly I could draw while conscious of one way of seeing and simultaneously aware of the other. You can too.
What draws your attention today? What happens when you move from sharp focus to a softer gaze while creating?
I’d love to hear from you. You can share your own artful nature encounters below.
The Creative by Nature Art Substack is a weekly publication by visual artist Lisa Lipsett, celebrating art where nature’s beauty is seen, heard, and deeply felt- for joy and connection. At the juncture of ecology, creativity, and nature-based visual art, it supports the re-wilding of our human relationship with the living world through immersive creative expression.
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