Nature Preserved

More Field Museum photos, ahoy!I can't say it enough--this place was amazing. My favorite natural history museum to date. And I came home completely overwhelmed with inspiration. I spent most of my time there in the Ornithology wing, staring at various winged friends and geeking out way too much.These wee hummingbirds were my favorite specimens. So, so tiny! The nest was about 2", and the little hummers were maybe an inch long. Look at the tongues! Just amazing. With all this inspiration, I think I'll go work on a painting or two. Have a great weekend, gang!

Sting Rays and Stuffed Pelicans

Hello, gang!

I hope you are all doing well and enjoying the week. I got back from my whirlwind of a Chicago trip and have so many pictures to share with you. It was a fabulous getaway (snow and all) and came and went rather quickly, if you ask me. There was barely any time to really explore the city with my family, but I was able to get to both the Shedd Aquarium and the Field Museum, which was a big plus!

The aquarium was so crowded (and teeming with little children) that I was only able to quickly snap a few images...and about half of those were of the rays. I'm a sucker for sting rays, I admit. They have a neat see-through floor where you can actually walk *over* the sting rays, and I think I just about peed my pants when I realised this.If I ever become a bazillionaire, I would like it known that there will be a sting ray aquarium floor installed in my living room.And the Field Museum? Be still my heart. I spent four hours there and only saw the first floor! Which of course means that one day I will have to go back. I was also very snap-happy with the camera...as shown by the 84 pictures I took just at the Field Museum alone. It was a great opportunity to beef up my own wildlife photo reference library for my art. I'll show some more of the museum images in a day or two (they deserve their own post). Also, there are now a handful of paintings left from my show in Seattle available in my etsy shop. New prints are next on my list, so do stay tuned! I do believe the prints of the "Endangered" paintings will be lovely little show-stoppers.

Time for lunch and perhaps more coffee. Have a great day, loves!

Constructing Mother Nature

Thanks to a large book trade-in through Powells, I recently was awarded with nearly $100 worth of book buying credit. Sa-weet. And so, a book buying frenzy ensued. I was able to get a lot of good ones, but by far the *best* one that came in the mail was this gem:

I love animals and nature and taxidermy and natural history museums. So a book entirely devoted to the creation of the dioramas at the American Museum of Natural History is sorta like a big cake with ice cream and fudge and sprinkles poured all over it. Yummy.
It's filled to the brim with enlightening text and the most amazing photos of artists and craftsmen constructing the various models and scenes.This guy is living my dream job (only, hopefully it would entail a bit more than painting just bird droppings...).

In other news, I had a dream last night that after 3 years of diligently slaving away on a painting, I finally finished it. And it was the best piece I had ever done. So, naturally, I went to the roller skating rink to celebrate, which is weird because a) I haven't been skating in years, and b) I don't even like roller skating. For some unexplainable reason, I brought the painting with me to the rink and left it on a bench nearby while skating. When I was done skating my heart out, I went to grab my painting and go--only to realize that when I touched the painting's surface, the varnish peeled off, taking the paint with it. I was horrified. The people around me were horrified. I think screaming was involved.

And then I woke up and nervously checked the status of my current works-in-progress to make sure that I had dreamed the whole thing.

Damn. Art nightmares are the *worst*.

My Two Favorite Places in Victoria, BC

So, as I said previously, I took a wee day trip up to Victoria, BC in ye ol' Canada on last Tuesday. Just me, my mum, and the nostalgia that is Victoria. I use to trek up there once a year way back in schooling days. It's been a long, long time.

My goodness, it was fun.

The Royal BC Museum is still one of my all-time fave museums. The following pics were all taken from there (I had literally 95 pictures taken from the BC Museum by the time I got home--mostly taken of the wildlife diorama displays...guess I like animals).I love the amount of details the wildlife dioramas have. They look so real, but because everything is still, they have an eeriness to them. I can only imagine the place at night after the crowds have gone home. Massively spooky.A stuffed deer wandering the likes of a fake forest...Different corals housed in glass curio cabinets.I want this little man carving. Seriously so. Want.One of the coolest things about this museum, is that on one floor, they've recreated an entire city street in half-scale as it would be at night (very much like a Mainstreet from Disneyland--only at night and put inside a building, if that makes sense). The windows are warmly lit, the theater is playing a Charlie Chaplin flick, some of the buildings you can even wander through and look at the period furnishings, hear horses walking the cobblestone streets, and even smell the food being baked in the kitchen. It's amazing, and one of those places that when you visit as a kid you never forget.
There's me, looking at neat artifacts from days long gone.

Then there's Miniature World. An entire museum devoted to miniatures. I've always loved this place immensely.Very mini people--no taller than 1/4". And yet, they're having a splendid time.The day......turns to night.

Neat, huh?

Also ate at some fabulous pubs, making me feel a bit like I was in London again.

Happy weekend, everyone! Hope it's a good one! I'll be busily working away in my studio--making prints, making paintings, taking pictures, and drinking lots and lots of coffee. :)