| Sketching Wildflowers at Mitchell Canyon March 14, 2004 |
| Shooting Star, Dodecatheon hendersonii Mitchell Canyon, Mt. Diablo Watercolor: Bill Pierson, Pencil: Jackie Vaughan |
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| Mitchell Canyon is a great place to visit any time of year. There is always something exciting to see. March and April happen to be one of the best times for viewing and sketching wildflowers. The temperature was somewhere between 75 and 80 degrees F and the sky was blue and sunny. At our first stop we began drawing leaves of many different kinds of early spring sprouts popping out of the ground. Buckeyes, miner's lettuce, white flowering wild cucumber and buttercups were some of the plants that our group had available to sketch. Others did sketches of oak trees and tree stumps. One of our group drew a page full of miner's lettuce leaves of varying shapes and sizes. In the past I just thought of Miner's lettuce as just a little round leafed plant that was good to munch on. But upon closer examination, you can see that each leaf is different, some are elongated, some are almost triangular and others are more rounded. But none of the leaves are actual circles. Continuing down Mitchell Canyon we walked up Globe Lily trail, a trail that parallels Mitchell Canyon Road and sketched shooting stars that exhibited the various stages of life - from flower to fruit. The flowers of shooting stars are spectacular and the fruit often appears to me to be like a glowing lantern. We also saw some Checker Lilies, Purple Sanicle and other flowers in bloom. The Mt. Diablo Globe Lily and Mariposa Lily won't be out for a litttle while yet. |
| Miner's Lettuce, Claytonia perfoliata Mitchell Canyon, Mt. Diablo Jackie Vaughan |
| Checker Lily Fritillaria affinis Mitchell Canyon, Mt. Diablo c. 2004 Pierson Graphics |
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| White Nemophila, Nemophila heterophylla Mitchell Canyon, Mt. Diablo Bill Pierson |
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| Unknown Butterfly Mitchell Canyon, Mt. Diablo Graphite Pencil: Jackie Vaughan |
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| Buttercup Ranunculus sp. Mitchell Canyon, Mt. Diablo Bill Pierson |