Belted Kingfisher

I have been making a slow return to the studio, I can’t stand in the wood shop for very long so I pulled out some water colors and old field study photos of birds.

The Belted Kingfisher has always been a favorite of mine. Funny little dive bombers that makes a rattle sound as they fly. This is one of very few birds that the female has more color than the male. The male does not have the rusty brown band, so you can see I have painted a female.

The kingfisher builds a nice little burrow in the ground near water.  And because of people digging gravel pits and opening dirt banks the kingfisher’s population has grown every year, good news for once.

 This is the finished watercolor with pen and ink.

This one I did first with acrylics and some paper elements.  I would like to try making one with fabric. This may end up as the great Belted Kingfisher study.

Sparrow

Today as I worked in the studio I heard a great bang on the window and new at once it was a little bird, one of the many Sparrows that live around my house. This time of year they nest under my windows in the low bushes, they scratch at the ground and sing the most beautiful songs you have ever heard. So you can imagine how I felt to find this beautiful creature dead at my door step. I wanted to honor it in a small way. The English daisies grow in the grass and the poem was suggested by a friend, it’s odd how the little things can touch your heart.

Sparrow

Who will love a little sparrow?
Who's traveled far and cries for rest
"Not I", said the oak tree
"I won't share my branches with no sparrow's nest
And my blanket of leaves won't warm her cold breast"

Who will love a little sparrow?
And who will speak a kindly word
"Not I", said the swan
"The entire idea is utterly absurd
I'd be laughed at and scorned if the other swans heard"

Who will take pity in his heart?
And who will feed a starving sparrow?
"Not I", said the golden wheat
"I would if I could but I cannot I know
I need all my grain to prosper and grow"

Who will love a little sparrow?
Will no one write her eulogy?
"I will," said the earth
"For all I've created returns unto me
From dust were ye made and dust ye shall be"
 Simon And Garfunkel click to hear lyrics
PS.
Not to worry I'm not hung up on dead birds it was just a coincidence.

A great day in Florida

We flew all day, over 12 hours in and about planes. Landed in Florida about 7:00pm to find that our luggage went to D.C. It turned out O.K. they delivered them to the hotel the next morning . I meet up with my old and dear friends Ray and Kath who live about 3 hours south. They drove up for a visit and to give me the best bird tour ever.

It rained and poured, I found out latter that it broke a 1948 record of over 2" in the area. We would open the car window to shoot the photo and before we could close it we were soaking wet. I had to take great care last night to dry my camara. Regarless of the rain it was a blast.

This heron stands with his back to the worst of it.

Beautiful Egrets do the same. I'm starting to think this day will be a bust, little did I know...

Just around the corner .....more birds of every sort were waiting ....I nearly died....

These are Roseate Spoonbills. I have never seen such wonderful birds.

 A small cattle Egret watches the Spoonbills

 Then we come upon this Wood Stork OMG.. a birders dream!!! First time birds everywhere.

 He is fishing and being successful. It was fun to watch him if he turns he puts out one wing a spins around it.
This is the short list of birds, I have some wonderful photos to share but that will have to wait... I'm off today to find an alligator.

Out side the hotel last night, beautiful. Did I say I'm having fun!!!

The Oregon Coast

We made our way to the oceans edge soon after arriving and I said I wanted to see some Pelicans.

And just as if they had been sent out on cue they came gliding down the coast flying so low just skimming the tops of the waves. They came and came to many to count. The distance was a little far to get a nice photograph.

The next morning we started on the run to catch the low tide at Yaquina Bay Light House

This creature is new to me and I have lived here my entire life. It is a Veiled Chiton, it lives on algae covered rocks. It has a head and tail but no eyes. We also spotted a Gun Boot Chiton and it looked like a huge potato.

This one is exposed at low tide.

This Urchin was washed on to the beach dead but beautiful.

Birthday s'mores on the beach.


We went birding near Salishan and walked the trail out to the beach.

Here are two White Crowned Sparrows watching their young one who was not afraid of us at all.

We saw a total of 16 different birds and all sorts of sea creatures in the pools.

Oregon is such a beautiful state.

Summer Fun- Two Weekends

A mini Santos workshop in Vancouver was Thur, Fri ,Sat last week with only four of us the fun we had took days to recover from... cheeks hurt from all the laughing and our eyes burned from lack of sleep. We only went out for the basics like picking up some Cougar Gold cheese, and a stop at the Goodwill Bins.

This picture was taken around midnight Saturday as you can see by the bunny ears we are still having fun.

Suzanne's back garden is natural and full of birds this is a Flicker with her baby. The baby is the big one on the left.

I found the roller skates at the bins for George they only cost $5.00 but his smile was worth a million dollars.

After the Santos week end I was soooo fired up I came home and made some new and unique Santos, I will post photos very soon as I'm so excited about them.

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And last weekend was a trip to Mar Goman's home studio for a class on drawing, image transfer, journal ideas and some object wrapping. Mar is a wonderful local artist that I have just meet and only a month or so ago saw a show that was outstanding in Portland's Scrap. I will show some of that show in a few days.

Mar was nice enough to give me permission to take some photos in her studio.

Seven of us tried to stay on task so we could soak up as much as we could of what Mar had to teach.

We went outside to do the transfers.

Lunch break.

A demo on wrapping.

When I put up the photos you her show you will see why I love the wrappings.
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Here are a few photos of Mars art in her home...

This dress is about 5 feet long

Close up of the dress (I love the rust).

Her dolls are fabulous.

I would love to show you all the art.....but... thank you Mar.

Thursday desk photo. What?

Spotted Towhee aka Rufous-sided Towhee

Painting by Tory Brokenshire

I took this photo about a month ago just outside the window of my studio. Rufous is one of my favorites, he lives on the ground in dense thickets hunting for bugs and seeds. But the way he looks for treats is funny he uses the double scratching method by pulling both legs sharply backward at the same time.

I put the photo in photoshop 6 and started to play, having just recently participated in a wood block class I saw his image as a carving with a twist.

Then used a tool called Bass, just a different look but I like the simplicity.

And the next step would be to make a few cards.

But the urge to create with this image was still not satiated so I grabbed a canvas and started to paint.

My original thought was to have a light background because the bird is so dark. But then I thought of the behavior of the bird and how I see him, it is on the edge of dark thick leaves and stems. he is very hard to see at times. The fun began with texture and beautiful rich colors.

As in the photo I painted his tail up, and in his mouth I put a cherry to go with the round shapes behind his head. Darn it just doesn't look right! His mouth isn't big enough to hold a cherry like that, it was a sunflower seed he was eating.
His legs are very thin he would be called "bird legs" and a few colors needed to be tweeked. So I played a bit more...

The finished painting...I love his red eyes.

I'm out of town for a few days to do some art with friends, I hope you find some time to play.

A near miss and nature!

I walked to the garden this morning with a cup of coffee and my senses had an over load. The taste of a good cup, the honking sound of geese just lifting of the river so close I could hear the air on their wings, I picked a fresh stem of Lily of the Valley one of my favorites and inhaled the rich sweetness of it.

My eyes had a color palette laid before them, I had to get the camera.

My neighbor is running in the Boston marathon today and I was ask to feed the dog and watch over the farm. This is a Hair sheep no wool and you never need to sheer them it just falls out, to bad I would love to have some wool to felt.

This is Patch he watches the sheep, and boy do they watch him.

I had a fresh egg for breakfast today, lucky me.

AND THEN IT HAPPENED

photo from google images

I had just come home from the farm when a branch came past my head at about 60mph and hit 10 feet in front of me. An over dose of adrenalin coursed through my body as I tried to find who hurled the missile, I looked skyward and saw a large Osprey with a small branch in it's talons.

Photo by Tory
I had my camera still around my neck .

This is no song bird, can you imagine the size of the nest this stick was meant for.

I love the adventure of life!