One Deer, Two Birds

I had 3 deer that visited every couple of days for awhile. One deer by herself and a doe and fawn together.

For a while my bird feeders were being emptied by by chipmunks. I stopped filling them. I bought a squirrel baffle and started filling the feeders again. Blue jays spend a lot of time at 2 of the feeders but occasionally the smaller birds get a chance .

Disappeared

This sunflower was growing in the ditch beside the road. I would look for it every morning on my walk noticing the progress of its blooms and buds

One morning it wasn’t there. I found a hole where it had been growing. I guess someone else also enjoyed its charm but wasn’t willing to share.

Trees

I’m back to painting trees. Today one maple beside my driveway has quite a few branches of red leaves. These were painted before we had any frost warnings so they’re still all green.

Sometimes I Sit and Watch the Fox and…

The local fox visits quite frequently. Sometimes the crows tell me he’s there and sometimes I’m lucky and I’m looking out the window when he comes by.

My camera is usually nearby and I have many photographs to paint from.

He frequently drinks out of the bird bath which is on the ground because the raccoons broke the stand.

I occasionally see him when I’m out on my early morning walk.

Sometimes he sits and watches me.

Early Morning

Another watercolour from a photograph taken on my early morning walk.

Pines

I’m doing watercolours from photos in my basement to avoid the heat.

This one is of the pine tree in front of my cottage. I’ve done a close up of the trunk concentrating on light and shadows.

The second one is if a crow sitting at the top of a pine tree on the golf course.

Blues and Greens

I’ve not had much luck with my watercolours lately.

This piece is one of my better efforts of the last month. I started out  with a bright spring green on my brush making random marks and then added blue. After the first layer dried I tried to make it look like something with negative painting.

It’s an example of having fun with some paint and a brush and seeing where it leads.

 

 

 

Great Blue Heron

Last weekend I took a course given by Megan Cleland on needle felting animals. The course was given at Fibrefest in Almonte. It was a small class and Megan gave excellent instruction and demos. I chose to do a Great Blue Heron from one of the photographs taken on a morning walk. I thought I was finished when I left the class but since then I’ve done the back ground 3 times. I then removed a lot of it because it was too busy.

I’ve painted the heron in watercolours several times and that helped me in doing this picture. The felting is easier but takes longer to do even if you don’t remove what you’ve needle felted in place several times.

It is now pinned up on a wall so I can look at it and decide if there is anything else I need to add or change before I mount it.

Going With The Flow

Another watercolour from a photograph taken several years ago in Mexico.  We cycled for about a week in Michoacan then drove to the coast for a few days of relaxation.

View of the Lake

During the summer I can’t see the lake from my cottage.  There are too many trees in between.
This week enough of the leaves have fallen that it is now visible.   I only get a glimpse.

I painted this sketch from my deck.  I left out a few large trees so my actual view is less than what is in the sketch.

As you can see in the sketch the sumac behind my cottage are still brightly coloured and have lots of leaves.  Many of the other ones around the property are much farther along having lost their brilliance and many leaves.