March of the Ents

As I mentioned earlier, last month I spent a day traipsing about the Hoh Rainforest here in WA and got a little snap-happy with the camera.It's such a magical and surreal place, and gave me a lot of inspiration and ideas (as well as way too many reference images for future paintings). What slays me most is that mere minutes away is the beautiful coast as well. So much diversity in my little homeland!Lots of hanging mosses and lichens......tangled tree roots growing over long-dead and decomposed nurse logs......greens in every hue imaginable...

Yup. Pretty neat. I saw many little critters while there, including some of my favorite invertebrates to doodle:And though I saw a few native Douglas squirrels about, not too many were albinos with fabric collars...
Happy weekend, gang!

Zombie Blog

Good gravy.

I had absolutely no intention of taking such a long blog land siesta. There's been so much going on 'round here this summer, plus a lot of settling into a routine (or trying to, at least) that I just haven't had a lot of spare time. But, zombie blog, I hereby resurrect thee! Live! Live, damn you!

So, what have I been up to as of late? Well, for starters, there have been a few lovely little day and overnight trips to local wonders. For the first time, I took a day trip to the nearby Hoh Rainforest and it was...incredible. It was actually very hard for me to leave. It's such a surreal, majestic, and eery place. I can't believe I've lived in Washington all my life and never been there until now! I spend a lot of time at the coast, but I always forget that the Rainforest is just a few hours away.I took so many photos that I'll need to devote an entire blog post to them.

My 26th birthday (eek!) was way back in June and I spent it with my dear mom up at Mt. Rainier for an overnight trip. It was wonderfully relaxing and inspiring, and there was so much wildlife out and about--I even saw 4 foxes and a sweet litter of fox kits! The mountain can be rather unpredictable, especially in the spring months, so I only glimpsed the summit briefly on the second day but never got a good shot of it (though, on clear days, I'm lucky enough to see it from where I live).

I loved how moody the various mountain peaks looked in between the dark clouds and fog... There are so many gorgeous hikes up there as well. The streams and rivers were gushing with the spring snow melts.

I'm also still busily volunteering at the wildlife shelter. There's never a dull day there! I've handled everything from bald eagles and barred owls, to coyote pups and weasels, baby hummingbirds and blue herons, fauns and raccoon kits, and so many baby birds that I now have their constant calls for food permanently etched in my brain. I wish I had pictures of all the animals I feed and take care of there, but it's always so busy that there's never any time to grab the camera.

As with any rehab shelter, there's always the sad cases mixed in with the good (thankfully, more good than sad). My favorite juvenile bald eagle I fondly and secretly named Sir Charles had to be put down last month due to his wing injury (he had originally fallen from his nest in the wild), which was very sad indeed. He was a feisty character, with a very holier-than-thou attitude and I still kinda miss the dude. But on the other hand, a baby Rufous hummingbird I helped rehab was released a week ago and I couldn't be more thrilled and proud (hummingbirds generally have a pretty poor success rate).

Speaking of hummingbirds, last month I completed on a wedding invite commission donning the little buggers. I don't normally tackle commissions (largely due to time constraints and there's just way too many less-than-fond memories from my graphic design days) but this one was for a very dear friend who probably gives me more creative freedom than I deserve when it comes to these sorts of things.

I do love how these turned out. I went pretty crazy with the insides, which were also custom drawn and custom lettered with all of the reception details.

In other news, I'm still busily plowing through science and math prep courses for my Environmental Science major. It's exciting, interesting, fresh and new--and I love when I'm able to combine both my art background and expertise with my newly found science path. Drawing lab specimens is a helluva lot of fun.

Now that I've been able to sort of settle into a routine a bit better, I'm digging into the sketchbook a lot more and slowly getting back into the paints. I'm rather embarrassed I don't have a fully finished painting to share yet, but I'm hoping to remedy that soon! And I *do* have a new batch of original sketch brooches that I'm terribly excited about. Today I had a little photoshoot with the "Aviary Collection", as I've been dubbing them, and I think they may be my favorites to date.

Inspired by natural history museum collections, each one is a labor of love and dons an original drawing, red velvet ribbon, fabric snippets, gold enamel edges, 30s newspaper on the back, and even a miniature handwritten tea-dyed specimen identification tag that can be left on or easily removed as you fancy. They also each come in small decorative gift boxes.
The amount of time I put into these is borderline ridiculous, but I love them each so much (the turkey vulture and egret are my faves). Each one will run $25 and will be available in the shop on Monday!I think it's high time I work out some painting details. Thank you for sticking with my uneventful blog, gang! I'll try to be better about the updates. :)

Oh, The Roads We Travel Down

Hello there, stranger.

I do apologize for the quietness. There's been a lot of happenings 'round these parts as of late. Lots of changes and new paths as well.

First and foremost, I've finally (!) listed the first of I hope many paintings of a new collection of work I hinted at earlier (the sketch of the first piece is above). I'm taking my time with this series because I have so many ideas for paintings for it and I really don't want to burn myself out before I can finish them all (which tends to happen frequently if I give myself a firm deadline). I'm literally bursting at the seams with painting ideas! A brief synopsis of the ongoing collection:

"The Hall of Mystics:

The natural world has always been a big passion and interest of mine (as seen in my work), and I view it with a sense of complete awe, wonder, and intrigue. No matter how deeply we study and explore it, parts will always remain a mystery and we will always be strangers, pilgrims, explorers within. The Hall of Mystics is, at heart, about that very idea: a clash of nature, mysticism, art history, symbolism, and with an overhanging wispy cloud of moodiness that we can only dream of penetrating."This little fella has been done for a few weeks now and thankfully, is now in the shop and ready for a new wall to call home.

Mystic Whale
7x5", frame dimensions are 11.5x9.5"

acrylic on hardboard w/ gold composite leaf details

{ sold }

Quite a few of the paintings in this series will have gilding--some of my most intricate gold leaf work to date (it can be challenging to work with, but I'm getting better at it). I just love how much depth, symbolism, and moodiness it gives to a piece. It fits the overall theme of this collection quite nicely.

The second piece is about 75% done and requires a few more sittings before I can varnish and frame it. A little hint at what it will be:{a stargazing time-lapse photo taken from my back deck late at night last month}

And now onto other equally important news I hinted at earlier in this post...


I'm three weeks into volunteering at a nearby wildlife rehabilitation center and it is *amazing*. Every week I go in, throw on the scrubs, and get to feed/help injured or abandoned wildlife and get them ready to release back into their environment.We rescue a wide variety of animals: eagles, owls, falcons, rabbits, opossums, squirrels, raccoons, ospreys, and other birds and small mammals. This week we even rescued a newborn river otter who was, unfortunately, stolen from her nest by a careless resident. She is the most adorable little thing (her eyes and ears are even still closed!) and will be in our care for quite a while until we can locate an adult otter to place her with (not an easy task, indeed). Lately, I've been involved in the constant feeding of 27 baby opossums, two resident owls, and several large bald eagles (who still amaze and thrill me every time I tiptoe into their cages to clean and feed).

Lastly, I also recently made a big decision to go back to school and study environmental science (with a specialization in marine ecology). Originally, I had thought that my college path would begin and end in the arts, but I've long felt like I should be doing and learning *more*. And next to art, nature (especially the ocean) has always been my biggest interest and passion. I spent a large chunk of my childhood growing up on the sea (my dad lived on a sailboat) and I do believe that saltiness and early exposure to the wonders of the environment played a huge role in shaping me into the person I am today. Of course, even as I tumble down the science path, I will continue to be a working artist. I will continue to paint and peddle my work until the day I die (I'd like to be cremated with my pencils and brushes, thank you very much). But at the same time, I'd like to dive into that underlying passion that my art is based off of: the natural realm.

I admit, the financial obligation is a little scary (I'm *almost* done paying off my student loans for my BFA...) but I'm excited not only in where this decision will lead me as a person, but also where my art will take off to! Both of these pursuits are so intertwined in my little world.

I must be off to do some painting as well as study for a test in my statistics class tomorrow (Bring. It. On.). Thank you so much for your love and support, for believing in me and my art, and for coming along on my little adventures in life.

I'll be back soon with more sneaky peeks at the new paintings (promise!). :)

{ the animal photos are courtesy of West Sound Wildlife Shelter }

The Ocean's Guest List

I thought I'd redo the blog banner for a nice change to go with the new year. And, I just put a small handful of drawings up for grabs in the shop!

"Guest 1" {sold}

"Intruder 1" {sold}

"Guest 2"

"Intruder 2" {sold}

There's a little armada of half-finished paintings piling up on my desk and while I've been working out the details, this series of drawings emerged. They're each 5x7" and are done in graphite on paper with hand-painted details. I've noticed that when I'm at a loss for something to draw, I tend to do lots of coral and starfish scribbles. They're just really fun to do.

I also have a lot of new prints to unleash onto the world. There were quite a few paintings completed/sold last year that I wanted to make prints of but never had the time. Better late than never, I suppose! I think as I filter in some new prints into the shop, I'll start to phase out some of the older ones. Freshen things up a little.

Anyway, I hope all's well!

Sketchbookery

The final pages of my current sketchbook are filling up and it's nearly time to put the book away and start a'fresh in a new one! Despite the somewhat lousy paper inside (I think it was made with writing paper--which means that many sketches in the beginning of the book are badly smudged and smeared, leaving me no other choice but to paste in good drawing paper for sketching in the latter half of the book), it's served me well over the past year.

I sketched this coral branch in graphite and then tinted it with red acrylic ink for an old tinted lithograph look. A wash of walnut ink surrounds it.For my new sketchbook, I snatched up one of these (the landscape-style book) from Dick Blick:
I'm a sucker for landscape-style sketchbooks, so it will be nice to once again be drawing away in one. Can't wait for the new year!

The Drawing Closet

After more than a week of rather uncooperative and stormy weather, at last the clouds lifted for a bit today. No sign of the sun, but I'll take whatever light I can get. So, I grabbed my camera and had a nice photo shoot session with a few little drawings I did the other day. Unfortunately, I don't think I'll be able to get any new paintings listed online before the holidays as I'm just too busy working on pieces for the Seattle show.

But!

These drawings (and some others I'm digging away at in-between the painting sessions) are going up for grabs online. They're each originals, so once they're gone...they're gone.

"Birds Of A Feather..."
graphite on paper
4.5 x 9.5"

{detail}

"Nudibranch"
graphite on paper
3.5 x 2.5" ACEO {sold}

"Good Tidings"
graphite on paper
2.5 x 3.5" ACEO

Alrighty! Back to the drawing table I sneak (literally). All you stateside peeps, can you believe Thanksgiving is this week? Me neither.

Found

After months of keeping a keen eye on a tall fir tree in my backyard, I decided to climb it to obtain an abandoned bird's nest. I first spotted it back in the spring, but wasn't sure how old it was, if it was being used, or if it was abandoned. So I left it alone but watched for any signs of bird activity all summer long. No birdies claimed it, so I hiked 20 feet up the tree branches one rainy day this week to snag it for my own collection.

It's a beauty. Perfectly entwined twigs and grasses, with remnants of leaves and flower blossoms tucked inside. It's still pretty damp from the rain so I currently have it in the garage drying out a bit.Someone, though, had to check it out for herself.After a lot of sniffing and prodding, the nest has passed the cat's inspection and all is right with the world.I also found some great little mushrooms out back that made for a perfect day of sketching and studying.
These little ones are very small and spindly--the caps measuring roughly the size of a fingernail.
Back to the pencils and paints I go! Happy Friday and enjoy your Halloween festivities, folks! I'm hoping to trek out to my favorite old movie theater for a night of horror film classics, candy, and costumed frivolities. Can't wait!