Tulips with a side of rain

We've had a lot of rain in the last week. It's made for a wonderful outburst of green in the garden. The tulips are showing big buds, the daffodils are in full flower and we've already said goodbye to the crocus.
I'm hoping these particular ones will be back this year. I love their starry shape.
We live in an area where the soil is all sand. The trees I've planted over the years have grown extremely well, but things like bulbs only last 3 or so years before they die out completely, for lack of deep nourishment.
The poppies have pushed up their leaves and the day lilies are competing with the garlic for legroom. So the whole property is a green riot.
I love it.

fish

I'vew always been fascinated by fish. It's not that I ever saw many, growing up nowhere near a river or a lake. Maybe something about their shape or silkiness. I've drawn them a lot. They lend themselves to decorative interpretations and I enjoy that. I saw a beautiful sculpture of one in Kaikoura, NZ.
He was one of the sights on a long walk day that included getting totally soaked in a lashing rain storm. A true test
of my nerves, as it was a storm of an intensity I had not experienced before. The time of year that I was there was in March, the end of summer for them. Beautiful warm days that can turn on a dime to cold windy and rainy. Because of the area I was walking in, (cliffs right on the edge of the sea) the wind can go pretty hard. I was determined to continue my walk despite all that, till I realized that I might hurt myself and not be found, since the area I was walking was deserted because of the rain. I had to turn back.
That was fine because a busload of tourists stopped and picked up my sorry wet ass and drove me the five miles back to town.
A wonderful hot Cappuchino made me feel all nice and warm again. I shared a table in the cafe with a couple from Philladelphia. I think they were amongst a hoard of people who had gone to sea to see the whales.
I walked back to my hostel and made myself some dinner, my feet glued to a little electric fire. I got my boots dry and toasty again.
I walked past a park that was a memorial to drowned sailors (the sea is very unforgiving, isn't it?)
The walkway is made of rib cage bones of whales. If you click on any of the pictures, you will get a larger one of it.

Read sunshine!

Today was a great day for a nice long walk. I loaded up my pack (found another zip pocket I didn't know I had) and went off to meet a friend for coffee. Then I ran the million errands I had been putting off for a while and filled that baby till it was 22 lbs or more. Very comfortable.
It was such a wonderful sunny day that being outside was a great pleasure. I look forward to being outdoors a lot in June and July.
I have been experimenting with the dimensional paints in my decorative style. I got some cradle boards (wooden canvas mounted on stretchers and made a fish. It's the one with the blue background. It's very fun, but different from the one that I did with the gel medium. That's the one with the red background.

a muse spoke to me

I had a wonderful art day yesterday! I have been trying out working with charcoal and had an AHA!
Here are the results.
Each drawing is 24" x 36".

visual changes

There has been construction going on next door for about 6 months now.
There was a small workman's cottage with 6 people living in it. They decided to build a bigger house.
This was our view, then they took out the tree to the right.
Next, they took out the house. That came down with a big shovel machine, pushing it down in one fell swoop.
Next, they put up what we called "the canyon wall", a big side of particle board.
The last phase was the bricking of this wall. So now we have a pink-gray wall that has given us surprising privacy and noise abatement.

New Zealand in the late summer

New Zealand in the summer is lovely. I spent some wonderful days walking around Wellington, Nelson, Christchurch and the Paekakariki beach.

Mini summer!

It's 21 degrees! Hard to believe that tomorrow morning it could be below freezing, or at least really cold.
Really cold is more like this painting I did in the winter. It was inspired by a view from a train window, going between Ottawa and Toronto. It was a cold and snowy afternoon, wind blowing around that snow. Suddenly, the clouds opened like a tear in the sky and the sun shone through with that weak white winter light. It was bitterly cold to boot.


We're much better off today, I think.

more sunshine

This picture is of New Zealand's south island. It's in an area called Blenheim. This area is the largest wine producing area of the country. While I was there, I tried a few types and found it very good, especially the whites.
The light in NZ is very different than here and the picture is done through the window of a bus that had tinted glass, so it is a little downgraded for brightness.

some warmth

I'm sure I'm not the only person to post the world about the beautiful sunshine and the amazing warmth of this day.
I work in a retail environment that is all big windows, so even though I may not experience the warmth firsthand, I get to see it all the time.
This painting is a story. It's about a male res-winged blackbird protecting his "wives" from an osprey. I keep holding on varnishing it because I feel it's not done yet. Something is missing, in terms of punch.

This is a painting of the house in the summertime.
I love the "secret garden" look. The shade of the trees creates a cool swoosh of air all around the house, working as a bit of an air conditioner. The birds love it too!

beautiful evening light

Today was a lovely cool sunny day. The tulips are coming up fast now.
This is a photo from a few years ago, but the basic plants are in the same stage. The sun sits much higher than it did a few weeks ago, so it casts a completely different shadow thwn before. In the summer, the house is in the shadow of the trees.

Spring birds

This time of year is when you see a lot of "seasonal " visitors. The Nuthatches hang around for a couple of days to weeks, depending on the weather.


Then we get the Juncoes. I haven't done a painting of them yet, but I will soon, as part of my 10" x 12" series.

Birds that are not seen in the big city are ones like the Eastern Bluebird.
This on I saw near Barrie Ontario. It used to spend the summer in a big black locust tree near my house.

The birds that stayed all winter, like the chickadees, were ever present, but birds like the goldfinches camouflaged themselves in different colours than the summertime. They were dressed in olive drab and it took me a while to realize that they were goldfinches!

The doves stayed year round too, but were less apparent in the summer as they needed to nest quietly and more secretly. I saw one get taken right off the feeder by a hawk owl one winter. The hawk owl had come down from the north during a particularly harsh period and stayed at my place for about two weeks, using it as a diner. Shopping was pretty easy with all the birds and rabbits that used to turn up there for the "eats".

Later in the summer, here in the city, we will get woodpeckers, hummingbirds and a real assortment of other visitors. The loss of one large tree on our property has been hard, that loss being one of shelter and seeds for food.

A bright Easter morning

I am watching the workmen next door. They are bricking a wall of the new house next door. We will have a huge, windowless brick wall facing us. Oddly enough, I am quite glad of it, as I will no longer have the neighbours kitchen looking at us. The wall has already given us huge sound abatement from the busier street just to the north. I have young trees already on the go, to help furnish that wall with some shade. Mulberries! Yum!
Today, I will break in the new backpack. It is a Deuter Futura 30+10. Lots of pockets and zips, features galore. It even has an integrated rain cover which I will need in NZ for the rainy weather we are expecting. I will take the camera, drawing materials and a book, to fill my day.
No eggs though. No bunny either.

Thrasher

This is one of a brown thrasher. A somewhat private kind of bird. I saw this one when I used to live north of Barrie, way out in the country- side. They are large enough and have a beautiful redish brown colour. I put this one into a mountain ash tre, as they seem to like berries and stuff.
This one is also a 10" x 12" canvas.
I've done a series of twelve, so far and hope to do four more so I can hang them all together and make a "canvas" of 4' x 4'...so to speak

Progression

This is the progression of a painting, From sketch to watercoloured and inked to the final acrylic, It is 10" x 12".
Baltimore Oriole. They used to nest in an elm
at my parents house.
I used to watch them
for hours, building their
pendant nest, dangling
away in a hanging
branch.
I didn't see them for
many years after that,
till about three years
ago, that I saw one again in a peach tree near where I now live. I like to paint the birds I have seen as the experience lends a lot of life to them. I like the decorative side of things, so I put a bit of that into things too.

some of my paintings

I've been painting in acrylics for over a year now. My background was one of watercolours nd pen and ink renderings. I've reached a point where those two mediums are just not loud enough for me. The paint was perfect!
I started out working on some landscapes. Okay, but not that inspiring. This all takes time to get into and I am a somewhat impatient person.
Then, I started to paint some of my family. That was challenging, as I am not great at things like hands, etc. The I fell on to doing birds. I love doing and seeing a lot of things, but birds are a favourite. So, I started to paint the birds. I will include a few for you to see. I have great fun with them and it is like people to me. The pelican in an earlier post is called George, I don't know why, he just said he was George.

cleaning blitz followed by sun

The whole of Good Friday was filled with spring cleaning. THAT felt GOOD!
The garden got a workout too. Pick up sticks and garbage to make it look a little neater than before. The sun kept me company all along.

The next painting I am working on is one of wild turkeys. I have seen them around Ontario quite a lot this year. The best was when I was snowshoeing with my sister near Van Kleek Hill. The birds were a lot bigger than I imagined.
The trip , I hope, will be one where I paint a lot of notes (studies) and then work them up later in my studio. This photo is one from the net that I will use as reference for the painting. What would we do without "Images"

In New Zealand, we will travel the North Island. I'm hoping to see Lake Taupo. Rotorua and the Coromandel. These are the usual type of places, but I'm hoping to find small places where the hostel is open (winter, remember?) The Coromandel has a lot of birds that I hope hang around there in the winter too.
We want to see Napier too. Art Deco supreme. The last time I was in NZ, I saw a lot of Deco architecture. It was popular and the best of it still seems to be there. I was far more charmed by the Victorian "Villas".
The pictures are in the wrong order, as I am still a neophyte with this blog publishing.
The very north of the North Island is less manageable if you don't have a car. Buses take you everywhere, but a little less frequent (some are only every other day or less) so you have to be sure you are happy with being stuck somewhere. The nicest part of New Zealand is that they have the I centres, for travel info and arrangements. It's easy to get around with their help.
I love the sound of the language in NZ. The rolling of the names, seemingly unpronoucable till you get the hang of it all.
I hope the route calls to us as we go and find the rest my sister needs (she just finished her thesis) and the rest for me, for that matter. Both of us have worked very hard all our lives and need to slow down and look at the world... close or far.

Back to the sunny stuff

After a few days of winter remix, the sun has emerged again. It is still cool, but lovely with the light. All the daylilies and the tulips are poking around out there, just waiting for the little bit more warmth they need to fully emerge.
It is a long weekend and the garden will recieve some attention. I'm hoping to finish the painting of the pelicans. I have been working on it for about 2 weeks. The Kokako is just finished and I really like him.
This trip will show me a lot of birds I have never seen before. I want some good pictures of Keas playing.

a cooperative effort

My sister and I are planning this trip together. She has sent me some interesting literature and I am reading travel books, to get a feel of the places we ought to see. We want to take it easy too, though, and are not planning huge amounts of running around.
I've been to NZ before, but not OZ (get the title?)
She gave me great advice about clothing etc for winter there. June and July are full on winter. Houses are probably only mildly warmer inside than out and toilet seats ought to be real whooooo!!!!! factors.
Here are some pics from the last trip.

Great beginnings

I'm just beginning to learn about blogging, so I can share a trip with you.