Meeting Friends in the Forest–Old and New

I recently spent a weekend hiking and sketching in eastern Oregon with a group from Oregon Botanical Artists. The weekend was generously hosted by two eastern Oregon botanical artists so we could get to know one another better. We spent the first day sketching at an area called the Metolius Preserve, where an effort is being made to preserve and restore an old growth Ponderosa pine forest. Since the day was rather hot, I found a shady spot near a stream where the plants grew green and thick to draw the berries and leaves of a Star-flowered False Solomon’s Seal, Smilacina stellata.

For those of you unfamiliar with Oregon’s topography, eastern Oregon is high desert, separated from from the rainy west side, where I live and where OBA meets, by the Cascade Mountain range. On the east side of the mountains, dried grass and sagebrush mingle with sparse stands of Ponderosa pine and juniper, while on the west side lush forests of Douglas fir predominate. While there is some overlap, in general the ecosystems are quite different.

The next day we took the Canyon Creek Meadow Hike, which wends its way through another Ponderosa pine forest, under the shadow of one of the dormant volcanoes that make up the Cascade Mountain Range. The trail followed a stream for awhile, passed several small lakes, then brought us to meadows with a view of of the craggy mountain called Three Fingered Jack.

At this higher elevation there was a surprising number of wildflowers still in bloom. We spent a lot of time hunched over an array of dazzling but miniscule beauties alongside the trail.


This is where I met some old friends, but this time in their native habitat. We came across a lovely stand of Cascade Penstemon, Penstemon serrulatus, which was dramatically perched between huge boulders above the trail.

I illustrated both a leaf and a flower from this plant during the SBA course for the “leaf assignment” and the “flower assignment”, way back near the beginning of the course.

Because of time constraints during the course, I couldn’t always search out a specimen to study in its native habitat, but usually purchased one from a nursery specializing in native plants. My purchased plant is now thriving in my garden and is even propagating itself nicely, so I should have some to give away soon. Although I know the plant fairly well, I found it stunning in its rocky, dry home in the forest.

The next ‘old friend’ I met was a Corn Lily, Veratrum viride, which I have long desired to know better. I painted a leaf from a small nursery specimen for my SBA leaf assignment but had not yet seen the plant in flower or in its native environment. It’s another stunning beauty that I want to study and paint in greater detail in the future.

It was delightful to become better acquainted with some of my fellow botanical artists, and strangely, I felt as if I had run into old friends along the trail when I spotted plants I had studied and painted in past years. Seeing them in their native habitat opened future possibilities of portraying them in a way that includes something about their native ecosystem, like the setting, the pollinating insects or companion plants.

Am I the only one, or do you develop an attachment to plants or scenes that you have drawn or painted?