Little Lost Squirrels II

I suppose this piece would be more appropriately titled Little Lost Squirrels 0 as it's actually a prequel to Little Lost Squirrels:

It may be hard to see in the picture, but the two little lost squirrels can be seen in the distant landscape as two tiny silhouetted shapes traversing an open field. It's always challenging for me to maintain a good level of color saturation in twilight and night-time paintings. I think using a lot of purple in the shadows helps keep some color in areas that might otherwise fall into grays and blacks - it's a subtle thing, but I think it helps.

Happy Thanksgiving to everyone! I hope all my readers have a very relaxing holiday today with friends, family, and lots of turkey and stuffing..... followed by a nap perhaps...

McKinney Falls

The rains finally came to quench our parched land here in Texas. The air cooled, and by the time the weekend rolled around I thought how wonderful that it's finally cool enough to go outside and do a little hiking. So on Saturday, which was quite cloudy in the morning, we drove down to McKinney State Park to finish up the trails we hadn't yet hiked. After about ten minutes on the trail, the sun came out from behind the clouds and that nice cool hike I'd been looking forward to for so long became a hot, sweaty hike. Even so, it was good to get outside for a while.


The longer trails were a bit ho-hum, walking through the same landscape for a long time without many points of interest aside from the remnants of an old homestead and grist mill. But the trails around the water were quite picturesque.







It seems that the butterfly migrations are beginning again. There were so many butterflies fluttering along the trails, especially this kind. I'm not sure what type it is, but they were everywhere.

In the Woods at Christmas Time

I've noticed in the last couple weeks the grocery stores have been putting out pumpkin displays and I couldn't help but think that it's a bit early to be decorating for Halloween. If it's too early for Halloween, then it's probably way too early for Christmas, but that didn't stop me from painting this Christmas scene during the dog days of late summer. Some wishful thinking during the sweltering heat perhaps...

This piece was another private commission. I took special inspiration from Susan Wheeler's beautiful greeting card art for this painting. Her website seems to have disappeared, so a link to one of her books will have to suffice. I love the warm, inviting woodland world she's created and populated with happy rabbits and mice.

Squirrels in Autumn

Well, I was able to come back and finish up this painting (see entry Squirrels & Stick Insects) much sooner than expected:The butterfly in the painting is very loosely modeled on an American Painted Lady. When I was growing up, I had the opportunity to raise a painted lady from caterpillar to butterfly. It was so exciting as a child to watch the caterpillar spin its chrysalis and then emerge as a beautiful butterfly. I named him Pillarpoofer in a nod to my uncle who I was told in his early childhood years referred to caterpillars as "pillarpoofers."

Little Lost Squirrels

It's been a while since I've posted anything, much less a new piece of art, but I'm finally back with a new illustration. This painting was a private commission. As I worked on it, I was reminded of one of my old favorite picture books, Owl Babies in which three baby owls await nervously for their mother to return home. I love the simplicity of the characters in the book and am amazed at how much expression the illustrator was able to convey almost entirely through the eyes and subtle gestures. I'm hoping I was able to similarly capture some of the sense of relief and recent distress the two little lost squirrels are feeling as they run toward their mother's outstretched arms:


On a personal note, a dear art school friend came to visit last week and we took a few days to explore Austin and get in a dose of adventure, trying out some new activities, among them river tubing and ziplining through the trees. Following are a few pictures of our hike around Hamilton Pool - we first hiked along a trail that followed a creek all the way to the Pedernales river:
Due to drought conditions, the river was quite low. I'm quite tempted to go back and hike along the dry parts of the riverbed to see what there is to see before the rains come and fill the river back up.



We then took the short trail to the pool itself which is partially sheltered in a large grotto. According to texasoutside.com, "The preserve's pool and grotto were formed when the dome of an
underground river collapsed due to massive erosion thousands of years ago." It was such a striking and unusual setting, that it almost looked like a man-made resort. The water looked so inviting on such a hot day, but sadly, we didn't have time to go for a swim. Perhaps another day...

More art soon...

Lilies in St. Louis

I just came back from a short trip to St. Louis to visit my parents. Much to the surprise of our family, my Mom had decided to participate in the Ms. Senior Missouri pageant, so I joined her cheering section for the show. Did she ever wow the audience with her dancing and amazing baton-twirling skills!

While Mom was busy with day-long rehearsals, my Dad and I went on a long bike-ride around Creve Coeur Lake. He took me to some wetlands along one portion of the trail. The water lilies were in full bloom and blanketed a huge portion of the water. I'd so love to take a little boat out on the water and paddle my way gently through the lilies:


















Tall grass prevented me from getting closer to the water's edge, so this was the best 'close-up' I could take:

I've had an idea for a painting nagging at me for some time that just so happens to feature water-lilies. I'm not sure when I'll get around to actually painting it, but at least I'll have handy reference when I do.

Squirrels & Stick Insects

They say everything's bigger in Texas - and when it comes to the local bugs, they weren't kidding. This little (or not so little) guy was hanging out in front of my neighbor's front door for about a day:He's a giant stick insect. It's probably hard to tell from the picture, but he was about 5-6 inches long. Seems he wandered a little too far away from his forest home where I'm sure he's most excellently camouflaged. Hopefully he's since found his way safely back to the trees following his little adventure amongst the man-made.

Realizing I hadn't posted anything in such a long time, I scrounged around a bit for something and came up with this drawing:
This was an unused drawing for a private commission. We opted for something larger and with more characters, which I'll post in the near-future. I still like this drawing and I've got the color well-visualized in my mind for it, so maybe I'll come back to it some day...