Showing posts with label watercolor. Show all posts
Showing posts with label watercolor. Show all posts

Thursday, June 15, 2017

A new series of native pollinators

I've begun a new series on native pollinators. All circular images are 5.25 inches across. I believe it is very important as a nature artist to spend numerous hours out in the field gathering reference material for  paintings.  I only work from my own reference material, so a painting already has many hours of work put in before pencil and paint ever touch the paper.

Update: All Paintings are now framed.
All paintings in circular mat & wood frame 10x10" $184.00 each.

 Native bumblebee on aster, watercolor.
It is a challenge to capture clear photos to work from as bees and flies need to keep moving to gather pollen and sip nectar. 

 Tiger Swallowtail. 

 This is my personal favourite, a female sweat bee. This minuscule metallic green bee is a female, the male has a striped abdomen. These wee bees are hard to photograph as they are 0.12 to 0.40 inches, very tiny, so you can imagine why I love this painting. 

 Hummingbird Clearwing Moth. Found along the Whitemud nature preserve trail where I spent half an hour watching this moth and a swallowtail dine. These daytime moths hover while sucking nectar just like a hummingbird does.

 Hover fly.
I find delight in the variety of color and markings on these sweet little flies. Hover flies are beneficial pollinators and their larvae eat aphids.

Mountain Retreat, watercolor, 4x7.5 inches
This painting is of course not part of the series, its a style I was working off and on from over thirty years ago. Over the years I created various paintings this style but left off doing them in recent years as I saw so many other artists using the same idea. This piece was started long ago and never finished until this month.

Thursday, April 6, 2017

six hummingbirds off to the framers

Six new watercolor hummingbird paintings completed.
All are 4x6 framed in 8x10 metal frames.
Top four paintings are avaliable through
Ellis Bird Farm, Lacombe County, AB





Roufous Hummingbird, female
for purchase contact The Wildbird General Store.
Roufous hummingbird, male 
at The Wildbird General Store 


Sunday, January 22, 2017


 Mountain Gems, Roufous Hummingbirds
Metal Frame 11.75x 15.5",  at the Art Gallery of St Albert.

 Little Jewel, Roufous Hummingbird, male.
Wood Frame 12x10"

 Little Jewel, Roufous Hummingbird, female.
8.25x5.5 inches, watercolor
This hummer is flew off to a new home so she is no longer available.



Friday, November 25, 2016

Hummingbird Paintings

Tiny and territorial these beautiful birds arrive early spring in Alberta and BC, Canada, and winter in Mexico. Having the opportunity to watch and photograph these mini wonders of flight is a joy.
All these mini-paintings have flown off to new homes and are no longer available.

Summer Blossoms; Rufous Hummingbird, Female.
 7"x 8" Watercolor
Flew off to a new home.

"His Majesty" Rufous Hummingbird, Male 
5.75"x 5.75" Watercolor

The Queens Flight: Rufous Hummingbird, Female.
  5"x 7" Watercolor

Feisty Lady: Rufous Hummingbird, Female
5"x 7" Watercolor

Sky Dancer; Rufous Hummingbird, Male
 5"x 7" Watercolor

These hummingbirds have all migrated and are no longer available.

Sunday, April 24, 2016

Spring Blessings

Native crocus painted with watercolor and gouache, inspired by the blooms at Nisku Prairie.

Thursday, March 17, 2016

Free and loose water color

 Working on ideas for native wildflowers. Painted large on sheets of linen paper.

Bunchberry

 Blue Darner

Bumble bee with Shooting Stars

Friday, July 4, 2014

Semi-blind Contour

Buffalo Beans
Semi-blind contour drawing with watercolor wash, painted on location.
Emerson Bridge Alberta