Bird and Flower painting

I worked on the leaves of the irises today and a little bit on the chickadee. I think it is coming along pretty good so far.

New Painting update, ... Birds

Here is an update on my newest painting. Things have been hectic around here so not painting as much as I should be.

Birds and Flowers

This is my newest painting that I've started. It is of a blue bird, 2 goldfinch, a chickadee, a swallowtail, several irises and some buttercups along an old fence post. It appears that I may have 2 paintings picked up by a company for the spring of 2010 and they are interested in other works with birds and flowers. So I'm hoping that when I get this done, they will also want it too. I will keep the paintings and the copyrights on all my paintings, they will just be using the images for flags, windsocks, mats and mail box covers. I will still have the paintings for sale from my site. When this happens I will be also selling some of the products from my website. I'm working this painting a little bit different this time. After I got it drawn on my board, I then did a quick wash with acrylics. Now I will start to paint it with my water based oils. I'm hoping it will make the painting go a little quicker. I will update you as I go.

Drawing on an 11 x 14 gessoed board.

After I put my wash on the board.

I will continue with updates on this painting as soon as there is enough done on it to show you my work in progress.

A Walk in the Woods

Since I don't have a painting to show you I thought I would invite you to tour our woods with us. We had a chilly but beautiful day here and the kids were home so we decided to take a nice walk in the woods. We live in the midst of the Allegheny National Forest so going for some great hikes are easy to do.

Terry and Niccho, Kristi, Hunter and Peete, and Terry and I climbed some rocks and went into some caves on the trail we were walking. (Tinker is with us, but you can't see her)

Here is Terry and Hunter walking around the base of one of the large rocks.

Terry and Niccho

Kristi and Peete

Peete holding up one of the rocks. :-)

Hunter taking a break.

Papa and Hunter coming out of one of the caves.

Kristi and Tinker looking into a cave.

Peete, Tinker, Papa, Kristi and Hunter near the cave.

Peete, Hunter and Tinker standing near the edge of one of the rocks we climbed.

Niccho taking a break.

Papa and Hunter standing in front of an odd shaped rock.

Walking along the path.

Papa in front of a cave.

Terry and Niccho looking at the view.

Rocks.

More rocks.

Kristi trying to come down a tight trail.

Terry and Hunter under one of the rock's overhangs.

Hunter (the toothless one) was getting tired so he hitched a ride on papa's shoulders.

This is just to show you what damage a porcupine can do. They will eat almost anything. Here is an aluminum sign they have gnawed on and have almost half the sign eaten. Well, that was the gist of our hike. The woods are beautiful, green and lush right now and a joy to walk through.

Gray Squirrel, miniature painting

Here is my latest attempt at a miniature and my first in many many years of messing around with acrylics. The painting is 3.5 x 5 inches and the squirrel is about 2.5 inches. I think if I were going to put this in a show, he really should be a little smaller. But, all in all, this was good practice for me to work something so little. Next time, I hope to do smaller and better.

Bluebird update

Just to let you know the chickadees won the battle for the bluebird house. They must of been relentless in their push for the house. I think they did let the bluebirds build most of the next though! Smart little buggers.
I went out and lifted the roof up and took this photo, there are 7 little eggs, and I think they are smaller than my thumbnail. Can't wait for them to hatch, will have to keep an eye on them and get pix of them growing. As long as I don't upset mama too much. I wonder where the bluebirds went?

Bluebirds "Home Sweet Home"

I finally finished my bluebird painting today and also made a video of my work in progress. You can view it by clicking on this link. Video of Bluebird Painting which is on my Youtube web space. This is finished at a 9 x 12. It is an original oil painting of two bluebirds that took up residence in our bird house. This painting is for sale and will soon be on my website Wildlife and Nature Art with information for purchasing it. Thank you.