Otters, I love Otters

Otters are clever, gregarious and curious. Their bodies dart through the waves with tremendous speed or simply float on the top . I  have to say they are one the cutest creatures on the sea. Every trip we take to the ocean is punctuated by searches for otters....most often...there they are. Here are several paintings from the last year or so that celebrate otters. One otter, two otters and then lots of otters. When you go to the sea...what are you looking forward to seeing?

Winter Visitor

In the winter I just don't see as much wildlife. The hiking sightings of bear, deer, elk and moose just do not happen like the rest of the year. Partly that is because my hiking is less frequent but I do get out on the snowy trails as often as possible. But the best to be seen at this time of year is tracks. Often there will be mice, rabbit, deer tracks and sometimes moose, then there is those questionable tracks that you study hoping that they are something more interesting than the neighbor's dog's footprints.

So I have to say I miss seeing the wildlife in the winter.  But I am fornuate to have one faithful visitor to the bird feeder all winter long.  He is a handsome vibrant ring necked pheasant. Here he is...

Sea of Cortez Wildlife Watching

One of the best things about being a wildlife artist is getting out and seeing wildlife in nature. Having the thrill of seeing a creature in the wilderness. The opportunity to have that experience is one of the driving forces of my artwork. When I have an incredible experience in nature I want to relive it in paint and reproduce the feeling of being there to share it with everyone.

Well this month I have been fortunate enough to have a grand experience that I have been looking forward for many years ( on my bucket list. ) Check out these pictures from our trip to Mexico....

LOOK AT ME.......LOOK AT ME!....Here I am swimming in the Sea of Cortez with whale sharks....how exciting! It really got my heart pumping when I first saw that massive body swimming toward me under water then to have it cruise by with one fin gently grazing my leg......WOW. 

Whale sharks are plankton eating sharks that range from 25 to 50 feet long. They have a dark coloring with spots. These particular ones were around 25 feet long. They are totally concerned with feeding and did not appear to mind our presence at all. It was an interesting feeling when I was swimming at his front flipper and he turned toward me and I suddenly I was looking into a huge open mouth. Biggest mouth I have ever been close to.......It was totally exhilarating.

In these pictures my husband Neil is wearing yellow flippers and I am wearing the full wetsuit and blue flippers.

Thank you to Shirley for the great pictures that she was able to get in spite of the wave action. Check out Shirley's website at www.emperorimages.com  She is a wonderful lady and a world traveler who has taken lovely pictures in the most interesting places.....let her know that I sent you.

Creating Something Different

 Sometimes every artist just needs to shake things up. Take time to learn, experiment and just play with paint. Here are some of my play pieces from the last little while. They all are a bit different either because of what they were created with, how they were created or in their style. This is some my experimental work that does not (always) show up on my website

The birds are on a heavily textured background on board created with layers of moulding paste and heavy body paints. This rough surface was then filled with self leveling tar-gel to re-create a smooth enough surface to paint the detailed feathers of these beautiful Prince Edward Island bluebirds. The grizzley was a quick draw/paint on speciality hard board. The Thunder Jet boat paintings are painted on a background that is meant to represent diamond plate metal. The white boat is painted on various shades of grey to create the illusion of a metallic surface and the black one is using a metallic paint for the silver base. I prefer to make paint look metallic than to use a paint that really shines. Good lesson though. By the way Thunder Jet boats are a great welded aluminum boat that my husband represents in Canada. The birch trees/heron were just a practice with a different thicknesses of  paint.

All fun and some interesting results. Some I would do differently next time but fairly pleased with how each of these turned out.

William's Art

William has been coming for lessons with me for the past few months and it is a pleasure to see the artwork he creates. He is a young wildlife artist with a real eye for detail. He has been focused on wild birds lately and is developing his skills in presenting them in a realistic manner. It is great to work with him and watch how carefully he takes information and puts it into practice. Just wanted to take this opportunity to share some of his work with you.

104 Years

This last week plein-air painting in Wyoming I used the travel paints that my grandma gave me when I was young. It is a  Lukas fold-able palette with small pans of rich color....and it could be over 100 years old. The paint in it is as good as ever.   My mother thinks that my grandma had purchased it when she attended the Royal Drawing Society in 1908. In one of my old books I found her school papers from the Ladies College in Eastbourne. She was fifteen years old at the time. If she did buy this pallete for her studies at the drawing society, then this paint box  is 104 years old now.

For me two amazing and wonderful things about this are that my grandmother had loved art just like I do and in sharing this paint box...we have put the very same paint to paper perhaps over a hundred years apart. The paint is still rich and vivid.

Also incredibly  the Lukas paintboxes that are sold today still look just like this one. The pans are still mostly full as I have carefully conserved them till now .....keeping them  for the perfect painting.

But finally they had enough of that and called out from the drawer demanding to be put to the use that they were intended for. Perfect painting or not they want their chance to be part of creation.

So when packing up for Wyoming 2 weeks ago, into the pack-sack it went along with a newer version of travel palette. The Lucas paint although so very old was deep, vibrant and easy to wet, much easier to use than the newer one.While plein air painting in the Wyoming hills I was pleased to be involved in a mentorship program with the local high school. I mentored a great young man, Matt and together we used my grandma's paint to create his first plein air paintng.
Many thanks to my Grandma.

Bighorn Ridge Painting finally at ArtWalk

2012 ArtWalk is done. What fun it was.  It is a great show...amazing not only for the awesome artists and artwork but also for the wonderful volunteers that run it. This is a huge job to set up a show with about 300 artists working in all mediums. So a big thank you and congratulations to the committee and their volunteers, it was a great success!

For me it was a pleasure to get several of my larger paintings there as well as 7 smaller ones. Last year it was a source of great frustration to have just completed Bighorn Ridge (5 1/2 feet)and not have a vehicle large enough to take it to the show.

That is the issue with the large paintings...sometimes it is really hard to get them out the studio to share with the public.  But this year 3 large paintings made it down to ArtWalk. The show had a great turn out and it was pleasure to participate and be chosen as one of the Top Five Favorite Artists by the public.