Tag Archives: Nature

Lotic Acrylic on Text on Canvas, 6″ x 6″

One of my sons loves fly-fishing in mountain streams, & when I mentioned that Lotic was one of this year’s words for A.Word.A.Day, he suggested I illustrate a rainbow trout. I’m a sucker for iridescence (see Chatoyant) so of course I jumped at the chance!

Rainbow trout love to jump too, so a leaping trout & its underwater companion easily formed an L. Now, thanks to Anu, I’ve illustrated three words about watery habitats: the others are Lentic & Pelagic.

(Painting sold but prints are now available in my Etsy Shop, Curious Art Lab.)

Xylophilous Acrylic on Text on Canvas, 6″ x 6″

Nature art painting by Leah Palmer Preiss, Xylophilous: Tree wildlife-- beaver, chipmunk, owl, woodpecker & other birds, mushrooms, ferns on crossed tree trunks

Even though I live in a city, a block away from a busy street, I’m definitely xylophilous! (In the etymological sense, that is– wood-loving.) My childhood home bordered on a forest, & my family spent many hours working, playing & wandering in the woods. But I’ve always said that I can’t see the forest for the lichen, because my favorite thing to explore & paint are all the tiny little life-forms that are overshadowed (yet also supported) by the overstory.

So when Anu offered this word, I jumped at the chance to create my own little peaceable kingdom of wood-loving flora & fauna. It’s certainly not an accurate sample of xylophilous species in the scientific sense, & it vastly under-represents the number of species that depend on trees– I couldn’t begin to show the tiny beetles and borers that live in & under bark, for example– but I hope it gets the point across that even dying or damaged trees can be teeming with life & potential & beauty in their own way. As William Blake said, “A fool sees not the same tree that a wise man sees.” Or even a wise beetle!

I couldn’t resist hiding that quotation in the bark, & if you look in the background near the pendulous possum, you may find a rather dreadful math pun tucked in there too. Apologies in advance.

The original painting is sold, but prints are now available in my Etsy shop, Curious Art Lab.