sunshine and umbrella pines-Concetta Flore

An unusual color pattern, the dark pines growing in a field of wheat, still bright green given the season. This watercolor was a nice challenge as a research for the different green shades. Have a nice spring!

Courting Pigeons

 

We've just spent a week camping in the Loire valley and our first stop was at Saumur where the campsite was on an island in the middle of the river with lovely views of the chateau. Being a nature sketcher I found the smaller views much easier to draw than the turrets of the castle!

Another Red-winged Blackbird

I think I could sit at the redwing pond ten days in a row and hope for more.  As it is we've gone to the pond three times this spring and I wish for more.

When the light is right I see his breath drifting is lazy swirls in the still frosty air.  It reminds me of some femme fatal smoking her cigarette in a 1940s movie.  The magic formula is a cold morning, the redwing and his breath should be backlit with morning sunshine.  For his breath to really pop, the background should be in shadow.

I got this sketched and nearly finished the paint part on location.  Finished it up a few days later at home.

Sooo...why do they call these "goldfinch"?

This guy looks like he should be called a lemon finch, or a jonquil finch...

And they're not QUITE in full summer yellow yet, but some are almost there...this one still has a bit of olive-y on his back and belly...

(NO idea why Blogger is making this so gray...it looks fine in the scan, with a nice white background...)

(NOTE to self and anyone else who's having issues: I did fix it, it was a Google + issue--unchecked "enhance graphics" and all is well.  Gee thanks, Google.)

Anemone coronata

"Anemone coronaria - Poppy anemone" - Watercolor on Magnani sketchbook

According to the Oxford English Dictionary, Greek anemone means "daughter of the wind". The "Metamorphoses" of Ovid tells that the plant was created by the goddess Venus when she sprinkled nectar on the blood of her dead lover Adonis.
The name "wind flower" is used for the whole genus .
The Anemone coronaria grows wild all over Israel and Jordan.
In 2013 Anemone coronaria was elected as the national flower of the State of Israel, ina pool arranged by the Society for Protection of Nature in Israel.

Spring Azaleas

 At long last we have warm weather in the lowcountry of South Carolina.  Just last week the azaleas popped.

I didn't have to go far to find a scene to paint.  This is right in our neighborhood near the golf course.


This spread is in my 'Book of Trees' - a Stillman and Birn Zeta Series journal.  Love this paper!

The challenge when painting plein air is remembering the lighting that first caught your eye.  Two and a half hours went by before I had a completed page to photograph.  Oh well, you get the idea....

Red-winged Blackbirds

One of my favorite sounds of springs are red-winged blackbirds singing in a marsh.  They make my heart sing too.  The females hadn't arrived yet, but three males were busy tuning up their vocal cords getting ready for the ladies arrival.  Sketched on location at a little pond near here that the birders have named 'chevy Pond.'  A large pond, Ford's Pond, is directly across the road.  Chevy Pond seemed like a good name for the little pond.