Oh yes, even more today. This is the longest winter. No school again, so Lucy and I took a walk in the woods. Quiet and peaceful.
We saw deer, a few birds, our black squirrel. Cookie baking straight ahead. Not much illustration going on though.

Ohh Black Squirrel, bam a lam...

There are at least two black squirrels who live in the woods behind us. These individuals (who are a sub group of the eastern greys) blend so well in dark summer woods but you can see them for miles in the winter snow! Because of their unique coloring, they are easy to individualize and look out for. I worry everytime I hear an owl hoot at night, hunting for, well, squirrels for dinner! Here's a couple tiny scratch spots of him I did yesterday, and a photo from the fall underneath the bird feeder.

The speed of white

A small spot of winter fun.

Gardening in January...

My mind is thinking of gardening today. Love the little postage-stamp sized gardens one sees from the train when traveling in the UK. Small, tidy and intimate. Might do a series on these. Here's a color rough of one.

Thawing

Well, not like this is the end of winter, but we do have a small thaw going on at the moment. The mercury is above 30°! The streets are now bare of snow, but plenty of white still blankets our landscape. I walked Hickory Hill park yesterday. Someone had made the sweetest group of snowmen close to the pathway. Often, people leave small art offerings in the woods. Once, someone made quite an impressive art installation of a glass window temporarily hanging from between two trees. Magic. Here's one such snow sculpture by an anonymous artist, also a small scratchboard of my favorite oak in the park.

Frosted greetings

Snow and cold again today. Hand-prints on the frosty exterior door of a local coffee shop caught my eye. Like the pre-historic cave paintings at Lascaux, they say "I am here!" despite the winter.

The Old Miss...

Took a family field trip this weekend to the National Mississippi River Museum and Aquarium in Dubuque, Iowa. It was an inspiring afternoon to reconnect, sketch a little and get out of the 0° temps. Lots of wonderful things to draw- someday, I'd like to do a picture book on an aspect of this mighty river's natural history. There were some very interesting faces staring back at me at this museum. Above, I had some play with an alligator I sketched (he was in a far too small display- the museum is expanding it's bayou exhibit this summer, thank goodness) Should he be reading on land or in the water? Lantern on the tail? Maybe...

www.mississippirivermuseum.com