Welcome to my site! I am an artist and writer, with a keen interest in natural history and biodiversity more generally. In my professional life, I hold an academic appointment at McGill University (see below for my official bio).
Check out the blog (the reverie), and subscribe so you can receive a Nature’s Reverie post via email. – a drawing or sketch or small watercolour, often paired with words (often Haiku), sometimes words alone. I try to get these published once a week.
Why Nature’s Reverie, you might ask? One definition of reverie that I particularly like is the following: “a state of thinking about pleasant things, almost as though you are dreaming” and this one is pretty good too: “the condition of being lost in thought“. So there is something almost mystical and almost ethereal about the word. Nature is important to me, and my favourite subject for my art. Nature’s Reverie is therefore the combination of the two: hopefully something pleasant, that takes you somewhere for a little while, so you can be lost in thought while reading and viewing the posts.
To peruse the Reverie, here’s a list of blog categories for you:
- Amphibians
- Architecture
- Birds
- Books
- Dogs
- Fish
- Fossils
- Fungi
- Haiku
- Humans
- Insects
- Landscape
- Mammals
- Miscellaneous
- News
- Ocean
- Plants
- poetry
- Reptiles
- Seasons
- Spiders
- travel
- Uncategorized
- urban
- writing
About the Art:
I work mainly with watercolours, and prefer loose, quick paintings. While I do sometimes work in larger format, my go-to tends to be just the scraps of watercolour paper found in my backpack. One reason I love watercolours is their portability; all you need is a travel pan and a water brush and you can do art almost anywhere. While I don’t normally sell my work, I have done quite a few custom projects and if you wish to discuss something, please drop me a line: chris.buddle@gmail.com. I also love sketching just with a pencil or technical pen, and enjoy the feel of a Moleskine sketchbook.
I get inspiration from a lot of places, but some artists and illustrators I particularly enjoy include Sophie Blackall (her work reminds me a lot of Bill Peet‘s artwork, which I obsessed over and was completely in love with when I was a kid), Ralph Steadman, Laura McKendry, and Felix Scheinberger.
Official Academic Bio:
Professor Christopher Buddle is a faculty member in the Department of Natural Resource Sciences in the Faculty of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences at McGill University. Prof. Buddle’s research and teaching focus is ecology, entomology, and field studies, with a focus on the biodiversity of insects and spiders, in a variety of habitats, from forests to the high Arctic. He has published close to 100 peer-reviewed papers in his area of study. Professor Buddle is deeply committed to excellence in teaching and learning, whether through leadership on curriculum changes, or researching ways to engage students in learning. Professor Buddle is involved with University Administration, and was appointed as McGill’s Dean of Students from 2016-2019, and in 2020 he was appointed as the Associate Provost (Teaching and Academic Planning), a role that includes overseeing and leading new program developments, online education, and supporting teaching and learning at the University.
Chris’ research profile and list of peer-reviewed publications can be found on Google Scholar.
Here’s my more official-like photo 🙂
Nature's Reverie 