Eucalyptus Leaves

McLaren Park Crow

McLaren Park has a lot of bird species, jays, hawks, cranes, finches, chickadees, and crows, are among them. It is also a park with some very mature trees. This guy was sitting on the very top of a tree that was three or four stories tall. The rest of the tree was plump with coniferous leaves, but this tallest branch was bare - so much so, I thought it was like that just so I could get a good picture of the bird. It's time's like this that I am grateful for the zoom on my little pocket camera.

Plyboo Owl

Trish and I had a cabinet built in our bathroom out of Plyboo, the renewable plywood made from bamboo. After the job was finished I ended up with a couple of 4"x 4" pieces which have been laying around my studio waiting for some inspiration. The sides of the wood are striped and are golden honey colored. Finally, this little guy found it's way into the tiny square and is now too adorable...I found myself speaking to the piece in a cooing voice - the kind one might reserve for a pet, or small child...I just do love this little guy!

Clark's Nutcracker Wins an Award!

Either the jurors at ArtSpan who awarded this little guy a second place award in the category of "representational art" are whack, or this new work is making quite a splash. Every year artists donate to the annual ArtSpan fundraising auction which is taking place tonight. My piece will be among the 140 works up for auction.

Vintage

This must be pal week in my studio, because, like the wood that Lily found for me, this background was given to me by Louise, who uncovered a roll of this vintage wallpaper while cleaning her basement. I recently went looking to buy more and it is VERY expensive. The thing about ebay though, is once I log on and start searching for cool things to make art with, a whole day can whiz by, I can forget to eat, forget to rest my eyes, and forget to make the actual art.

Lily's Wood

I have a seven year old friend who brought me this piece of wood because she thought I might like to paint on it. I'm pretty sure her Mom, Jen, was just humoring her by allowing her to bring it to me, but it turned out to be a perfect background for this sparrow. Thanks, Lily

Finches

I just stumbled across this piece - I made it back in December but had filed the image in a strange place. Lately, I've begun to take my camera with me and look for birds around town. Last week I was waiting at a red light when I looked up and saw a great shot. I pulled out my camera and hung out the window and clicked away. I was awakened by the honking of a horn behind me - I wanted so badly to shout, "hey, hold your horses, I'm making art over here."