Mushroom Hunt: Bitter White Conk.

From Charly, who notes: This a conk for which I could not find any common english name, so I translated the czech one. As the name suggests, it is inedible (bitter taste) and it is white when fresh. These conks are probably towards the end of their life. I have only seen this one specimen and I do not remember seeing it too often. Latin: Oligoporus stipticus. Click for full size!

© Charly, all rights reserved.

Painting Workshop.

From Kestrel, who notes: J. Chris Morel (website: http://morelart.com/ ) is a local landscape artist who does a fall workshop every year, just as the leaves are starting to turn. By great good fortune, I got to attend the workshop this year.  The workshop lasts for 3 days, and each day we traveled to two different magnificent locations to paint. Chris would paint a demo for us, explaining how he handles that particular subject and giving excellent and detailed instruction in learning how to “see” a landscape, how the color of the shadows work and many other things. On day two, the morning location was where the chamisa was in its full glory.

Chris Morel does a demo teaching us how to approach painting chamisa.

My set up, trying my hand at painting chamisa.

Another of our locations, where we set up and painted. The workshop was extremely informative and it was a great honor to be able to attend. Chris was a terrific instructor. I hope I can do it again next year!

© Kestrel, all rights reserved.