Rufous-sided Towhee 12" x 12"

I didn't know anything about this bird when I began drawing it. I just found an image and thought it looked cool. I don't think I've ever heard anyone utter the name towhee, but definitely not "rufous-sided towhee". It was fun to read that they are every where. Maybe now I'll see one flying about San Francisco.

Eat, Draw, Pray

I was invited to submit work for the "Delicious" show at Studio Gallery so I worked on some new images that would fit with the theme. I found this little drawing in my sketch book from Catharine's "draw you brunch" party. I'm having fun thinking of new things to draw for my image transfers.

Boreal with Branch

I am back in my studio but have to offer a R.I.P to my trusty Toshiba who finally died after limping along for oh so many years. I'm borrowing one of Trish's laptops but find that her tools are so up to date, I can hardly process my images. I long for the old Photoshop CS or plain old Elements. I opened the newest version of photoshop and was so entirely lost! Soon I'll bite the bullet and get a new laptop, but either way, I will need to update my image processing skills.

Another View of the Mclaren Raven

I have not been feeling very inspired lately. It may just be that the beginning of the year is a time to get refueled for the next batch of inspiration. I mostly believe that. Occasionally I find myself thinking, "that's it, I'm done, I have no more art inside of me." But I know that is the voice of fear and this year I'm choosing to look at this time as a time of percolation and enjoy how nice an clean my studio is becoming.

Happy New Year!

Black-capped Chickadee

I'm reading Sy Montgomery's book "Birdology" and I am quite riveted. If you read "The Good, Good Pig" then you know Montgomery is a great writer and now she's written about one of my favorite topics - birds. Apparently, birds are direct descendants of dinosaurs. In the chapter on the cassowary (which looks strikingly similar to a dinosaur), Montgomery writes, about the discovery of soft tissue in the femur of a Tyrannosaurus Rex by paleontologist Mary Schweitzer. The DNA was sequenced from the 68 million year old fossil and guess what living creature the DNA most closely resembled, a chicken!

I decided to post this image after reading the following: "the timid titmouse and fluffy chickadee, it turns out, are close relatives of the largest, most powerful carnivores that ever lived. Their direct ancestors were bipedal, meat eating dinosaurs, with three toes, air-filled bones, and wishbones like those from the Thanksgiving turkey."

This black-capped chickadee also happened to be a frequent feeder at Grammy Tunney's bird feeder in Long Island - from Jurassic Park to Long Island.

Persimmon

Today I walked by IXIA on Market Street and they have, as usual, two beautiful arrangements in the window. One of the wonders today featured persimmon branches filled with gorgeous ripe fruit. This post, is a nod to Gary Weiss, the proprietor, who makes art out of branches, leaves, and flowers, and offers us, the passers-by, a new arrangement every week or so through his dramatic window pieces.

I've only been eating persimmons for the last ten years or so and now they are such an essential part of my fall food habits. I usually begin collecting hachiyas in early November so I can turn the luscious soft fruit into persimmon pudding. But before that, if we are lucky, our fruit bowl is filled with crisp fuyus until they are no longer crunchy, but slightly soft and sugary.