Welcome friends of Nature!

From an early age, my parents instilled in me a deep love of nature and an insatiable curiosity. Nature exploration has opened my eyes to a world of beauty and wonder that has grown into a deep commitment to stewardship.

I invite you to register as a Fan of Bay Area Nature to explore and protect the wild places and species of the San Francisco Bay Area. You can also enter a raffle for a private nature discovery hike or field guides about the bay area.

In 2001 I began an ambitious project to create a new and fully illustrated guide to the natural history of the Sierra Nevada.  After six years of research, 2,710 original watercolor illustrations and over 1,700 species, the book is complete and The Laws Field Guide to the Sierra Nevada is available either through contacting me (signed copy) or in bookstores near you (may I suggest a local independent bookstore). I am now working to get copies of the field guide into the hands of children in the Sierra Nevada. To this end, I have developed Following Muir's Footsteps, an education program that engenders passionate love of nature, personal understanding of natural history and commitment to stewardship. This program gets students out in the field, learning from their own observations and using field guides and nature journals as the basis for discovering nature around them. The curriculum links to the State of California’s science, math, language, and social studies standards. Funding for this program comes through donations from private individuals or organizations and grants. Please consider sponsoring a school or county with a tax deductible donation.  

I am working with the California Native Plant Society to develop a standards based curriculum that emphasizes the use of drawing and field sketching and writing to explore and understand plants and animals. Through drawing exercises and games, students will learn to become keen observers and gain confidence drawing and writing about what they see. In addition, I am producing a series of short videos to help people get started drawing and sketching in the field. A grant from the JiJi Foundation is making this project and others a reality.

I lecture and teach field sketching and illustration classes throughout the state.  You are invited to join me in any of these or contact me if you would like to schedule a presentation for your organization or group. I am writing a book to help people draw and sketch birds as a way of deepening their experience in nature, and I am writing a guide to the natural history of the California coast from Monterey to Mendocino. I hope to see you in the field.

I have put together some online resources to help you sketch birds. Visit Drawing Birds with Jack Laws and check back frequently for updates.

Thank you,