Blue Tanager in the Candelabra

 Oil on Linen 8x10.  Latest edition to my bird/flower series.  The Candelabra flower is from a photo shot at the UC Berkeley Botanic Gardens.

August Oil Painting Progress Report: 3 Finished 2 Nearly Done and 1 Just Begun

 Finished Works:

1.  One Flew Over the Puffin Tryst:  Oil on Belgian Linen 18x18x1 1/4

2.  The Courtship:  Oil on canvas 20x24x1 1/2

6.  Sunflowers & Hibiscus:  Oil on canvas 8x10x 1 1/2

Nearly Done:

3.  Capped Parrot in Mendocino:  Oil on Belgian Linen 22x28x 1/1/4

4.  A Lot Going On (Cartoon style):  Oil on Linen 12x16x 5/8

In Process:  

5.  Bird Lovers:  Oil on Belgian Linen 22x28x 1 1/4

Bird on a Bough

 8 x 10 x 1 1/4" oil on stretched canvas.  The bird might be wondering what in the world is happening to us right now between fire, poor air quality, running out of water, poor governance, viruses run amok and a general state of dystopia.

Another original repainted to become a new original

Influenced by Piet Mondrian

Bird

I was having a bummer of a monoprint class at KALA last night and three away 3 prints and one failed chine colle.  Finally, I reverted to my favorite theme - birds!  This print came out OK.  11x14 charbonnel oil ink on a plastic plate.  Messy process but can be fun.

Free Bird Evolution

In 2005 I painted the bottom picture of a bird.  The painting is 100% digital.   I liked it.  So, the next year, in 2006, I painted the same subject as an oil painting.  Now that I'm exploring paper collage, I decided to revisit my old favorite subject, and created the top picture in yet another medium.

Red Bird in Plaid Landscape

New mixed media piece 14"w x 11 1/4"h.  Paper collage with photo of drought dry California soil and wild grass cut up into a plaid pattern and glued on watercolor paper.  Paper, digital photograph print, watercolor, gouache, acrylic. 

Bluebird of Happiness Mixed Media Artwork

I thought I'd create some interesting art with grandsons Wilson and Cole Taylor when they were visiting, but Wilson only drew a few items on this sheet of 24" w x 18" h watercolor paper.  The twins were too busy playing in the creek to do much art.  Now that I've finally finished the latest quilt (with eighty separate 2 1/2" x 2 1/2" photos appliqued into it) - more on that later, I thought I'd follow whatever quirky thing manifested itself and do some more work on paper.  I ended up with this mixed media piece which includes pencil, graphite, ink, watercolor, gouache, acrylic and various papers, including some old printed photos.  It represents a lifetime of seeking the Bluebird of Happiness.

Something Kooky

"Bird Girl," a little acrylic and oil painting on 8x10 fabric on board.  Repainting old never finished work sometimes takes an unusual turn.

Evolution of an Bird Inspired Idea

I seem to flit from media to media, as evidenced by the evolution of the above bird art.
From the bottom to the top:
1.  A 100% digital painting done in 2005, with an old painter software program.
2.  An oil painting done in 2006, recreating (kind of) the digital painting but adding a Vincent van Gogh sky.
3.  Another oil painting, this time in 2006, with a different bird and a pink cloud in the sky.  Sold to a friend.
4.  Fabric applique of a crow drawing in 2016, on a T shirt.
5.  The same applique crow, under a pink cloud and starry night sky, now done by cutting up photos and adding various bits of ripped Mulberry papers, all glued onto 100% arches cotton watercolor paper - just finished yesterday.

Hard Working Woodpecker

I did a double take when I noticed how many acorns this industrious woodpecker and his pal had drilled into this neighborhood utility pole.

Debris Photo Quilt Creatures

Working on some new creature designs made with digital photo quilts, created out of 2"x 2" square cuts composited from 16 themed photos.  The four above are a cat, giraffe, emu and a larger cat cut from a collage of street debris and steel road plate photos.

A Story of Three Quilts

Quilting takes a looooong time, at least for me.  Here is the story of these three new quilts:

Top #1:  Florida Spoonbill, 85 1/2" long x 80" wide.  I started this quilt a year ago and only finished it last month.  Then it was too big for me to photograph, so I took it to the exceptional Jay Daniel at Black Cat Studio (link here), which took a bit more time.   The quilt was put together in 9 pieces to accommodate my small Bernina sewing machine, and is intended to represent the elusive spoonbill in a Florida swamp, with the blue sky above.  I stopped planning as much as I had with my earlier quilting efforts and cut and sewed most of this quilt without doing too much measuring.  I also learned to cut and sew curves.  I went to Florida in 2014, to Singer Island, looking for a Spoonbill, but never found one in the flesh so had to create my own.  The brown & blue batik fabric in the quilt was brought back from India, where I had the good fortune to buy it directly from the Mundra artist, Shakil Khatri, who designed it.  This was the 3rd quilt I made with his beautiful fabrics. Unfortunately, I sold the 1st one before getting it photographed.

Middle #2:  Amber's Marathon Quilt, 85 1/2" long x 72 1/2" wide.  This quilt contains only about 1/3 of all the winning T shirts won by my marathon running daughter.  Sewing stretchy jersey was a pain, as was the dot minky fabric backing.  To personalize the piece, I took photos on various trip to Seattle of Amber's awards and sewed those fabric photos into the quilt, along with various drawings I did of running shoes.  It came out a bit lopsided, so you can tell it is hand made!

Bottom #3:  Albion Bird in Window, 30 1/2 x 30 1/2.  Now that I'm taking a lot of photographs, my desire is to do something practical with them, such as printing them on fabric and sewing them into quilts.  This is one such example, having taking various photos of the windows in a shed in Albion.  I combined the photos then added an applique and embroidered bird before quilting the entire piece.  This is a new wall hanging format, rather than my traditional 'lounge on the couch' size.

Bird Quilt

Latest cotton quilt, measuring 47" wide x 67" high featuring wool-punched birds, free style quilting, digital blue jay photo prints on cotton percale, larger original images printed by Spoonflower, various commercial fabrics, machine stitched.  Front, detail and back featured

What Bird's See

More Ibiza Paintings

Two more watercolors I did on vacation in Ibiza in July:  Model in Red Leather and Ibiza Bird.