Raven Comes To Call

My raven was drawn on grey paper with Prismacolor colored pencils. He is a little short and squat but I choose to think of him as puffed up. Posting for Sunday Sketches today. If you are part of that group I invite you to come back on Friday and share something for Express Your Creativity.

A Fall Trip To Yellowstone

Our new trailer has been in the shop for months. So when we finally got it back we immediately headed up to Yellowstone Park.

Here I am with Bell in Lamar Valley. This is one place where we look for wolves.  I saw more wolves than I ever have before.  The one we saw here was close, you could see it without the aid of binoculars or spotting scopes. One day we saw 17 wolves out of a pack of 24. That was all through a scope far away. That was pretty awesome. I had never seen more than 7 wolves before so this was pretty special.  Also got to hear the howl of wolves.  There really is nothing like hearing that. It really calls to me on a different level.

This Raven sat on the picnic table next to our campsite and talked to me.  He was huge but the picture doesn't show that at all.

Elk Bull, can you see all the dirt on him.  During the rut(mating season) they urinate on the ground and then roll in it. I guess it makes them smell just like the cows want them too.

We saw these two young bulls going at it right in the city of Mammoth.

They connected there antlers but they were really just playing.  We thought we were going to see an elk fight but it did not happen. Later on we saw an Elk through our scopes that had been in a fight. It looked like he had puncture wounds in his side.

There is a rest stop on the Idaho Montana border. If you don't look you might miss these sculptures. They were hard to photograph but well worth seeing.

You can see the sun shining through the spots on this Appaloosa horse.

This last one shows the whole train of people walking. It was quite fun to see. Some great art right on the side of the road. I loved it.  I like it when I can find little surprises when traveling.

A Raven in Charcoal

I added this raven to the page with compressed charcoal.  The background was a gelli print that was embellished with a lot metallic gelatos. It didn't scan very well. The colors are pretty vibrant in real life,

Linking to Art Every Day Month

Sunday Sketches

I hope you are all having a wonderful Sunday.  Wow my second post in a day, that does not happen too often.  Today's sketch is one of my raven buddies.  I created him with charcoal pencil. The pencil sharpener I had with me was not working well so I couldn't sharpen my pencils. Its hard to make definitive lines with a dull pencil but I think it turned out ok.

Check out what other sketchers have done at the Alex's blog Blue Chair Diary.

Jackson Hole Art Festival

When I found out that my friend Jessie Marianiello was going to be a vendor at the Jackson  HoleArt festival I had the perfect opportunity to meet her.  Dave was a willing participant so we planned to go to Jackson for the day.  Its only 100 miles away so it was easy to do.  We spent time at the festival and then headed to Grand Teton National Park for some awesome scenery.

Here we are in front of the most gorgeous painting of a horse.  I was mesmerized by its beauty. She told me the it was a wild horse.
















Here she is next to her beautiful painting. I think she really captures the horse's essence.

After visiting with Jessie for awhile we headed out to see the rest of the show.  I was surprised to run into another friend.  Judy Colvin sold me my first sheep Emily.  She now does nuno felting and became a milliner. She makes felted and straw hats and is a regular at the show.  I love wonderful surprises like that.

Here is what I came home with; a raven for my garden which is mostly weeds this year.  I think he looks quite at home.

You know meeting people on the internet and following their lives for years is quite its own reward but then meeting them in person is like icing on the cake. What a delight it was to meet Jessie.  Her paintings were even more beautiful in person. She is such an amazing talent. You can see her work on her website Stray Dog Arts.  Do yourself a favor and go look in her gallery she paints the most amazing dogs, cats and now horses too.

There Be Crows and Ravens Here

 I found these videos online and loved them.  First you learn how to draw a crow and then to paint one in watercolor.






So I had to go and try this out. I so love crows and ravens so this tutorials were great for me. I have drawn and painted them before but they have not been very realistic.

 



 Here is my drawing I did while watching the video. It is pretty easy if you follow his directions.

 


 This is the painting, now there are a ton of things wrong with it but I like it anyways.  In fact it is the best bird I have ever done. So what has this exercise taught me? Well I think for one how to draw a bird and the courage to paint it in watercolor. Now I want to do some in paint. It was quite fun.

When I was in Oregon I saw these flags In a book store.  They were not selling them but they gave me the artists website.  So I looked up the artist and after some emails I was able to find a place to buy these. Cindy Shake from Alaska does some fantastic stuff. I may have to order some of her raven inspired fabrics.

These flags are all different and have been silkscreened onto cotton fabric.  I haven't figured out where I will hang them yet. So I just draped them to get some pictures.

I love how each one is different, they all have their own personalities. Have you ever seen something and knew you had to have it?  There was no question that I would have these, no matter what they cost. Things can be funny that way. These little flags give me such pleasure to look at them.

Finished Painting

I thought I would show more work in progress shots on this painting I have been making. To see the beginnings of this see the previous post.

Sometimes the differences are hard to see but other times I think you will be able to see changes that I have made.

I tried making a movie of all the shots but it didn't work and I am not sure why so we are stuck with stills for this project,

Here is my finished version. I hadn't started out attempting a self portrait but she seems like one to me.  The raven is a totem animal of mine so you will see her often in my work.  In addition she may be the beginnings of character in one of the books I wrote for Nanowrimo. Or at least a sign to work on that story. For now she will be called Branwen although that character is a cross between a raven and a woman so she will look different when I really do paint her.

It interesting how art evolves.  When I started this canvas I wanted to do a woman and a bird. Then I gave up the idea and just started with a background and decided to see what developed and here I now have what was my original idea. I decided that its part of my process when I create.  I do this in writing too, I can't have it all planned out or I shut down.  I need to be able to just have it flow and let it evolve into what it will be. She was painted on and 11 X 14 gallery wrapped canvas. I used acrylics, spray inks, stencils and masks, WC crayons and a stablio pencil for final details.

Do you find that your art tells you something about yourselves?

Raven Circle Journal

My friend Palma posted this video on Facebook and oh I love the art in it. Eight journals, eight artists and the theme Ravens.  Enjoy.

Sunday Sketches

This is my drawing for Sunday Sketches. It was drawn in a moleskine watercolor journal. I started it a week ago and finished it up today. I used Pitt artist pens in black and grey. It is from a drawing I did of a raven previoiusly. I just traced the image, added details and then all the patterns. I think with the rings around his eyes he looks sort of fierce.

To see what other sketchers are doing go on over to Blue Chair Diary and check them out.

Ravens on a Bench

I took a walk on the greenbelt and came across this bench. A few years ago a number of artists designed these benches for around the river. They have a rattlesnake, an appaloosa horse and some geese and a fish.  Since I love ravens and crows so much you know this has to be my favorite.

From a distance they really look like real ravens. The problem is they are made out of thin metal.  I figure some kid is going to break it off before long.  I wanted pictures before that happened.



Here you can see where they put a mosaic on the bench to look like the birds shadow.  I thought it was pretty cool.  I was going to come back and take pictures of all the benches to add to this post but the weather has not been cooperating.  We have rain forecast for the rest of the week so those pictures will have to wait.

Here is the journal page I did today. Sometimes the sadness of Japan just gets to me. I turn to art at those times and try to work my way through it and out to the light.

Simple Womens Daybook

I haven't done one of these in awhile so today seem like a good day to start again.

 You can go here to read some more Daybook Entries.

FOR TODAY

Outside my window...   the sun is shining, skies are blue with just a few clouds it is one of those really beautiful late summer days.

I am thinking… that I when I act like an artist I really am one.  I let go of those inhibitions and can just create and that feeling is so wonderful.

I am thankful for...  .all my blogging friends, they inspire me so.  I was reading Lis blog today and she was talking about Creative Awakenings and I thought I need to get back to that.  Way back when the book came out I bought the little meditation that goes with it. I just haven't made the time to listen and go through the process.  Lis's post made me just go do it.

From the kitchen...I am cooking some breakfast while I type, big mistake as I just burned the bacon, oh well sometinmes uou have to take those hard crusty parts of life along with the sweet tender ones.

I am wearing...my cranberry colored pajama pants that has white scroll designs on them and a tshirt that does not match at all.

I am creating...my intention for September.,  it is to be a fearless artist, more on that later.

I am going...to go to town to get a new print cartridge.  I want to finish printing out my Nanorimo novel from 2008 since I have decided this is the story I'd like to work on. I started printing last night and only got 59  of the 91 pages printed before the ink cartridge died.

I am reading...or maybe I should say re-reading Eat Pray Love and finding it even better the second time.  There are so many insights for me this time around.

I am hearing...the hum of the refrigerator and a farm truck going down the street

Around the house...cleaning to be done but that can wait, too many other fun things to do.

One of my favorite things...  is sitting in my garden looking at all the wonderful prayer flags just blowing in the breeze and thinking of those friends who made them.

A few plans for the rest of the week:  A checkup with my physician on Tuesday, an Art date with my friend Jolene on Wednesday,   lunch with a friend on Thursday and making Art every day. Sounds like a wonderful week.

Here are some pictures I am sharing…

Some views from my trip last weekend.










It rained most of the day but the mountains were soon covered in snow. This is at Jenny Lake.










Then of course I have to shoot pictures of Ravens whenever I see them.

and a close up, you think ravens are black until you can see them really close up. There are brown and blue and even white feathers in there.

I bought this print at one of the gift shops in the park. I thought this raven couple was so cute. Someday I hope to get shots as good as this one.

Here is the collage page I did as part of my Fearless intention for the Creative Awakenings process.  The other thing you do is write about what you chose and so forth and I found the process to be very enlightening. I ended up writing two pages about this collage.  The color red is really predominant.  I kept being drawn to it over and over. I was able to see how each image had a message for me. What a great exercise.

Gone to the dogs

It was bring your animals to church day. I had not known about it so Flynn did not come to church with me. During the service I drew a Raven. Most of the pets were dogs and they all seemed to sit in the same part of the sanctuary. When a song was finished or an important point made it seemed like one of the dogs would bark just once as though they were saying well done.

There was a ritual and all the animals received a tag to wear with a prayer for them. It was pretty cool. So Raven got his own tag and I took some home for the cats, sheep, owls and Flynn. I have hung my pets tags with my prayer flags in my backyard.

This morning the magpies were attacking the owls. Unfortunately I think the mama owl has been feeding the branchlings baby magpies.  The Owl are getting big and we figure pretty soon they will be gone.  Sure wish we had noticed them earlier.












I never tire of looking at these guys and taking pictures of them.

International Migratory Bird Day

On the spur of the moment we headed to West Yellowstone for International Migratory Bird Day.  The Yellowstone Grizzly and Wolf Discovery Center and Yellowstone National Park were doing a joint program on Raptors, Ravens and the birds of Yellowstone.  They had a bird walk early in the day so we missed that.

This is a western screech owl, it was so cute I wanted to take it home.  It had been hit by a car and lost sight in one eye.  It can't live in the wild so its an Owl ambassador now.
















Here is the naturalist AJ with a roughed  leg hawk.

















He was such a beautiful bird,  He had a broken wing so he too can not live in the wild.  Some of his feathers don't grow right because of it.











Then we saw a Great Horned Owl.














AJ and Great Horned owl.  Now the story of the Great Horned Owl is interesting.  He has imprinted on humans.  He was calling to us all through the presentation.

We also saw a presentation on Ravens, my favorite bird. It covered all the Raven lore from different cultures, about all the science and the relationships that Ravens have with wolves and Grizzly Bears.  It was a wonderful presentation.  They have no live birds though.  We had to go outside for them.










When we walked outside I saw these four ravens sitting on the top of the sign.  I snapped a quick picture. After a nice lunch in town we headed into the park and saw these.












We saw these Elk cows standing in the river.  This was so unusual that I took a picture of them,  You usually see Elk on the shore.  We know that Elk sometimes go stand in a river when there are wolves around but we did not see any of them.  It was a great day trip but I wish we could have stayed longer.

















I felt like sketching so this is what I did.  I had a wonderful Mothers Day.  I hope you did too!