The promised bright greetings...

Finishing up my usual offering of birdlife art for an annual local holiday art show. This year, I went back to the Pacific Northwest for inspiration, where I was born and raised, and borrowed a bird or two. The Western Meadowlark is Oregon's state bird. Oregon grape abounds in the wild woodlands of the west coast states (a common childhood plant for me). Don't know how he'll be received by Iowans (we do get the occasional eastern meadowlark here) but bird lovers appreciate avian forms in general, no matter where they hail.

William Clark wrote a journal entry about the moment the Lewis and Clark's expedition spied the Pacific for the first time, "Ocean in view..Oh, the Joy!"

Perhaps it's what this little yellow songbird is singing about, too.

Silence is Golden

Today, I worked in silence. Usually something is going on in the background: the radio, music, the family. But we are getting a good rain this afternoon and it's nice just listening to it soak in. The golden foliage is lighting up the rooms, even on this gray day.  And not a lot of bird traffic out the window. Except on my drawing board. It does feel like we've turned toward the darker season today. Time for some bright greetings to be created!

Happy All Hallows' Eve!

Nature's Color Wheel...

Leaf Litter

Working on new greeting cards and needed some forest floor reference material. I do like this part of my job.

Slow Monday

Warmed up today with a little scratch of a snail. One of the employees at the coffee shop I sometimes work in helps me build my Spanish vocabulary. Caracol. Snail.

The Studio en plein air

A few days a year, I get to take my studio outside. Yesterday was Autumn perfect. The river birch tree is turning; I set up right under it and scratched at a squirrel illustration. The cats found me. One of them wedged herself between my back and the back of the chair.  It was me and the radio and a cup of tea and a warm afternoon and doing what I love to do.