Nature Sparks My Imagination by Heather Washburn

Early this spring I came upon these marsh grasses and loved how they danced in the breezes along the path. I tend to look to nature for inspiration and these colors and sounds sparked my imagination into suggesting a new series of pieces inspired by acoustic guitar or bluegrass while the grasses inspired the colors.

Pulling out my favorite travel tools of watercolors, pips crayola markers, and pencil. I find a comfy chair, settle my watercolor pad onto my lap and pull up tunes featuring acoustic guitar…and begin. I start by listening to a piece a couple of times and then with the markers in hand I lay down lines that are generated from different parts of the music, keeping the grasses in mind. Then I start the music over and pull up photographs taken of the grasses and start fleshing out the piece with watercolors based on the colors that I see in the marsh grass.

Marsh Grass Examples