Commissions

December was a busy month. I even had to take a week off of work to finish paintings. Thanks to all who have bought my work and have supported my art in other ways! Here are some of the commissions from the last month.

8x10" watercolor

5x7" watercolor/pencil

5x7" watercolor/pencil

Detail from "Sandpipers" 11x14" watercolor/ink

Commissions

Busy with commissions. More after Christmas.

Cape Hatteras Lighthouse

Forest Glen

I thought I would write about where I live, because it's a pretty interesting place. It's now called the National Park Seminary. I'll give some history of it another time, but essentially it was an abandoned school campus from the late 1800s.


The land contains a lot of interesting buildings, including a Japanese pagoda, a Dutch Windmill, a Spanish Villa, and a small castle. Many of the statues scattered around the grounds are still there as well.


This is the abandoned Spanish Villa. In the foreground are stones stairs and a well. I love how you can still see the landscaping, now overgrown and wild. You can even pick out the same pines from this old picture.




This is one of the large statues on the property, probably my favorite one. It's back faces an old road that I like to walk down. Songbirds feed on the road, hawks hunt along it, and deer, foxes and raccoons live in the nearby woods. It is a good place to look for wildlife.



You can see how large and impressive the statue is from this old picture. It's size makes very surreal and a little creepy as it looms over the shrubs and stares into the woods. This place is melancholy. It feels like something out of Lord of the Rings or Hellboy.


More later...

Yellow-bellied Sapsucker

New linocut. Yellow-bellied Sapsucker

This is one of the reference photos I took. It's feeding holes look like someone fired a mini cartoon machine gun into the tree.

Wolf Paintings

The other evening i was taking a walk and saw a red fox trotting through the woods and across an old road. This new sighting has only fueled my new obsession with wolves and foxes.

I think one of the hardest things about painting wildlife, especially foxes and wolves, is not making a cheesy painting. Here's a couple really nice (and not cheesy) wolf paintings that have been inspiring me.

The Black Wolf of the Currumpaw (1894) by Ernest Thompson Seton

This one was painted by Danna Ray, a fellow artist selling on Etsy. Take a look at her awesome work here: http://www.dannaray.com/


This one just makes me really happy.

Carolina Wren

I painted this watercolor of a Carolina Wren over the weekend. They are funny little birds. I watched one this morning on an old well and stone wall, peeking its head into every little nook and crevice. Sometimes it looks like they dart around exploring just for fun.

Also, they sound like a tiny squeak toy being rapidly squeezed.

This is a photo I took last winter of one.

http://www.etsy.com/listing/60986542/5x7-print-carolina-wren-watercolor

Ocean Creature Series

I just finished this series of fun little ocean creatures. These were fun mini watercolors to paint and very minimal planning was involved. I started doodling in little 3x3" squares which became these paintings.
I drew stuff like this a lot when I was a kid, especially sharks and anemones.

Nuthatch

Happy Halloween. Here's a little sketch of a White-breasted Nuthatch.

Fishing Lures

I made this ink and watercolor doodle last night of my collection of fishing lures. I think they are such odd and fun little objects. I like how this one turned out a lot. I think I'll try to do more drawings like this.

Here's an older watercolor of one too.

Vacation

I just got back from my vacation at the beach in Stone Harbor, New Jersey. Saw lots of cool birds, animals, and plants and took hundreds of pictures.

A Black-crowned Night Heron.
Happened to have my camera when I saw this guy early in the morning.

I like this lucky shot of some shorebirds flying off.

A Turnstone. Didn't notice it was banded until I looked through the pictures. I think this has become one of my favorite shorebirds.

I managed to get this painted while I was away too. This small horseshoe crab had really interesting color variation in it's shell.

Beach combing and Manta Ray Illustration

Here's a little illustration i managed to finish the other day. I like the variety of little things in this one.


Also went beach combing today and picked up a few things to paint.

Help the Gulf Coast

My print at the HelptheGulfCoast Etsy Shop sold!

You can find my Hot Air Balloon print there now:
http://www.etsy.com/listing/51736412/hot-air-balloon-festival

All proceeds are donated to the recovery effort. Check out the shop for details.

Little Turtle

Fooling around. This may turn into a larger illustration - i like how the fan coral turned out.

More Shells Studies

Painted mussel shells today. Watercolor.

Help the Gulf Coast

Check out this collective Etsy shop created to help the oil spill in the Gulf Coast. 100% of the proceeds are donated to the National Wildlife Federation and OxFam America.

http://www.etsy.com/shop/HelpTheGulfCoast

For more info and details about the donations you can visit the blog here:
http://www.helpthegulfcoastetsy.blogspot.com

I've donated this print


Lots of other great handmade stuff too. You can use the sections to help navigate it all.

Periwinkles collection

Here is a painting i just finished of my collection of periwinkles.
I picked them up off a beach in Nova Scotia when i was a little kid. I've always loved their variety of patterns and textures. Recently i've been interested in botanical illustrations and this is somewhat inspired by them.


Anyway, prints of this are available in my shop now.

Also, this is a cool blog i found the other day. http://collectionaday2010.blogspot.com/
She posts a different little collection every day.

New Work

Recently I've been working on some picture books and comics involving my whale illustrations. That took a lot of energy away from this blog, but I'm hoping to update it more often now.

Here is a recent commission I finished. Macintosh:


More later.

Yesterday I went fossil hunting/beach combing. Found some decent sea glass and my first not broken crocodile tooth (bottom center) - a little small, but still very cool! Found a fair amount of shark teeth also but nothing especially big. Saw a few snakes and a TINY baby snapping turtle the size of a beetle. Also managed to stop the beginnings of a forest fire from someones poorly disposed of camp fire.

Plover Watercolor

I put up a new original watercolor for sale at my Etsy Shop. Check out the listing for more info. Also should have some more bird paintings up in the next few days/weeks.

Linocut Experiments

Today I experimented with some block printing. I love the look of block prints and have decided I'll invest some time and make more.

This is my first linoleum cut - its a Common Tern. The carving was easier than I expected and the printing was harder than I expected. I can already tell I will enjoy the carving and the printing will annoy me... especially when I upgrade to oil based inks.

Played around with my stamps and some watercolor too.

Magnolia Pod Print

New watercolor and a series of process photos.

Magnolia Pod prints. Available in my Etsy Shop.

Whales at the Coast

New large 11x14" whale print available at my Etsy Shop. This one is a rocky coast scene with a lighthouse, 6 whales, and other ocean creatures. I'll be adding an 8x10" size tomorrow.

http://www.etsy.com/view_listing.php?listing_id=42770959

Feature at Project Cottage

Kelly at Project Cottage wrote up a cool little article about me and my artwork, specifically my whale series. Go check out the feature and her neat blog!

Brookside Gardens, MD

Went bird watching today in and around Brookside gardens. Didn't see anything too exciting, just the usuals: a few different woodpeckers, white-throated sparrows, cardinals, etc. But still a nice trip.

This song sparrow had a very pretty song and was really the only decent bird shot I got. The photos I got of the white-throated sparrows are decent enough to paint from - they are attractive birds, maybe I'll paint one soon.

The earliest blooming plants were out and that was nice to see.

A patch of snowdrops

Helleborus

Witch hazel is fun to photograph. I think I want one in my yard at some point. Here are a few shots of it.

This was a flowering bulb I don't remember seeing before called Winter Aconite. Low growing and very bright.