Being an artist changes you. I don’t mean that in a snooty way or in a way that limits what art is. Art can be painting and drawing, but it’s also music, photography, design, decorating, writing, engineering, sewing, stitching, gardening, growing, architecture, building… That one small three-letter word encompasses so many endeavors. And, when you start down a specific creative path, no matter how broad or meandering, you are changed by what you learn. You start to see the world differently and things that once went without notice become curiosities, worthy of attention.
When I look at photographs of artists’ homes, studios, and gardens, I get it more now. I get the draw to nature. I get the collections of textures, colors, shapes, and curiosities. I’ve always been drawn to collecting natural items and making things with them. I have vivid memories of picking daisies and making halos and crowns. I remember sweeping out an area under low-hanging evergreen branches to make a playhouse. I would make kazoos out of thick blades of bitter grass, walking sticks out of sturdy branches, and animal sculptures out of shells collected on the beach. I’d put special pinecones and feathers in my pockets to take home and admire.
When you look at kids playing outside, this behavior seems to be a part of the human makeup. When I imagine a toddler on a walk, I always picture his chubby hand clutching a rock.
We lose that sense of wonder as we grow up and get busy. But we can regain it through art… Through music that makes us listen a little closer to the birdsongs. Through drawings that make us notice how light falls through the branches. Through design that makes us appreciate the intricate texture of a dried seedpod.
I’ve noticed over the past couple of years that I’ve started noticing, appreciating, and collecting more curiosities from nature. Pinecones, shells, coral, feathers, rocks, twigs, dried grasses, sticks. I’ve used them to make dip pens and brushes and they are scattered all around my house, nestled and tucked. They are there for me to sketch, to photograph, to draw inspiration from.
And I have started using these collected curiosities more intentionally in my decorating. I’ve turned the hutch in the living room into a bit of a “cabinet of curiosities.” It’s filled with ironstone bowls of shells, coral, old books, and even a vintage microscope I picked up at an antique store for $10.
..and something I never even considered buying before…a little antique stuffed bird. An “Allouette Calendrelle” from France. It’s a Greater Short-toed Lark and I thought it would be a lovely subject to draw and paint.
I love how it has a curious expression like it just heard a noise.
When I need an interesting subject to draw, I often find my way to this cabinet of curiosities and sketch out acorn caps or a snail shell collected on our vacation to Maine several years ago.
Whatever your art is and whether you even consider yourself to be an artist of any kind, I want to encourage you to nurture that sense of wonder. To remain curious and grounded in things that are real, lovely, and breathtakingly beautiful. To find inspiration in unexpected places, follow those meandering trails, and pick up interesting things you find along the way…
21 Responses
Thank you for sharing your curiosity cabinet! I’ve been lovingly teased by Kirk for picking up sticks, so many shells, stones, pinecones, seedpods, leaves and all sorts of items I find in nature. While I was on the Creative Retreat I was gathering Magnolia seedpods on our walk —feeling silly, but so glad I did!!
That bird is a true treasure. I’m a card and collage maker and I’m trying to get better at water coloring birds. I subscribe to Birds and Blooms magazine and the pictures have certainly helped me. My granddaughter found a heart shaped rock on our walk together. She has me taking notice of gifts from nature all over again.
Hello Marian, I have always been drawn to natural objects too and always carry a little “something” back from a walk. I am very drawn to trees and their intricate branches, particularly soaring into a clear blue sky. And feathers, pods, sticks, flowers and smooth little stones. I am picking back up my paints and brushes and sure appreciate your encouraging words lately. ❤️❤️
I love your little bird.
I too, pick up little oddities from nature. It always makes me wonder what their existence means. Was it just there for me to find? Did it serve a big purpose….that I am unaware of? Most always I am amazed how God put in all the details for something that would mostly go unnoticed.
I feel giddy when I find a goodie!!! Thank you for sharing your goodie finds with us.
I pray that children still have the experiences and adventures that you describe from your childhood. I too enjoyed those types of experiences.
Is there a source for your little bird? He is so sweet.
People think I’m rather odd, but I have whole drawers in my hutch filled with dried leaves, seeds and pods I have collected throughout the years. I am reminded of the quote in one of Jane Austin’s books: “Not everyone is as enamored as you are with dead leaves.” Thanks for elevating my little hobby to a noble cause!
Every time we go on vacation I bring home a special rock and put it into a tray with all the others as a reminder of that special time. When I look at that tray every once in awhile all of those vacation memories come flooding back to me.
In a cold climate like Michigan I try to create an outdoor feel. I have a wooden bird collection on the mantle, a basket of feathers and a large woven wood basket filled with birch branches on the hearth. I am also an artist that does plein air painting in the summer. As a lover of nature you would love being outdoors surrounded by it while painting a scene. It is heaven! Fresh air, friends and paint!
Donna. I summer in Michigan on a wee lake and collect branches and wooden birds also
I teach watercolor in Florida.
What a beautiful little bird. He looks like he is ready to have a nice conversation and a cup of tea with you! Your collection of curiosities is delightful. And I love the cabinet, also! Is it an antique?
As always, you inspire!
Love this post. Nature has so much to offer us
This is lovely – I so enjoyed this. I will look back on this to reference!
Same here, as far as I remember I picked up things from the ground, stones with the glitter of mica, or a with a shell fossil, beach glass and shells and many other odd things. My mother who was a neat freak did not like my collections calling them dust catchers. She often discarded them to my chagrin. But that did not stop me. In my studio and in our house there are different displays of “stuff”. Well arranged these things look beautiful and precious, well they are MY treasures. When friends take a walk with me, they are amazed of what I find that they never even see. I suppose that artists possess an extra eye.
Several hundred years ago, wealthy court people had cabinets of curiosities, in German, for Marian: wunderkammer, filled with unique and rare pricey items and also taxidermy animals, Marian’s little stuffed bird made me think of it.
I so enjoyed this post – definitely a favorite. I have a shelf in my cabinet dedicated to “curiosities”. We are blessed with a little over 20 acres of woods. When my boys were younger they would play in the streams and be on the lookout for some bug, reptile or treasure. We love being out in nature and enjoying all it has to offer – still gathering fossils, rocks, nests, and feathers. I even kept pieces of a large bee hive that was on the eave of our house. Your little bird is a sweet find and a perfect addition to your collection.
Fantastic post. I love to hike and collecting on the trail is part of why I love it. I’ve brought home clumps of moss, a long stick that looks like the big dipper, tons of stones and all manner of seed pods and pine cones. I would always put them on my window sills and enjoy them there. I once carried a rather big stone in the shape of a heart off the AT in Virginia – that was pretty darn heavy! In November, I came home from Cape Cod with an entire backpack filled with pinecones from the bike trail we rode; they’ve looked great in an old wood bowl in the living room all season. Eventually the rocks will end up in my garden – and I get to remember where I got them all.
Oh my! Your French Lark makes me swoon! It is so beautiful!
I, too, have little pieces of nature around my house..their textures and shapes bring beauty and loveliness to our surroundings…and our lives!
I love nature and all it brings, thank you this was a wonderful post.
Hi Marian,
It’s so nice to read your perspective on art. Especially since you are one of the most talented artists, I’ve ever known in the blog world. I love design and gardening but can’t paint so I always assumed I was more an “enthusiast” than an artist. ?
Karen B.
Like everyone else here, I too have LOTS of different natural items collected on walks over the years. I often think that if we all were to lose our lovely man-made household treasures like plates, vases, etc. artists and collectors would still amass collections of beautiful objects thanks to the plentiful supplies of interesting items from nature.
Marian, have you ever read the book “Where the Crawdads Sing?” Great book, I think you would all love it- as I started reading it I realized I was not the only one who collected things of nature.
Love your curiosities! I attended the Rhode Island School of Design and one of my favorite places on campus was the Nature Lab. It is a large “lending library” of all types of natural elements. The collection includes everything from rocks, insects and taxiderm animals. During my initial summer session, we had to combine 2 animal forms into 1 new creature and build the sculpture of it. I “borrowed” a duck and an armadillo in order to create my Duckadillo. If you should find yourself in RI, you should check it out.