Hummingbird photos

Hummingbird happy dance!

This is the time of year when we start to see young Hummingbirds in the garden, they love the scarlet runner beans and sitting in the apple tree watching the other birds at the seed feeders. Yesterday was drizzly and cool most of the day and last evening a little guy sat on the feeder for a good half an hour, sipping sugar water and looking around my garden..was almost dark before he flew up into the apple tree where I presume he spent the night.

This fellow sat right above me on the clothesline "digesting" his sugar syrup lunch.

and I have loaded a photo of a Cardinal on my photo page - a pair have been coming to the feeder almost constantly for the last 2 weeks grabbing seeds for feeding to some babies they have hidden away somewhere.

J

New pages, new photos and CANDY!

I have a couple of new pages added. One is a collation of Work In Progress photos so that you don't have to weed through all the chat to see the progression of a piece from start to finish, and one is a page with E-packets that I have for sale.

I've also put up a few more photos on the wildlife page, I got lucky last week with some "neighbours" of ours..and I have a few new backyard birdie shots that will be coming in a day or so.

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My trusty Nikon D300S hasn't just been busy taking bird and flower shots, I usually spend a fair bit of time in the summer shooting still-life set-ups of seasonal fruit and veggies that I eventually plan on using as paintings (someday...I have enough to keep me going for a while LOL)  A while ago I purchased some irresistibly photogenic cherries in Cedar Springs on the Lake Erie north shore (down home to me) and spent a pleasant afternoon arranging and re-arranging them.

Tomorrow I am making relish from the cucumbers that are growing fast and furious in my garden - they love all the rain we have been having lately - and once I get that out of the canning pot I am going to start a little ATC sized rendering of the 2 cherries pictured above which I plan to use as my first blog freebie!

...for those of you who work in CP's  I will put together a little instructional packet  that you can have totally free for the asking...and  I will be also giving the finished ATC away as blog candy to one lucky person who leaves a comment!....more info once I get the piece finished and the packet typed.

...until then, enjoy the new photos!

J

Woot! Woot! Lucy is finally finished!

She has actually been done for a couple of weeks now, but with summer activities I just haven't gotten around to processing photos or updating either my blog or Facebook page until today. There are about 35 different pencil colours listed in my notes, some used heavily like Gingeroot (and white of course) and others that I only used in one specific area to add that little "something" that was needed. I can't wait to see her framed up!

I have also completed another piece that I will be teaching at Krafty Kennedys in London Ontario this September. You can visit my Classes and Seminars page for more info if you are interested in attending.

Trompe L'oeil Day Lily

The ref for this Burgundy/Orange day lily is out of my garden, it is the only summer flowering day lily that I have other than large masses of "ditch lillies" on each side of the stairs up to our deck. I brought this plant with us when we moved to this house, it is quite an old variety and much more delicate in form than some of the newer plants.

Most of our ditch lilies are the usual orange but we have one small area of the patch that produces double or actually triple lilies that are quite spectacular.

I tried cross pollinating these with the burgundy lilies and small pods did form but for some reason they have shrivelled and turned brown,  I guess I will have to try that experiment again next year!

My camera has been busy this summer, whether we are away or at home it is never too far away from me.  I have spent the better part of the day today processing the few hundreds of photos I have taken in the last month or so and some of them are now up on my photo pages. 

Here is one that I particularily like.

I'd love to hear your comments on my artwork or photography!

I'm not sure what is next for me in the studio, I think I may switch over to acrylics for a while or maybe oils...well, maybe not oils...I can just see Sherman walking through them! (((sigh))) He is 4 months old now and gets into everything!

Love my kitties!

J

2 New CP works plus a Lucy update

I guess I will start with the Lucy update, she is back on the drawing board now for a while but I still have a couple of commissions to complete as well so she might get bumped again!

...she certainly looks much better with a bit of fur around her face doesn't she!

The next 2 pieces will be used as teaching material,  I will also put them up on my Classes and Seminars page.

Sun-lit Peace Rose

 The ref for this is in my garden, it hasn't flowered as yet after having a rather slow start this spring but the bush seems to be coming along now and has a couple of good sized buds that will probably be out in a week or so.

Eye of the Tiger

I have been asked many times if I paint big cats and up to this point the answer has been no...I thought it was about time I gave it a go, the ref is from a photo on Wet canvas.

...and this is Sherman, my new studio kitten who I rescued a month or so ago and still haven't had any luck finding a home for. He is the sweetest little dear who just loves to be near me and has found "just the right spot" underneath my easel when I am working on a CP piece.

The shoemakers children?

You know the story about the shoemakers children that never have any shoes....well, poor Lucy has become something like that, not that she needs shoes LOL, but I keep having to put her aside for other things! (She actually does have a pair, or 2 pair rather, of expensive winter booties that we bought for her a couple of years ago thinking that they would help with the "snowballs" she gets in her toes in the winter, but if someone knows how to keep them on her feet short of double sided tape, which wouldn't be nice, I would love to know!!!)

I've been busy in the last month, there are always garden chores to be done, I am now faced with the pruning of all the shrubs and bushes and a 2nd wave of clean out of the perennial bed now that the iris have finished flowering. The garden always goes into a lull after the iris, there are some flowering plants (roses, clematis, bellflowers, primroses, loosetrife etc) but not quite the big colourful show of the spring. Just waiting on the black eyed susans, shasta daisies, garden phlox and echinacea (cone flowers) to come on to fill the garden with colour again. I can't believe how fast the summer is going!
...oh! and we already have tomatoes the size of my thumb in the veggie garden!

I ordered a custom made canoe with my prize money from my "Best of Show" this spring, we took delivery of it on June 16th and left on a canoe trip up to the Sauble river on July 20th.  We have stayed at Sauble Falls before and thought that the river might be a good baptism for the canoe, and a pair of "rusty"  paddlers, and it turned out to be a great decision.  The Sauble river above  the falls is about a 3 hr paddle before you get to the first "swift" and have to either end your trip or turn around and head back.  We only got out for a long paddle once because the weather just didn't cooperate but we will definitely go again. I am hoping to be able to get lots of pictures of shorebirds with a bit of luck!

This is a picture of Sauble Falls, our campsite was just on the other side of the bridge and right on the river so we just had to carry the canoe over, drop it in and start paddling.

The Sauble Falls, Ontario Canada

Our new Novacraft Canoe

One thing I especially like about Sauble Falls is that every time we have camped there we have had "friendly" chipmunks come to visit.  There were 3 (I think there were only 3?) this year that would all come right up and climb up our legs, sit on our laps for peanuts...and I came prepared for them with peanuts in shell and shelled. 

 This one is trying to stuff a 3rd double peanut in its shell in his pouch, he ended up just carrying it in his mouth back to where ever he was storing his "loot"

 Helping himself (note to self, don't leave the peanut bag out on the table unattended)



"Please Sir, May I have some more?"

...and this fellow we called Alvin...who would spar with the Chippies for peanuts but was

also happy to gobble down some cat chow

As I said, the weather didn't actually cooperate while we were at Sauble Falls, I honestly have never seen (or heard) rain so heavy! My husband had to stand outside under the awning with a broom pushing the water off the canopy and also sweeping the water away from the trailer.... rainwater runs downhill of course and having a campsite next to the river meant by the time it got to us it was a river of its own! (Lucy was not amused by the stormy weather) It was a good thing that the weather was slightly less than best because I had work to do on the easel...I started 2 new pieces that I have since completed...but it is getting late so I will save those for another post...plus I do have some progress on Lucy also! LOL 

Cheers!

J



Lucy update and a morning in the garden

Lucy finally has a completed face!  I know it seems like she is taking a long time...and unfortunately she is.  You only get so many days in the spring to get the "chores" done, this spring has been especially challenging due to the poor weather we have had. Now that some heat has arrived everything is literally growing before our eyes. ....and that includes the inevitable grass and weeds that find their way into the perennial beds every year, and I just have to get them removed before they set seed.

 Have you ever heard the old adage "one year of seeding makes for 7 years of weeding"

...when I was travelling to conventions I was gone in the spring to Pennsylvania and Toronto in late April or early May and then to SDP Nationals late May or early June ..... which is of course prime weed seeding time so (((sigh))) I am still doing battle although it's not nearly as bad as a few years ago when we took up to 5 landscape trailers of growth to the public compost pile . LOL
 
However most of the work is done, I still have to thin out a few overgrown perennials (Obediant plant is not very obediant!) and then we can lay the bags of mulch waiting to smother any remaining seeds.

Here is Lucy:
Most of the critical work is done, the contouring of her facial structure was tricky in a few places and it was slow going but I can now move back over to the left side and work a little out of focus which will hopefully go a bit faster.  I am finding the heat is changing the application of the pencils, they are much more fluid than when they are cooler, and the humidity made the paper buckle so badly that I had to untape all but one edge.

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Regardless of the chores and other demands on my time, the light in the garden was just "perfect" yesterday morning and I had to take the time to shoot photos of the newly opened flowers. I had one camera focused most of the morning on one iris opening which was an interesting experiment, I haven't processed those yet but I invite you to visit my Floral page to see a few more flowers from my garden! 

My Modem is on the fritz!

Hi All!

Just wanted to leave a short note to ask you to not give up on me...our modem is on it's last gasp and has worked very haphazardly the last week or so and until we get it resolved I won't be uploading any photos as I am (((sshhhhhh))) using the neighbours unsecured network!
Lucy is coming along when I have the time, but mostly I am working in the garden when it is not raining. The veggie garden is all in, the front beds are planted as are all the pots in the shade garden next to the patio, next to tackle is the rose garden and the perennial bed!
Once we get the internet issues resolved I will post some pics of the garden and my progress on Lucy!

J