Stephanie Peters

The area is almost 3 million acres wide, making it the largest national forest area in Arizona, and the fifth largest in the country. It's a big area of desert landscape! It has three lakes, miles of cacti, and some legends of the Lost Dutchman and his gold. I didn't really explore the history of the area - but I did get to explore flora...

Something about the orange gold just caught my eye. The Tonto National Forest is another hidden gem found in Arizona. What I love about Arizona is the incredible diversity of regions it offers. It is hot and dry in Phoenix during the summer. But drive a few hours north and you are in a completely different habitat that's cooler and filled with Ponderosa pines. A lot of that has to do with a change in elevation and geology.

I think everyone can share, with excitement, a story about a hummingbird they have experienced - these magical birds are so tiny, but so full of energy and spirit. When ever you encounter one, you can't help but look and smile. At least that is my reaction every time I see one. 
I remember when I first acknowledged hummingbirds as a kid. I was living in Maryland at the time, and right outside our kitchen window was a big bush filled with flowers. I recall it being this enormous tree, but I was like two feet tall, so everything was big to me. The bush attracted hummingbirds every morning. And I remember sitting at the table in a trance, just watching them fly around the flowers. My mother would share little tidbits about hummingbirds, and I would learn they loved 'sugar' as much as I did, making me a little hummingbird too.
I have since learned that high quantities of sugar is not good for you - so, um, you shouldn't try to be a hummingbird -  and a whole bunch of scientific facts about the why, the how, the where, the what and when hummingbirds eat and live. But the excitement I get every time I see a hummingbird is not because of all the science and knowledge on the subject, instead, it's the pure joy I have watching them buzz around, just like I experienced as a kid.  

I was inspired to capture that feeling in a painting, when I watched a hummingbird fly around a pile of washed up seaweed on the coast of California (turns out, some hummingbirds will eat flies and other insects.)  I wanted this painting to be colorful, vibrant, and echo the joy of a kid in awe of the spirit of a hummingbird. 

As I worked on this painting, and another similar painting that reflected my interest in Grackles, I started thinking about all the birds that I have had a personal connection with during my life. From the iconic mallard duck to the exotic flamingo, to the unique one of a kind experiences with rare birds like the Northern Bald Ibis during my travels - I feel inspired to create a series of paintings that reflect my joy, excitement and love for birds - especially when they are flying and the colors of their plumage. If you aren't envious that they can fly, you are certainly envious of how incredibly beautiful their feathers are. 
This new series, like most collections of paintings I start, is of course, an ongoing work in progress. 

I have a box of Oil Pastels. It looks like this: 

Each pastel used to be clean, and they came with their own little spot, in a large cardboard box, as a set of 48. But after six moves, over three thousand miles, and a few days spent in hot cars, they are now jumbled up in a small plastic box getting each color all over it's neighbor... but when I look at this color mess, all I see is magic. 

I haven't worked much in oil pastel since I bought them literally six years ago, but this month I wanted an effect on a painting about Red Winged Black Birds that I'm working on and realized I could only get it with oil pastels. So I pulled out my box of color, and started exploring once again. On the first night of discovery, I drew some red winged black birds. 

And then, got up the courage to draw all over my canvas for red winged black birds...

Then, after being reminded about how amazing these sticks make color glide... I started playing more. And drew  a manatee... 

And then a spoon bill... 

And soon found myself over the week, doodling birds while waiting for programs to load on my computer...

And then got carried away, and started drawing on all of the abstract square canvases
​I had made for other projects....

Oil Pastels consist of pigment mixed with a non-drying oil and wax binder. There are a variety of brands out there to choose from; Cray-pas to Caran D'ache to Sennelier. Unlike some mediums, you can really tell the difference between the cheaper oil pastels and the more expensive ones. Cheaper oil pastels are stiffer and crack easily when drawing. All of my oil pastels are Sennelier, which is one of the more expensive brands. But, with the Sennelier pastels, it really does feel like you are drawing with lipstick, and their colors are more vibrant. They also glide better on more surfaces, making them a lot easier to use if you enjoy working on a variety of surfaces. I discovered early on when trying out a new medium, it's best to buy a box of as many colors as you can afford. Especially in pastels and pencils. Unless you know you are painting a certain subject that needs only several colors. 

In the late 1940s, the story goes that Pablo Picasso's friend, Henri Goetz approached Henri Sennelier, a french artist materials manufacturer, about creating a wax color stick. Picasso was looking for a medium that could be used freely on a variety of surfaces without fading or cracking. Sennelier made the first artist grade oil pastels then with the very intention they could be used as Picasso dreamed. I have barely scratched the surface of possibility with these pastel, but the more I work with them, the more I want to continue exploring how I can make more than just studies of cute animals in my sketchbooks.