My photographs can sometimes be seen in the quarterly Maine Mycological Newsletter. Walking/hiking in the Maine woods and taking photographs is as reflexive as breathing for me. -j.e. paterak
At least three seasons a year I try to get out in the woods at least a couple times a week. I am a forager by nature, and take photos simply with my iphone as an extension of my photography. As with any artist online, please do not use my photographs and claim they are your own. Please contact me for permissions. If you are interested in seeing more gouache paintings of fungi, contact me and I will share what I have available if any. This gallery is primarily to share the whole of my creative practice. Walking in the woods feeds my work in a multitude of ways. Thank you for looking.-j.e. paterak
While I cannot claim to be a “Mainer” per se, I have been walking in the woods or rowing along the shore of a small body of water in the midcoast region of Maine since my childhood. The smell of peat, hummus, mushrooms, and petrichor are among my favorite smells. I often take specimens home to do further research on identification with my library of books about fungi. Occasionally they are so perfect I will get my paints out before the insects wreck havoc on my desk. My goal is not the same as that of a scientific illustrator, rather I hope to capture its sense of being in the world, capturing an essence of its existence in a moment in time.