Painting Dunes Learning Center

I like painting, and nature is one of my favorite themes. It always gives me countless inspirations. Presenting what I feel, not just what I see on paper, is my most joyful hobby. I have always believed that even paintings with all excellent skills cannot show one-tenth of the beautiful natural scenery; however, the artists' emotions and feelings give nature in their pictures unique and unforgettable meanings.

After coming to DLC, I still use paintings to record my life and express my emotions. Meanwhile, more and more "humans" appear in my paintings. I'm not very good at drawing people. I attribute it to laziness when I was a kid, so I have never laid a good foundation for drawing the human body structure. However, I like drawing people; if there are characters in my painting, it often means that I really want to tell an interesting story. For example, this sketch-like picture.

This picture records the moment we finally came to the beach after a very tiring hike on Cowles Bog Trail. At that time, my campers were so excited and rushed towards the lake. By coincidence, three of them threw rocks to the lake at once. The stones flew and fell into the water almost at the same time. That scene was as if they lit fireworks or gun salutes together. This beautiful moment was deeply imprinted in my mind, so in the painting, I drew big splashes and put different ecosystems that we hiked together in there. The four characters wear clothes from different seasons because I think a happy experience like this may happen on every Cowles Bog hike.

In autumn, we started the "Walk Through Time" activity. I believe both campers and naturalists have had a lot of fun in this activity. We lead the campers to "travel through time and space" back hundreds of years ago to see how people used the land at that time. Hundreds of years of history converge in a three-hour hike and also converge in my painting. This painting is full of people, which I am not good at drawing, and it took much longer than expected. Despite this, I still enjoyed drawing this since I love this project so much.

Trail group leaders and campers are in the front, with clear outlines and bright colors. The characters we see when we stop at each historical moment are standing at the back. They look like have just passed through the dust or fog of history to meet the campers. I added some details to show their interaction with each other through the time tunnel. The Potawatomi is showing a beautiful conch and some shells she traded from the fur trader. The same seashell necklace is also on the fur trader's neck. The chicken held by the farmer looks very interested in the fur trader's clothes; it is trying to peck a string. The land planner was giving his presentation. He grabs an apple in his right hand, maybe it's his snack. The apple is likely from the Chellberg Farm since the farmer holds a basket full of red apples. And the NPS ranger is sitting with his wood duck buddy.

I also made another one with painting software. It blurs out a lot of details, but it's interesting.

I am very grateful for being a naturalist in DLC. I live in beautiful nature, and more importantly, I can experience nature with many interesting people. These people have given me the courage and enthusiasm to paint even more.

Jiangyun Li

Naturalist