It’s a thrill to watch our local hummingbirds at the feeder. They inspired me to do these paintings (with the help of Mark Fuller’s inspirational photos). This is a male Broad-tailed Hummingbird. You might hear a musical trilling sound made … Continue reading
The best part of my fun time in Hawaii was adventuring with my son. And when he surfed, I sketched! A colored pencil and watercolor sketch of Diamond Head, Honolulu.
I’m enjoying Spring Geranium Journaling! It’s fun! If you’d like to try: Start by selecting a simple subject that moves you. Look at it carefully. Then do a quick sketch with eyes closed, followed by a relaxed contour (keep pencil … Continue reading
A Basalt turkey tribe enjoys visiting my crabapple tree in late winter. It’s fun to watch them reaching for, and picking, the tasty red fruit. They inspired me to do a few sketches. And here they are together!
I’ve wandered through diverse landscapes this summer – from attending a wedding at Boston’s Harbor Islands, to discovering a miner’s cabin high in the Hunter-Frying Pan Wilderness. I enjoyed painting the Crystal River near Redstone, CO at a Plein Air … Continue reading
A Cottage Garden in Glenwood. Pinks and Blues. Sweet Saxifrage. Cactus Flowers with Bees.
Many surprises shelter below the rims of Cedar Mesa canyons. Water sources are especially magical for their life-giving qualities.
On Cedar Mesa, natural rock walls, floors and ceilings, provide shelter, and are an integral part of canyon living. Images pecked in stone tell stories, address spirits, map routes, and mark people passing. Painted pictographs abound; many are of hands pressed to stone. Indentations in the rock might be painstakingly tooled moki steps, sharpening marks, or hollows for grinding corn.
The alcoves reveal many scales of construction, from remnants of crumbling granaries, to fortified structures that are almost palatial.
Flowers of the desert provide alluring colors and tantalizing textures. They might be the beginnings of edible fruit like prickly pears, or provide medicinal qualities.
Stone-walled structures in seemingly inaccessible places blend lizard-like into the towering cliffs. Where do man-made impressions end, and natural surfaces resume? In some places, the two sing together as one.
The sun sets, the land darkens, and we wonder how many more mysteries are embraced by the canyons below.
