Art & Culture

When raising my three children I discovered the Montessori Method of teaching where children can learn at their own pace using their innate curiosity to explore the world around them. Many years later in 1999, I volunteered & participated in the Terwilliger Nature Guide Program in San Rafael. (which they still do & I highly recommend) It provided me with the perfect training before I went to Belize to work with the Belize Audubon Society building an educational exhibit at Crooked Tree Bird Sanuaury. Shortly after I returned from Belize, 9-11 happened. It was awful & overwhelming at times. I wanted to do something good & meaningful. So I went to WildCare & volunteered to foster-care baby hummingbirds. Little did I realize that working with hummingbirds would become a journey in itself. 

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With the hummingbirds I got more interested in drawing wildlife. Nature presents so many surprises. It’s important that all of us see & think beyond what we’re familiar with. One way of accomplishing this is by being in nature & drawing/writing about our experiences. I enrolled in the educational workshops for teachers & artists at Yosemite taught by in John Laws & David Lukas. It was great & they have interesting approaches to documenting & interpreting nature. The workshops included some incredible hikes & lots of drawing & writing. 

Though I personally work more abstractly with my own images, I feel it’s imperative that children begin drawing using practices that teach accurate observation in such a way that they can make sense of their world. I try to pass-on techniques I’ve find most useful about drawing, writing & working in the field. Sherburn LaBelle ©️

Please click on the names of the above programs and artist-teachers to visit their websites & to learn more about what they do.