Irricana, founders campground

Hello dear ones, it has been a wonderful week.
We ventured down to Irricana on the May long weekend for our first camping trip of the season. Having never stayed in Irricana we were delighted to find the campground hosts to be friendly and a joy to be around. The flavour of the water was, to say the least..UG, reminder to self, always pack lots of fresh water. But that aside everything else was great, right down to the gentle rain on monday.

Irricana Sunset.

Friday evening we enjoyed bison burgers loaded with Hutterite sweet tomatoes while basking in a spectacular sunset.

Monday morning we awoke to drizzle, so while sipping sweet brew of campers-wide-eye I pulled out the watercolors and attempted to capture the soft morning haze fostered by moisture laden air. Thank you Robert Sinclair for valuable advice heeded from the previous posted about workshop. I feel I captured the essence of the moment. Now you are probably wondering what happened to saturday and sunday, well stay tuned as there will be some fantastic bird photos to come.

Now I must get back to work as many exciting ventures are in process. Presently I'm busy painting a 24 x 30 inch canvas for a submission that is due by next week as well as writing proposals. So back to work I go. Oh, also I've been accepted into the Master Naturalist Program put on by the City of Edmonton which I will post about as I go through the program. So as stated, stay tuned, more to come.

Phoebe on web-cam

 Phoebe

Phoebe is on webcam out of Orange County California. Presently she is raising one little chick. To be able to unobtrusively view this little miracle of flight as she tends to her babe is wonderful. Especially when outside my window the cold Canadian Prairie snow is knee deep and the wind chills to the bone.  My colors are not to accurate as I was using a small set of watercolor pencils to define her in my sketch book. But no matter, I'm having fun.

Name this bird

Yesterday and todays bird sketch. I have no clue as to the name of this bird. I took the reference photos in late summer. There were a lot of yellow warblers around at that time. This one has a bit of an orange topknot and very greenish tinged which contrasted greatly with the yellow head. Maybe it is a young yellow warbler as it does have the rusty side strips.

The King and his fine crown

The King's Crown

This wee fella finally received his crown as the finishing touch to this painting. He's a Ruby-crowned Kinglet. A gorgeous little bird that is only about 4 inches. I have to admit that credit is due to Gerald who graciously took the Kinglets photo with my camera. Last fall we were out and about I was in way too much pain from a headache to even hold the camera up, let alone focus in. So I told Gerald to shoot and shoot he did. He captured one wonderful shot that shows the tiny wee red crown just peeking through. As soon as I saw the image I knew I would paint it. It was fall, the birds were migrating south and the foliage was tinged orange so to keep that autumnal feel I boldly washed the background. Initially I was going to paint in foliage but have now decided I like the simplicity of the bold colorfield. It is after all a portrait of a king; need I say more.

A new one started with a bright bold yellow as a ground. Yesterday I was back playing in the paint and started the suggestions of shrubbery. I not to sure yet which direction it will take, either detailed or abstracted. This is basically how my acrylic paintings start, rough and loose. I continue to refine and detail as each layer progresses. There are many layers to my paintings whether I paint with acrylic or watercolor so it is a lengthy process. I also roughed in a Raven on canvas last night as well; looks like I am back into the swing of wielding the paint brush.

Doing the little sketches yesterday while I relaxed with my coffee was quite enjoyable so today I decided  to start the day with bird studies. Once again using watercolor pencils, I only have a small set, not enough to note accurate color, but enough to give a cheerfulness to my roughs. I like the process of washing the water over the pencil strokes after the drawing is done. It reminds me of those magic paint books you can get that are pre-colored so that when a wash of water is painted over the page the color springs to life. Fun, relaxing, dare I say almost meditative.

Devon Exotics

This morning I was busy photographing my paintings which is a very time consuming process as I seem to have trouble getting the reds to photograph well with the other colors I use in my work, seems like if the bold colors come true then I lose the subtle colors in the birds. 

Tonight I was wiring the bird paintings for hanging in the up-and -coming exhibition "Wings Of Creation" only to find I have run out of d-rings so I cannot finish the job tonight. There are only a few days left to get ready as delivery and hanging all happens this saturday. 

"Devon Exotics, Brown butterfly" a 15"x12"watercolor painting on 300lb Arches.
The idea for this painting came when I took photos in the butterfly house at The University of Alberta Devonian Botanic Gardens. I just love going there, once in I can spend hours watching and photographing the butterflies. They have a variety of wonderful gardens to stroll through that are spread out on the 190 acre property. Alpine gardens, herb gardens, and a Japanese Garden.

Nuthatches

Monday, monday, nothing but a fun day. I notice the chickadees and white-breasted nuthatches are once again vying for the same nesting hole in the may tree. For the last three years the chickadees won the lease for the summer, usually raising two or three broods during their tenancy. This year though both the chickadees and nuthatches have also been excavating a new hole a downey woodpecker started while looking for tasty treats in an old birch stump last winter. It seems the Chickadees are favoring the new abode, probably cause its higher altitude, its above my head whereas the may tree hole is only 4 feet up. Sparrows have chased them off a few times so the nuthatches have gone back to cleaning the may tree home. It was fun to watch the nuthatches on the may tree, the male was chipping away at the entrance and the female was vibrating her wings and tail, the male would fly a short distance away then the female would enter the hole and fly out with debris and dispose of it then the male would fly back and chip some more in front of the excited female. Ahh there is nothing like the anticipation of a new nest.

White-breasted Nuthatch

Red-breasted Nuthatch

These two small 9"x9" watercolor paintings are presently shown at Johnson Gallery in Edmonton.

Downey Woodpecker

Hello and welcome to my fine art blog where I hope to inspire awe of the natural world. Where you get to slow down and enjoy the gifts of Creation, especially the winged ones. Venture with me as I create from my experiences of traversing Alberta Canada with my camera to capture birds and wildlife and turn the images into works of art. 

This little fella is a male Downey Woodpecker, the females don't have a red cap. The 9x9" painting is in watercolor and is presently for sale at Johnston Gallery in Edmonton, AB.