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The one and only unicorn.  The Unicorn, Mixed Media, 7x9 Latest burst of color but this is just a sketch. Though it looks quite nice all matted up. 
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 Evening wait - scrub jay, mixed media on paper. 12x9 New year, new style… 2023 is going to be a very colorful year 😀 Happy New Year! This year I plan on exploring some new ideas and sharing a lot more art - it might be daily, or maybe more than daily, but for sure it will be 365 days of art and color - so much color… Hope you’ll join me.   Returning - African Elephant, approx 6x8” Mixed media on paper. As we all know, African elephants are declining in population due to ivory poaching and habitat loss. It’s pretty heartbreaking to think that these amazing, sensitive big eared creatures could disappear because some people only see the value in elephant tusks and elephant habitat and not the creature.
Thankfully not all is lost. Since 2015 Elephant populations are rising in places like Uganda thanks to people learning how to live near elephants, people being educated on what they can do to deter elephants from agricultural areas, and people protecting elephants from poachers. Conservation efforts by organizations like Save The Elephants and Wildlife Conservation Society Uganda are responsible for educating people, bringing awareness to the problem and making the changes necessary so Elephants can be a part of our future. The question though is, why does it have to rest on their shoulders alone, how can we help at home? One thing for sure is to stop the demand of ivory - but is that enough? What can we do to do more? Related to a raccoon and cuter than a lemur, the white-nosed coati is not super common in the United States, their range is from eastern Arizona to southwest Texas. I’ve only seen them once in the wild when one was crossing the street at night and sadly, I’m not even 100% sure it was a coati. But they are easy to find in zoos when they are lounging around in the shade just watching you. This pastel was inspired by a coati I met at a zoo and not out in the forest. One day maybe I’ll be lucky and see one in the wild in daylight. One of the many items on my bucket list for sure. Have you ever encountered a coati in the wild?  Just Watching, 12x9”, pastel  A Master of Resilience, mixed media, 6" Late winter chill still floats in the wind
Eager to bloom, yellow sprouts Road sides, in the garden, sprinkled in fields A master of Resilience weighed down under the last snow Thriving in hope The daffodils remind us The snow always melts Spring sunshine is near A Master of Resilience When there are no words, let the art speak.  Sunflowers for Ukraine, 5" Mixed media on canvas. #standwithukraine
Cape St Mary’s in Newfoundland hosts one of the largest breeding colonies of seabirds I have ever seen. Thousands of Northern Gannets, Murres (aka Turrs by the locals), Kittiwakes, Black-backed gulls, Black Guillemots, and my favorite, Razorbills (aka Tinkers to the locals), call these cliffs home during the summer.  From where I stood on the edge of the cliff, you can see gannets nesting on the top of a sea stack that is about 15 yards away and is at the same level of the cliff height. Typically, all the birds stay away from the area where people stand, but while I was there taking photos of the gannets, a razorbill came to my side, on a part of the cliff that was a little below me and only about 5 feet away.  I had a sense it did not expect me to be standing there as I was using a large rock as wind cover. But once it saw me, it came a little closer to investigate and then stayed around when it probably realized my camera and I weren’t going to eat it. I am not a seabird expert, but it seems like if one seabird lands - puffin, seagull, etc. - more soon follow. And sure enough, a few razorbill friends came and landed by my razorbill, and for at least a half hour, razorbills were coming and going from their spot. I must have taken over a thousand photos of just backs of razorbills.
In breeding plumage, Razorbills are very sleek with all black on their wings, head and neck, except for a few lines of white. And they are mostly white on their front with black/gray feet. Though I find their black and white appearance striking, what really stands out about the Razorbill is what you can’t see unless they open their beaks - the bright sunny orange color inside their beaks - one of my favorite colors. Quite surprising from such a black and white bird. I think it’s that surprise of color that makes me admire them so much - the “there is always more than what meets the eye” view. Art has a way of revealing that more… Though it’s mostly used to share what’s beautiful, it has the power to share what isn’t so obvious about what you can see. For this painting, rather than focus on the orange or what makes me smile about them, I focused on the experience of “hanging out” with razorbills on a cliff, and the colors that resonated my experience. Which was not black and white.  At the edge - Razorbill. Mixed media on canvas. 10” Available
Razorbills spend their summers breeding on the cliffs in the North Atlantic and during winter, they will migrate south off shore. Some years they have been seen as far south as Florida and in the Mediterranean! Earlier this year, I went to Kearney, Nebraska to see Sandhill Cranes gather during their spring migration stopover at the Platte River. The cranes feed in the fields during the day to fuel up for the rest of their trip north, then they gather to roost on the river at night. They spend about a month in Kearney before they take off for their breeding grounds in Canada. Right before they head to the river at night, hundreds of thousands of cranes come together in one of the fields near the river, as if it’s a designated pre-game party they all got an invitation to. I’m not sure words can truly capture the magical experience of watching the cranes come together. Even visual art & photographs are limited in how much they can take you there. Being present is the only way to feel that sense of awe you’ll have. Especially since, as the cranes come together, the sun has already set, so you experience the moment through sound and energy and not so much from what you see. But what you can see, oh that’s mesmerizing - the sight of thousands of cranes in the night sky is everlasting. This new painting of flying Sandhill Cranes reveals a tiny moment of that experience... when the night sky turns blue, and the first cranes are flying in to gather on their staging ground. But like I said, to truly connect with the magic this painting is revealing, you’ll have to join the cranes on the Platte River. Maybe I’ll see you there next year.  Just After Sunset - Flying Sandhill Cranes, 18”, mixed media. Available in the store Rabbits always bring me joy. Maybe because they are so vulnerable but if they like you, they’ll show their fearless side and eat right in front of you. Giving you a little glimpse of trust and friendship.  “What did you say?” Pastel, 9x12 Recently, I was commissioned to paint a mural on an outdoor addition that was blocking a beautiful Iowa scene. The owner wanted to recapture her lost Iowa view in the mural, but was interested in my artistic interpretation. Because art does not necessarily have to mimic what’s there, I took the chance to expand her scene by adding a few things that brought back positive memories for her and added a little joy to her view. In pictures, here's the journey of the painting process... Before
StagesFinal... 10 feet tall by 15.5 feet wide.  |
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January 2023
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