Buffy Fish Owl

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This Buffy Fish Owl was drawn from an open source reference photo. I wanted to try this owl in colored pencil. He looks so comfortable, resting on the end of that branch. But, just because he’s resting doesn’t mean he can’t swoop over the water for a fish at any second he chooses.

These interesting owls live in southeast Asia. They make more noise than most owls in flight, so their mode of fishing is to wait on low branches and catch their prey close to the surface or by wading in shallow water.

Shed in Winter

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This was from a demo of a shed in the line and wash technique. I really enjoyed doing this one for the “real” White Elephant gift exchange.

Snow and sky offer a great opportunity to see white in a very different way. White light is made up with all the colors in the spectrum. But with watercolor, mixing all the colors together shows black, not white. So the only way to show white in watercolor is to let the white paper show through. But left like that, the red shed, trees and wheels would just look like separate items drawn on white paper. But with the very little tint of blue in the sky and gray and tan on the snow, make this a snowy country setting. The gray, especially, shows the bumps and slope of the ground under the snow.

White Elephant

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We were asked to bring a White Elephant gift for a Christmas gift exchange. The gift was not to cost more than a few dollars. The idea of the game is to pile the gifts under the tree and each person, in turn, chooses a gift. If they like it, they can keep it. If they would rather a gift someone else has already gotten, they may exchange for that one. A gift can be exchanged 3 times and then the person who has it must keep it. So I decided to paint a white elephant and frame it. I thought whoever ended up with it probably would be disappointed in the gift. So, I also painted a Shed in a wintery scene and framed it behind the elephant. The laugh was on me, because the lady who received the while elephant loved it. When I showed her the real “gift” of the shed in winter, she said, “I want to keep the elephant in front.”

My Friends’ Cabin

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My friends have a cabin in the Blue Ridge Mountains not too far from where we live. They bought it to enjoy the countryside in all seasons. It is a retreat for them from the hustle and bustle of the suburbs where their home is. They also use it to invite friends and family to share holidays and to have a place to share life and dreams and faith.

I wanted to memorialize this cabin for them with this painting. Landscapes and buildings are an area of art, I want to develop. It is not something I’m proficient in, but I do want to use my art to remember places and experiences I’ve had in the past.

Thank you, Friends, for sharing your cabin and your life with others.

Monarch Butterfly

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I have loved the Monarch Butterfly since I first learned about them while I was in Girl Scouts. You find them around milkweed. They can eat up to 200 times their weight in the milkweed leaves. Their beautiful colors warn predators that they are poisonous to them. But the most amazing thing about these beautiful butterflies is that they migrate from northeast USA and Canada to southwest Mexico over 3,000 miles each year.