I recently saw Elizabeth Smith’s art the other day through her blog A Nature Art Journal in Southwest Florida.  Turns out she also maintains a website at LizardArt AND a photo stream on Flickr called Sketchbook Photostream.  Then there’s her member collaborative blog Sketching in Nature.

Elizabeth is an artist who does it all, watercolor, acrylics, assemblage … Here’s Untitled (Zebra Longwing), Mixed media, 17.25 x 36.5 x 3.25 inches (top), detail (below).  I could just look at that for HOURS.

Elizabeth spent her early years in the woods and waters of Iowa developing a love for plants and wildlife that she hopes is reflected in her work – and it is! Her personal style is self taught and shaped by ten years in the graphic arts and after that, by private studies and workshops. Recently, she returned to school to complete an art degree and take postgraduate classes in education.  She’s especially interested in art education and using the arts to heal. And she wants to inspire others to take a moment to connect to nature and the amazing systems around us.

She’s participating in the next  Worldwide SketchCrawl set for Saturday, October 15, 2011 meeting in Naples, Florida, at The Naples Preserve  You can join her there!  Here’s a page out of one of Elizabeth’s sketchbooks:  Dragonfly, nature sketchbook/journal, about 8 x 5 inches, ink and watercolor.

And if you didn’t want to spend your day out in the sun, you could even purchase “Grandfather Maple” through Elizabeth’s ETSY site.  ”Grandfather Maple” is an original watercolor painting on Strathmore cold-pressed watercolor paper, 21 high x 14 inches wide. This was painted after observing a maple in Corkscrew Swamp Sanctuary n Florida. This old, old trunk flaunted small and vividly colored new leaves.

Or, maybe you’d like her free – nature inspired – coloring pages here. Or, working with her group in 2012 at The Arts at Fakahatchee – En Plein Air in the Preserve.  In 2012, they’ll meet on the third Saturday of the month, starting in January and ending in April, with locations to be announced.

Elizabeth’s art has a clear, peaceful, calming, and serene effect which she attributes in part to plenty of research and time in the field.  Her 423 images on Flickr contain some marvelous leaf prints as well as her illustrations, sketches, and drawings.  And that’s what I really, REALLY like about Elizabeth and you will, too.  She knows what she loves.