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 Watercolor study of a white Aster in October. Do you remember when I took that walk in November, hunting for acorn caps? Well I wrote about a little White Aster I came across, alone in the field. Here is what I wrote in that post:
“And one little Aster in the middle of the ‘Maze’, an overgrown field with paths I cut years ago. The white Aster looked up at me with it’s tiny little face, and asked if winter was coming soon? I told it to prepare and go to sleep before the snow falls. It was sad but missed it’s friends, as they had all gone, so it nodded it’s head and drooped a little in it’s tiny stem.”
 “Sad Aster go to sleep, before the snow falls cold and deep.” At the time I saw it, I just saw a white Aster and thought about it alone there, but I didn’t give it feelings and talk to it. That was my creative mind putting my feelings onto a tiny flower and as soon as I wrote that paragraph a new character was born! Yes, as soon as I wrote that post I wrote a poem called “Sad Aster” and then I did some sketches.
 “Your friends are gone, the field is empty,
Where once they stood in numbers plenty.” I’m quite pleased with the little poem and now will work on illustrating it, creating more of a character.
 “..before the snow falls cold and deep.” I just thought it’d be interesting to share with you how one walk in nature, when combined with my emotions and thoughts, will sometimes evolve (in my mind) into something other people can relate to.
 “Little Aster cold and white,
Go to sleep this cold, dark night.” I wish I could share the whole poem but I guess I should wait until it can be published properly.
 Worried little Aster While I’m warm in my house, I hope she’s sleeping soundly out there under the foot of snow we got this weekend! 😉 Well for now I have to put “Sad Aster” aside while I catch up on some mice illustrations I started, it never ends….so much to do! I’ve also created some small needle felted animals in wool with wire armatures so they are pose-able, and continue to do small experiments with wet felting. One of these days I’ll open an Etsy shop so I can sell them, but for now I must concentrate on my illustrations!
PS. Don’t worry, it’s a happy ending for Sad Aster! 😉
(I wrote this in November. Sorry it’s a bit late, but I thought you’d still enjoy the pictures of my walk!)
A hunting we will go, a hunting we will go…high ho the dairy oh….a hunting we will go!
When you need something for a project and you can’t buy it at the local store, it’s great to know you have it right in your own backyard! I want to make some felted acorns, have you seen any of these? Oh they are so cool; I love the texture and colors of the wool and the real acorn cap is just perfect.
On my property there is a place I call “Oak Lane” because all along it there are huge, ancient oak trees growing and I watch over them the best I can. Well I set out for a short walk, only taking my camera and a plastic bag and glad that I put on my Wellies or barn boots because ‘AY CARUMBA’ it was wet!
 Just what I was looking for, Bracket Fungus and Moss! I also had it in mind to collect reference pictures for my illustration projects. I found some excellent bracket fungus and moss for “Miss Mouse’s House”. I made up a sketch (in the new, big studio sketch book!) of her house and I can’t believe when I was walking, I found JUST the thing! I hope to share Miss Mouse with you when I get more sketches done.
What was supposed to be a short walk turned (as usual) into a long ramble, taking pictures every few steps. Seriously, every few steps…”oh look at that color!” “Oh…look how the trees reflect in the water”….glad no one came with me, I was able to wander slowly, drinking it all in and taking lots of pictures for future reference. When you walk slow and pause often, you also can take notice of so many things around you.
 Reflections in the water, along Pasture Lane as I walked. When I made it to Oak Lane, I picked up a small stick with a forked tip and used it for shuffling the wet leaves away. We’re not talking about oak trees in a yard with neatly trimmed grass! No…it was wild and absolutely covered with leaves, and how beautiful. But any caps I did find were mostly covered with mud, so into the bag they went to be studied later.
 Interesting and delicate pod or gall I found under the leaves. Another neat thing I found, this thing that looks like some kind of a gall? It was on the ground under the leaves and I’m guessing it was on the tree or a small plant before because it had a stem. There’s a hole so whatever grew up inside it came out. It is paper thin and very interesting, so I put it in my bag, hoping it wouldn’t get squished. (see note at end of post)
 Can you see anything in all these leaves? The best find of all was when I noticed something move in the leaves, a tiny, tiny movement but I saw it. Then I just stopped and watched, and waited…then saw it again and really had to watch it not to loose it in the leaves again, a tiny Wood Frog!
 A beautiful and tiny Wood Frog! Not very big and exciting you say? NO it IS! How many years have I walked on my land and do you think I see them all the time? NO, I hear them but don’t see them. So I snapped as many photos of this frog, that seriously was only as big as my thumbnail, as I could. Then when I was satisfied I had gotten enough, I used my stick to carefully move a blade of grass that was blocking my view of him.
 Nice side view showing his mask. It’s totally ok that it made him hop onto new leaves, I got even better pictures of him! You have to be patient and yes, it gave me a very stiff neck, all that looking down and crouching.
 Here’s a top view of him, you can see the patterns on his back that help him blend in. I think because it was so cold he was moving slower than normal, a great time to get photos of frogs. Then I heard another Wood Frog across the lane calling and I thought, maybe that’s his mate or in ‘children’s book land’ his friend? It’s wandering through the woods alone when you can let your imagination have play too, and it’s good for you!
 This was an unusual fungus I saw more than once, it looked liked someone squished raisins on the branch! On the way back then it started to rain, then it hailed on my head! It was ok, the clouds were magnificent and the the cold breezes blowing, making my cheeks glow, it was wonderful to be there at that moment and really take it in.
 Such beauty in a much overlooked wildflower, Chicory. I found two Chicory plants with beautiful blue blossoms on them still, hanging on to any sun they can get now.
And one little Aster in the middle of the ‘Maze’, an overgrown field with paths I cut years ago. The white Aster looked up at me with it’s tiny little face, and asked if winter was coming soon? I told it to prepare and go to sleep before the snow falls. It was sad but missed it’s friends, as they had all gone, so it nodded it’s head and drooped a little in it’s tiny stem.
Though I see interesting and beautiful things, walking alone on my land, I’m sometimes like the little Aster. It focuses my thoughts as I walk in quiet and when I see the beauty I want to turn to my sweetheart to share it with him, and he’s not there. And the discoveries I make I want to share with my Dad…and then I miss him again and again, not being able to talk to him. I’m sure many of you know what I mean, but instead of focusing on who isn’t there, I try to share my experiences with those I can.
 The wild rose hips and their leaves were just beautiful, magical colors! I can show Gary pictures and talk to him on Skype until we can walk together. And my dad, I thank him for encouraging my love of nature and my creative endeavors as I quietly promise to follow through on my children’s stories. And to all of you, so glad you stop by to read my ramblings and see what I’m up to!
Have you gotten outside to take a slow walk lately? Noticing the change of seasons?
 Maple leaf I made by wet felting wool. I made this leaf out of wool by wet felting it, isn’t it cool? I can keep it forever and it won’t lose it’s color. Here’s a picture with two leaves I made.
 Two Maple leaves I made into felt from wool. Now here are those felted acorns I made! Aren’t they cool?
 Colorful wool needle felted acorns, caps from two different oak trees. I have since added pretty beads to the strings and made them into ornaments.
* My online friend Ed has kindly sent me a link to a page about the mysterious empty gall I found. It’s from an Oak Apple Gall Wasp, please read about it here, it’s fascinating! And here’s a page all about galls and the ‘critters’ that form them. Thanks Ed!
It’s been weeks since I’ve been out in the field sketching, and now that I’ve been out I feel renewed! I guess that’s how we should feel in Spring. I put on my Wellies or “Mud Boots” grabbed my sketch kit and camera and set out. Come with me and I’ll show you my walk with sketches and photos! (Please click on pictures to view clearer.)
 Dried grasses in “Pasture Lane” on the way to the pond. The first lane I walk in follows the pasture so it’s always been called “Pasture Lane”. No animals in the pasture now but still lots of wild things to look at. This lane has lots of nice dried rushes and sedges in it; I love this color, especially with the blue sky. It won’t be long I’ll be spotting all kinds of Nursery Web Spiders and underwater little nymphs and creatures.
 Natural arch of branches on Long Lane This is on “Long Lane”, looking towards “Aspen Hall” and it’s a natural archway of branches that’s been forming the past few years. I keep breaking branches when I go under it to keep it a bit under control! I’ve done sketches and paintings of it before, and not too long ago photographed it covered with snow! But as I was standing here I decided to go up “Memory Lane” to my left. This leads me to “Oak Lane”, one of my favorites, where I thought I’d check things out.
 Woodpecker hole in dead tree by “Memory Lane”. Just at this intersection the woods are quite wet and I always see dead trees with lots of woodpecker holes. This one looks like it’s been freshly pecked at.
 One of the ancient oaks in “Oak Lane”, standing tall and strong. I ended up in “Oak Lane” my favorite place on my property where the oaks are huge and tall, standing for many many generations. I made a little place to sit right up next to the tree at it’s base, by spreading my trusty garbage bag out, first checking for pokey sticks and bits. There I sat, ate a snack and enjoyed the peace, then did a small sketch of the grapevines growing about me. Hmm…funny but that seems sort of rhymy to me…lets see:
“Here I Sit”
Before I sat down
Upon leafy ground
I gave the spot a good scour
Where I’d while away the hour.
There were pokey sticks
And hard little bits
I had to clear before I sat,
So I could sit and have my snack.
Well, now here I sit
With favorite sketchkit
Having a think and a good look,
At what will go in my sketchbook.
by Mary McAndrew
Well that was fun! I just made that up!
 Here’s the start of my “Grapevine” sketch I put my sketchbook on my knees and decided to draw the big grapevine branch hanging near me…that’s it by my leg.
 My watercolor palette, I just love the colors! There’s a close up of my watercolor palette I take when I go afield, it’s getting pretty stained now and I’ll have to look for a new one. Some of my colors I have in temporary little plastic containers, just to see if I want to add them to the kit.
 Using a waterbrush to paint. This is one of my waterbrushes, it’s actually not one of the more expensive ones but it worked great for me today. It has good juicy water-flow and the tip stayed sharp for details. I also wrote words about the grapevine on the page that I’ll type out below:
“The grapevine grows greatly
reaching upwards with twisted limb.
It’s rough bark twisting tightly tense
along it’s sinuous length.
Great muscle of wooden rope reaching right up
to entangle and strangle it’s host.
And gentle innocent long trailing tendrils
Hang down from above,
stirring in the breeze
to tease.”
by Mary McAndrew
As I wrote the words I let my mind think poetically and freely. I knew later I’d like to write a poem from some of the words I found because I liked the way they sounded together. Here’s the finished sketch below and then the new poem follows:
 Grapevine sketch and words done in the field. Here’s my little poem I wrote just now while looking back at the words:
“The Grapevine”
Grapevine growing greatly
Reaching upwards with twisted limb,
Rough bark twisting tightly
Tense, sinuous and slim.
Great muscle of wooden rope
Reaching right up to entangle,
Clinging to unwilling host
As you wind about to strangle.
Gentle, innocent tendrils trail
Stirring in the breeze.
Stronger than you look so frail,
Climbing any tree you please.
by Mary McAndrew
 Watercolor started in the field of purpley red bushes. The watercolor above I did half in the field and half at home. On my way back I stood in an field we call “The Maze”, because of all the intertwined paths in it, all cut by me years ago using a tractor and brush hog. It was very difficult to paint the stems while standing there in front of them, tired, cold…but I loved the colors so much and wanted to try and ‘study’ it. When I got back I looked at photos I took using my computer, and did more detail and study. I found myself using Dioxizine Violet mixed with Alizarin Crimson for most of the purpley colors; mixing it with Sepia made a nice shadow color. I had to use a bit of Cadmium Red to brighten up the color here and there. You can see my color notes on the left side there. By the way, I can’t really recall what the name of the bushes are, I think “Red Pannacled…something or other! Sorry, I packed all my field guides up, I’ll see if I can look for them.
 The old stick bridge at “Aspen Hall” This is the old stick bridge in “Aspen Hall”, I add to it every spring and summer, tossing on dead branches to go over the ditch. “Aspen Hall” is located along “Long Lane”, so I’ve done a circle and am coming back towards home now.
 A very old car frame. This is a very old car frame just sitting by the pasture, it’s been there ages! I think the former owner of the farm told me it was Model T or Model A …wooden spokes! How cool!
I’ll leave you with one more picture from my spring walk…
 Ahhh…this is the life! I didn’t want you to miss my favorite picture! I love taking pictures of my boots when I go hiking, wherever I am. In my shop I have pictures of my boots in England too! Go here to my shop then scroll down left side column and click “Hiking – Walking + Boots”
Hope you enjoyed our ramble!
Click on the pictures below to see my photos as note cards, it has a nice ZOOM feature that’s lets you look closely.
“Great Old Oak Tree” glossy note cards
“The Old Stick Bridge” glossy note cards
“Old Wheel” glossy note cards
(please click pictures to see larger)
 Oak leaves and tracks in the snow, January 9, 2013 The sketches above are from my walk on January 9, 2013. I didn’t need to wear my snowshoes this time and I walked further than before, making it to “Oak Lane” today. It was there in my favorite lane, that I leaned against a tree to sketch the oak leaves on the ground. I also saw interesting little tracks that I can only guess are squirrel? I have grey and red squirrels here, these look a little big for red squirrel but I’m just guessing. The top track is life size at 1″ x 1″.
 The Octagon House in Akron, NY I went to Akron NY this weekend to go sketching a bit with my friend Nancy. I want to practice drawing buildings and houses more and Akron has some interesting old ones. This Octagon House was built in the 1840’s by Charles B. Rich for his fourth wife. It’s a museum too and someday I want to go through to see all the Victorian era furniture and decorations. It was a challenge to sketch standing there on the sidewalk opposite, leaning against a stop sign! I sketched it in pencil then put a little watercolor on; at home I used my ink pen to draw over and then painted from the picture I took. It was such a grey dull day but can’t complain about how warm it was.
 A building on Main Street in Akron, NY. This is a business on Main St. in Akron I started to sketch from a cold bench across the street. I’ll try to work on it this week to finish it up. I guess it looks like many old businesses do on any Main St. in America. It was popular to have a facade that is really taller than the building itself, kind of like an old western town movie set!
I also worked on a little watercolor landscape study from a photograph I took while in Northumberland, England, but want to put a few finishing touches on it.
(click for larger clearer view)
 Mouse Family in the Leaves Happy to say I’ve finally finished it! My little mouse family playing in the leaves, the mother being surprised by a spider (she doesn’t much like spiders!) I’m happy with how the colors came out and really enjoyed painting these fall leaves. If you saw my past post showing the beginning stage of this painting, I mentioned I might darken the leaf in her hand (paw!) and I did. I added some glazes of Alizarin Crimson and some other colors, for a purpley cast. You can also notice I made the spider more defined and added more reds to the right leaf. Have a look at the other post to compare the differences. What do you think of the purpley color instead of the brown? (it blended in with the mice too much I thought.)
As usual I’ve created some really nice things in my shop using this illustration, it makes a lovely card for any occasion, I’ve already ordered a few for myself! Click the picture links below to have a look! Please leave me comments or questions below, I love getting them.
Glossy Note Cards (customizable)
Glossy “Happy Birthday” Cards (change text if you want) picture inside too!
Glossy Note Card- Close Up of Baby Mouse
Glossy Stickers (I LOVE the stickers, they’re shiny and colorful) You can add text on it if you want.
Prints in many sizes!
Ok…off to work on “Liam and Quinn” and some more mice!!
Today, before I started cooking our Thanksgiving Day dinner, I popped outside for some air. I’ve been trying to walk laps around my yard for exercise but today I brought my lonely field sketch kit. It’s gotten ‘dusty’ from non use and how great it was to refresh with a sketch. I did this small, quick sketch of a tree covered with Wild Grapevines. (Click pictures to see clearer.)
 Quick sketch of wild grapevines all over a tree. As I was drawing/painting, I noticed that the vines on the right (in the sun), were best drawn by showing the darks around them. By painting the dark areas the vines showed up. And on the left side they were best shown by making the vines themselves dark and the space around them light. Opposites on each side of the tree they clung to. Hmm…might be something poetic here but haven’t gone with that inspiration yet.
 The tree was absolutely choked with vines! You can see the tree was choked with vines but they were so graceful looking, swirling around and in and out! What a good hiding place for critters when covered with leaves.
 Yes that’s me sketching, wearing my Dad’s old Woolrich hunting coat and my fingerless mittens. I got a picture of me sketching, wearing my Dad’s old Woolrich hunting coat that I love as it makes me think of him. He loved to be out in the fields in fall hunting birds with our Brittany Spaniel “Red” and in winter he’d don this coat with it’s matching trousers and go deer hunting. I remember going with him to ‘run the dog’ in fall, to get Red in shape and work on training. I loved going with him! I’m also wearing my fingerless mittens which later I took off, along with the coat because it was so nice and warm in the sun! I wear my sketch bag crosswise over one shoulder and my camera strap over the other.
 Such blue skies! I thought it was going to be colder. The sky was clear and blue, I love looking up at the tree tops like this. There were a few Chickadees flitting around keeping me company.
 Get Outside and Sketch! And there’s my final words! “Get Outside and Sketch!”
Hope you had a wonderful Thanksgiving and if you don’t celebrate it, I hope you still had a good week and got outside for some fresh air!
I thought I’d show you the progress on my illustration of the ‘mouse family’ and some other little studies.
(click on them for larger view)
 Work in progress, adding watercolor to the ink drawing. It looks so different than it did as just a pen and ink drawing! They are starting to come to life more with the added color and fur. I’ve been so busy with other things that this illustration is going slowly. What I did here I did in one evening while watching a movie, if I could just sit down one more time it’ll be finished. So she says!
I’ve run out of opportunities to paint from ‘real’ colored leaves as they’ve all gone to the dark side in my yard, they’re all brown and blackish. But I did take lots of reference photos and that will serve me well as usual. I have a decision to make about the leaf in the mommy’s hand, it blends in with her and the baby maybe a little too much? I may add a purpley maroon, something with alizarin crimson? I’ll be adding just a touch more color to the leaves but I don’t want them to overwhelm the mice either. I do like the touch of blue in the background, it helps to show the mushroom better.
Before I forget I’ll show you a little study I did after Beatrix Potter’s mushrooms.
 Watercolor study after Beatrix Potter It’s from a painting with more mushrooms but this little one and the grasses were all I needed to study the colors she used. This was great for me to do before diving into the color of my painting, especially because I wasn’t working outside from real life. I just love and adore her paintings!
 A small watercolor study of Moneywort done in springtime. This is a small study I did in the spring of Moneywort. It likes to grow in wet areas so my land is filled with the stuff! Wonderful in late spring as it covers itself with little yellow flowers; my ditches along the lane seem to be filled with gold! I don’t know if the name refers to the yellow flowers (like gold) or the round leaves looking like coins? I found out something interesting, it’s a native to Europe and was introduced to America for use as ground cover and as an indoor hanging plant. Ha! I never would have thought to use it inside! Well anyways, I remember sitting in a lawn chair on a cold spring day, in a flooded area of my yard when I did this. I watched the little Nursery Web Spiders scampering over the water and over the plants. How great it is to study from life! That’s why I love Nature Sketching so much.
 Study of a small wildflower (weed) that grows in my grass. And this is another favorite ‘weed’ I like that grows around anything not moving! haha…It seems to grow at the edge of everything but I don’t mind, it has tiny pretty flowers and neat rounded leaves that remind me of a tiny geranium. I haven’t yet looked it up, guess I should. Oh by the way, the bees love it! Don’t go killing everything that grows in your grass, as long as it’s green it looks fine! Look closer at some of those weeds, they can be pretty and the bees need them.
I just thought I’d show these because I feel it’s important to always study from real life. Even if it’s a tiny study done quickly, it will help you to look closer at what’s really there, and you will remember it. Especially when it comes to color, the photos you take will not be as accurate as what your eye sees at the time, in that lighting.
Well I hope you enjoyed seeing my progress and other studies. I’ve been playing around with adding some new colors to my watercolor field palette, so we’ll see how that goes. Leave me comments if you like, I always love hearing what you think!
Click the picture above to see another cute mouse painting I did! If you hover over it (in my shop) you can see an enlarged image. Go to this link to see some other new children’s illustrations in my shop!
As I warned you before, I’m not just working on nature sketches, beautiful landscapes and interesting portraits, but lately have been concentrating on my children’s stories and poems. I’ve been writing them for years but never have settled down to concentrate on illustrating them, until NOW!
I have many, many characters to create that are in my head, but need to come to paper with pen and paint. They’ll get born eventually, I have to start somewhere and it’s with my two newest pals.
I’d like to introduce you to my little friends, Liam and Quinn. They are actual teddy bears that I named after my two newest nephew’s, don’t they have the greatest names? They (the teddy bears!) were made years ago from my own pattern design when we were sewing bears to donate to Children’s Hospital in Buffalo. I say ‘we’ because I had a charity sewing club where high school students earned community credit by sewing the bears (from donated fabrics) and the younger kids would make the felt vests and decorate them with paint and glitter. It was fabulous fun and the kids all learned about creating for other children, just wonderful! Maybe I should write a book about that and put patterns in it? Ok, ok…one thing at a time!
 Liam color sketch, three quarter view This is Liam, the younger of the two bears, his face is shaped a little different and his eyes, nose and mouth are different from his brother.
 Liam sketch front view He is a little smaller than his brother Quinn, but that’s not surprising.
 Liam color head study, what a cutie! Here’s a study of Liam’s friendly face and what cute ears! The most obvious difference is Liam is yellow orange and Quinn is blue.
 Quinn sketch front view This is Quinn! I love drawing him because he’s a bit more rounded, has a bigger nose and big smile! I still need to paint him so you can see his wonderful blue color and purple vest.
 Quinn thinking sketch Here Quinn is thinking about something his little brother said, I really like this pose.
 Quinn pointing up sketch This is from the part of the poem where he points up to the top of the toy pile.
 Quinn climbing the toy pile sketch And here I’m trying to animate my little friend using my imagination to show how it would look if he climbed up the toy pile.
And now I’ll leave you with the first two stanzas as I go to work on painting Quinn and work on my storyboard!
“Liam and Quinn”
This is Liam
and this is Quinn,
and where do you suppose
my story shall begin?
I’ll start at the top
and work my way through
and end at the bottom,
as all stories do.
…to be continued!
It’s been a long while since I posted! I’ve been busy with packing up and also selling things in my house for my eventual move. Wow I didn’t realize I had so much STUFF! I was also busy with my eldest son’s University Graduation, which was in Washington DC. and afforded me an entire day at two fine art galleries that would blow your mind. Well it did mine! I’m going to post about that visit next I think!
 moss study in watercolor, of same tree Back to the moss now… I did these studies in March (click pic to see detail) when it was sunny but still chilly and actually quite nice to be out on the land. Trees were still working on their buds; leaves, grasses and wild plants were all just coming up through the dead, wet leaves of winter. But everywhere I looked there was gorgeous moss growing on all the bases of my trees. I have very wet land and there is no shortage of moss!
I did these studies because of a little story I made up about a mouse…and I needed to do moss studies. Wow, a great excuse to go out and paint!! haha. This first study (above) I did the same tree twice; sometimes I do that, the second time going faster, more bold or just trying a different technique. For the one on the right (the second study) I stepped back and just looked at darks and lights of the green, also tried to do the bark quicker. I’ve left a good amount of clean paper because I may be able to use it later to add in some characters or more trees.
 moss study in watercolor on tree in Aspen Hall The study above I was really happy with! I went to Aspen Hall, a special place on my land that my boys and I used to go to, and I picked this one tree because the moss had a different hue. When the mosses are ‘blooming’ or sporing (?) they have little rusty brownish reddish heads that come up on hairlike stalk. If you get in close you can see them; it’s these that give the moss a sort of rust patina on top of the green.
I firmly believe if you want to paint something right, the more you can study and understand your subject the better. You don’t have to scientifically understand all about it, but get up close and really look at it’s parts, ask yourself what those parts are maybe. I find the more you do this, the more you SEE, you will get really good at seeing details you would never have thought about before! That’s my two cents!
 A beautiful fuzzy budding bush, close up On my walk I took a few pictures (of course!!) Here’s a few beautiful, soft buds on a bush. Don’t they look like those fireworks that explode outward? There’s such symmetry in the unopened bud, like a pine cone and the opened ones are irresistible to stroke to feel their softness.
 Here's a snail keeping company with the tiny frog eggs And then there were frog eggs in the wet lane, some tadpoles that had hatched and a snail friend on top of them all.
 This could be the mom or dad of those eggs! I see countless Leopard Frogs while I walk, all jumping this way and that as I come along the lanes. This was a big one so I assume an adult that overwintered and had something to do with those eggs! Now (at the end of May) I go walking and see many young frogs leaping into the wet areas of the paths, new frogs of the year!
 A male (American) Robin has his crest raised while looking at me This male American Robin was in “Pasture Lane” as I walked, he has his crest raised like someone with big eyebrows would lift them to look at you! He’s on alert.
 This is a typical pose for robins, with wings held slightly hanging Here he is again, it’s a good pose to show you how they typically hang their wings a bit. He’s still looking at me you can see!
Well I couldn’t resist adding a few more pictures from my walk, so here they are:
 Two beautiful Mourning Doves, watching me from a high branch.  A beautiful setting of moss, grasses and dried leaves on a tree.  And here's my view looking home, along "Pasture Lane", a very wet but ALIVE with creatures lane! I hope you enjoyed my moss studies and nature pictures from my day out. Please leave me a comment or ask a question, I love getting comments! I promise to TRY to put aside packing for planned sketching time everyday and get back to my posting here!
Some of my pictures link to my Zazzle Shop, please have a look around as I put many photos there that aren’t on my blog.
 "Lightning Bug Under Grass" watercolor + ink (click to see enlarged, hit ‘back’ arrow to return)
I know it’s not the time of year for Lightning Bugs (or Fireflies) to be out but thought I’d share this small illustration I finished recently. I’ve been working on studies of small, native plants (NY) to go with illustrations in the children’s books I’m working on and decided to put this Lightning Bug in here. It’s more realistic than the books will be but I really like how it looks like an ‘old time’ illustration. Many people have never seen this bug in the day, known for it’s magical blinking lights at night, but if you get to know it you may spot it in long grasses or hedges.
Though I painted this entirely in the studio all the studies had to be done in the field. Lately when I’ve been able to get out for sketching, I’ve taken my garden kneeling pad and a big garbage bag to sit on the wet ground to work. It really is amazing how many different small plants there are growing right under your feet!
Next post will be about the small plant studies I’ve done out in the wet lanes of spring. Click on the images below to see my prints, note cards and other items with this painting (you can add text to any of them!):
Posters / Prints in size you choose
Glossy Note Cards in two sizes
Stickers in many shapes and sizes (change text or remove if you like)
I love reading your comments as it really keeps me enthused! It’s been hard to get time to paint lately because I’m getting ready to downsize my house so I’ll be ready to move. Years of stuff is all I can say! I will keep posting as I have time so please bear with me, there is more to come!
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Welcome to my Blog! The most up to date information about my artwork, nature sketching adventures, or step by step demonstrations. Search using Categories or Tags, or use the search box in the left column.
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