Four and Twenty Blackbirds

"Those who contemplate the beauty of the earth find reserves of strength that will endure
as long as life lasts."
                                                                                                                     - Rachel Carson

Male yellow-headed blackbirds gorging themselves on insects.

We just had one of the best birding days EVER. The kind where you feel exhausted at the end of the day because of the sheer number of birds observed. Bear River Migratory Bird Refuge on the Great Salt Lake is an important fueling stop for migratory birds, many of which have traveled from South America and are still headed further north, some as far as the Arctic. Phalarope, white-faced ibis, avocet, coot, great blue heron, great egret, cattle egret, stilt, white pelican, grebe, ducks, swallows, raptors, curlew, whimbrel, western kingbird; our senses were on overload.

One of the most amazing things we saw were flocks of male yellow-headed blackbirds in a feeding frenzy. I'm not that knowledgeable about the types of midge-like insects that live in marshes but whatever they were, there were millions of them. From a distance, the swarms rising up into the sky looked like dark smoke. Everywhere we looked, there were yellow-headed blackbirds on the ground eating these insects. We'd never seen so many of these beautiful birds all in one place.

Swallows collecting mud for their nests.

Clark's grebe enjoying a morning swim.

An avocet taking a well-deserved break after its long journey.

Unfortunately my artistic endeavors have hit a bit of a snag. I've got tendonitis in my right wrist (in three places!) and have to wear a brace for a month. I still manage to sketch and paint a little but my hand cramps up pretty quick. Hopefully as I get used to the brace that will improve.

Brace or no brace, there are important things that must be attended to.

Another Landscape Attempt, Part III

"Our greatest weakness lies in giving up. The most certain way to succeed is always to try just one more time."
                                                                                                                - Thomas Edison

Still not finished, despite the frame.

And so I keep trying. This painting is so, so close but those grasses in the lower left corner are driving me nuts. They feel unnatural, contrived. I may end up painting most of them out. The color of the water appears unnatural as well, but the other day I was driving along and noticed a similar scene and the water was indeed that color. I may still tweak it, though. I'm also undecided on what I think of the mountain reflected in the water.

It may sound like I'm being critical and have a lot of doubts about this piece but I really am pleasantly surprised at how it is turning out. It would just be wonderful if I could resolve the trouble spots and have a "keeper" landscape painting in the end. I found the perfect frame for it, after all.

Every Artist Needs A Studio Cat

"The smallest feline is a masterpiece."  - Leonardo da Vinci

Color theory a la the cat: orange and blue are compliments, orange and pink are not.

There were so many great cat quotes I could have chosen for this post! But being a huge fan of da Vinci kind of tilted the scales that way.

As you may have already guessed, Paul and I have a new family member. We finally felt that we had mourned our beloved Madeleine long enough and it was time for a new cat. I searched the websites of all the area shelters looking for suitable cats. We knew we wanted an adult cat as we didn't have the time or energy to deal with a kitten, and adult cats have a much harder time finding new homes. We went to this one particular shelter with two cats in mind but a different cat chose Paul the minute we walked in. She sat on his lap for 40 minutes, waiting for me to realize that the choice had already been made.

The poor thing had a two hour car ride home in one of those lobster boxes (that I lined with a soft blanket), but she dealt with it without a peep. She'd start purring in the box if we talked to her. In fact, she doesn't ever seem to stop purring and her paws never stop kneading. Even as she's falling asleep, her paws will be slowly flexing. She has an amazing range of little vocalizations too, one of which sounds just like a Tribble from the original Star Trek TV series.

Here's the new arrival, on the futon chair in my studio.

A few sketches I've managed to make when she's not demanding ear "skritches".

We are having trouble choosing a name for her, though. We thought of Tangerine Clementine - Tiny for short, since she is so petite. We considered Bisquick, and Tribble, and Clio (Greek goddess of History, for my husband's profession). I'm leaning towards Ruby, my husband really likes Tikka (pronounced Teak-ah). If you want to add your voice to the mix, give us your vote or, if you want to confuse us further, suggest a name we haven't thought of. Meanwhile, I'm being called back to cat servant duty - and I love it! 

Changing My Values

"When you begin to act on your creativity, what you find inside may be more valuable than what you produce for the external world."
                                                                                                                            - Eileen Clegg

Still life set up. Gorgeous rich colors, right? Forget 'em!

I woke up too early this morning, but my brain was buzzing too much to get back to sleep. I've been taking a short art course in the basics - value, composition, etc.; the areas I feel I am the weakest in. Last night was the culmination of our study in values and we painted from some beautiful still life vignettes the instructor set up. However, we could only paint in one color. The idea was to force us to focus on the lights and darks in the models, not those wonderful, enticing colors. We were also instructed to block in the values and slowly build the shapes up, not to worry about details and carefully rendered form. As a detail junkie, this was a challenge!

I took a painting course back in college. Beginning Painting 101 probably. The course was fairly worthless. I believe the instructor gave us a 15 minute overview of color theory at the beginning of the course and then we spent the whole rest of the semester just painting, with no guidance to speak of. I definitely am learning more in this art class than I did in that entire college course.  

Creating a value scale from phthalo blue

A few weeks ago we created color value scales to practice training our eyes to see the lights and darks in colors, not just in gray which is the more common value scale. It took me over an hour to mix the paints correctly.

My value study of the still life

Here is the painting I ended up with last night. I really did focus on just blocking in the lights and darks so when I got up and stepped back from the easel I was shocked to see that those blobs of paint had formed recognizable objects. This may not be an amazing work of art on the surface but, for me personally, it represents a huge leap forward in fine art development and I'm willing to lose a little sleep for that excited accomplished feeling.

Another Landscape Attempt Part II

"I prefer winter and fall, when you feel the bone structure of the landscape."
                                                                                                                - Andrew Wyeth

Continuing work on the landscape painting

The work on my latest effort at landscape painting continues. It's hard not to accidentally make each clump of grass and reeds look the same as the last. I get into a kind of rhythm and then realize they are too evenly spaced, or all the same height. At some point I have to jump in and finish the foreground in the bottom left but I will admit to being nervous about it. Those reeds will be very close to the viewer and therefore less forgiving. 

Overall I've surprised myself with this painting. I didn't expect to have so many successful elements in it. I had started the painting as a practice piece but now, if everything goes well, I may end up calling this a keeper.

Another Landscape Attempt

Nothing makes me so happy as to observe nature and to paint what I see.

                                                                                                    - Henri Rousseau

Starting a new landscape painting in acrylic

In between all the birds I love to paint, I continue to dabble with landscape painting. The reason I like the idea of painting landscapes is the same reason I like to paint birds - I see something so beautiful that I feel compelled to paint it. When it comes to landscapes, this has been very frustrating since what I see and what comes out on the canvas are usually two very different things. The only way to overcome this problem is to keep painting and slowly, slowly, I am figuring out how landscape painting works. Someday I hope to be able to combine my two favorite subjects so that the birds in my paintings can be in attractive habitats! 

A Pair of Stilts

"Nature has been mastering itself for some time now, and it is an honor to be able to capture its beauty."

                                                                                                                        - Justin Beckett

 

Snoozing stilt

The black-necked stilt has a permanent spot on my Top 20 Favorite Birds list. So elegant and delicate-looking, yet aggressively territorial at times. I also find their in-flight habit of letting their legs trail out behind them rather endearing. When we're in the field, I usually hear them before I spot them - their piercing high-pitched repetitive call is unmistakable to me.

There's a nice YouTube video of stilts from the Cornell Lab of Ornithology here, with some wonderful footage of large groups of them feeding and erupting into flight. Enjoy!

Check out those legs!

Sketching a pair of stilts

In our area, reports are starting to come in that the swans are migrating back north again. In the last week or two, we have been seeing large flocks of ducks in flight. I am hopeful that this means that we can get back into some serious birding again soon. It's been a long winter!

Tropical Smoothie

"You need both a bit of mind and a bit of mindlessness to make a painting. It's a play between control and surrender."

- Paul deMarrais

Watercolor WIP - 14.5" x 18.5" on 140 lb. paper.

During a winter storm this weekend, I attended a wonderful watercolor workshop given by Linda Aman. The workshop topic was on painting large format flowers and as the snow blew around outside, inside the art center it was looking like a tropical paradise with everyone's colorful flower paintings. During the critique sessions, I honestly started to get thirsty and crave the type of drinks that have crushed ice and little paper umbrellas in them.

I wasn't familiar with her before the workshop but I can now confirm that Linda Aman is a wonderful teacher. She regularly gives workshops in Washington, Oregon and Idaho, and then occasionally in Hawaii. Her passion for painting and teaching really came through loud and clear. We had a lot of information to absorb and a lot of new techniques to try to master in just two days but she still made it fun. Although I'm not thrilled with my painting, I enjoyed using colors I don't usually work with and really enjoyed working so large. And anyway, the point was to learn, not to create a beautiful finished piece. I'm looking forward to giving the new techniques I learned a try on some large format avian subjects.

Sketches of a Cat at Play

 "A drawing is simply a line going for a walk."

                                                          - Paul Klee

 

Sketching Day

"Drawing is the discipline by which I constantly discover the world."

                - Frederick Franck, The Zen of Seeing

Not included in this sketch was the great horned owl's intended lunch - a skunk.

It was kind of a chilly day with snow in the air. I managed to get in a brisk walk ("brisk" both in the temperature and pace sense) along the river this morning but afterwards I sought out some warmer indoor activities.

There's a small natural history museum on our university campus so I packed up my pencils and sketchbook and headed there. It's been a while since I sketched and I've missed it. I know some artists hate drawing and sketching but I love it. I just don't do it enough.

Bird feet fascinate me.

This sketch doesn't do justice to the grebe's "ears" - a beautiful gold-blond spray of feathers just behind the eyes.

Art and Fear

"The difficulties artmakers face are not remote and heroic, but universal and familiar."

- David Bayles & Ted Orland, Art & Fear

Take the plunge!

Tomorrow I turn in my pelican piece for our local art center's February show. This will be the first time I've shown my work in our new community. Paul and I have been mentioning the show to everyone we know and suddenly I'm getting cold feet. Ugh, here we go again. Enter Fear.

When people ask me what I do I say I am an artist or a painter. And that is indeed what I do. But sometimes I'm not sure my work is of the caliber that people imagine should go along with the title. I have this nightmarish thought that all these people that Paul and I know will come to the show and be let down by my work. They'll say "Oh very nice" to my face in that same tone of voice an adult uses with a small child, and then they'll whisper "She said she was an artist" to each other, shaking their heads sadly at my delusion as they walk away from my piece. 


On my strong days, I can accept that not everyone will like what I do. I can accept that I should make art first and foremost because I am driven to do it. And I also can see how very far I've come with my work over the decades, and I am proud of that. I just have yet to master putting my work on public display and not caring what people think.

I certainly know that these feelings and conflicts are not unique to me. Anyone whose work is seen or heard by the public deals with this in one form or another. I suppose that I shouldn't let it bother me that I have doubts. (Perhaps, in some strange way, these doubts should be proof to me that I am an artist!) I share them here in the hopes that someone else reading this will feel reassured that they are not alone in this process either.

And come Friday, I will stand next to my work and try to greet all the visitors with confidence. Who knows, I may be too busy worrying about my crooked teeth or whether my outfit makes me look fat to care about their reactions to my painting (but that could be a whole separate post...).

Do you have any favorite quotes dealing with art and fear? Do you have any stories about art and fear from your life? Please share them with us in the comments. I'd love to hear about them!

A New Year's Thought

The pelican piece is getting framed this week and heads to the art center for a Watercolor Society show. The opening is next Friday for the monthly downtown Art Walk.

Typically I'm not one to participate in any special New Year's traditions; no resolutions or formal year in reviews. I'm lucky if I manage to get all of my holiday cards out to family and friends on time (major fail on that front this year.) so why add to the crazy December to-do list? But the other day I was minding my own business and a stray thought wandered into my brain; I completed 4 paintings last year. Four paintings that I feel are good enough to be framed and displayed. This thought stopped me in my tracks for a moment. I don't think I've completed that many "good enough" paintings in one year since I was a kid when every painting was a masterpiece. My average in the last decade has probably been about 1.5 paintings every 2 years. I couldn't help thinking to myself "Wow!".  I feel like that's some sort of personal milestone. It put a little spring in my step.

Sketches of pelicans from the Tracy Aviary.

Despite my resolution not to participate in resolutions, I have to admit to feeling challenged to beat my new painting record this year...

The Owl and the Pussycat

Saw-whet #1

I have a birding friend who has the best luck finding owls. It seems like every time I go out birding with her, we see an owl. She claims I'm good luck for her, but I think she is the one with the gift.

We got together around Christmas for an afternoon of birding in between our respective family obligations. Within 15 minutes of heading into the woods, she spotted a saw-whet owl in a cedar, and a second one not even a 5 minute walk further down the trail. Talk about luck!

Saw-whet #2

The weekend after we got together, my friend led a team in her local Christmas Bird Count. I asked her if she spotted any more saw-whet owls and unfortunately she did not. But she did find 13 screech owls! Like I said, I think she has a gift.

---

Gallery Cat #1

If you've been reading my blog for a while, you know I love cats. I particularly love cats in businesses, such as used book stores and galleries. A lot of people bring their dogs to work, but cats are not as common. This exchange between a pedestrian and a gallery cat caught my eye recently and I wanted to share it with you.

Gallery Cat #2

And here's another gallery cat, just watching the world go by.

I'll return to some art posts soon. I have to get my butt in gear and finish the watercolor of the white pelican for a show in February and I'm working on an abstract piece! 

Quick Little Illustration

Great horned owl on a snowy night. 3.5" x 4.75" in watercolor.

As part of my concerted effort to get involved with our new community as quickly as possible, I joined our local art center this summer. Then last month I joined the watercolor society chapter. I was pleased to see it's a fairly active group with about a dozen people at the meeting. Everyone was quite friendly and seemed thrilled to have a new member joining them. At the end of the meeting we were each given a 3.5" x 4.75" piece of watercolor paper and asked to paint a little scene to share at the next meeting - like an ATC (artist trading card) kind of thing.

Since I am still a recovering procrastinator and occasionally fall back into my old ways, I left my little painting until the night before the next meeting. In a panic, I flipped through reference photo after reference photo. I wanted to choose just the right thing as this would be the group's first look at my work. No pressure or anything. I settled on a great horned owl image, and I envisioned a very rich night sky with beautiful stars twinkling in the background. As you can see, only the edges of the paper ended up with the deep rich night sky color I was looking for, but at least the rest of the sky had interesting textures. I'm struggling to master masking fluid, so although the owl mask came out well, (Thank goodness!) what I had meant to be fine points of light in the night sky ended up looking more like snow than stars so I changed my plan a little. Clearly they are just flurries though. Ah well, that's what I get for rushing at the last minute.

Anyway, the recipient of this little painting seemed pleased enough, and I ended up with a lovely sunflower painting from a fellow birder in the group. Everyone seemed to enjoy the project so I hope that we will be doing it again. It would be fun to have a collection of little paintings done by each of my new friends. But I hope to be a little more organized next time.