On this, the day before the day before . . . wishing all good wishes for the coming new year.

Appropriate to the season and weather, I've begun a little snowy, frosty, wintery work.

Ho, ho, ho! Be careful out there. Never know who you might run into at this time of year!


Merry Christmas to all, and to all . . . a good flight, and good sight, and good night.

Finally back to some studio time. This little guy, the new panda cub at the National Zoo, just begged to be drawn! An early morning visit to the zoo this past Thursday brought much good reference of him and his mom.

Yes, it has been a few days! Been busy with Holiday stuff and cleaning up. Should return to studio work in earnest, soon. Meanwhile, here are a few images of our so far, very snowy December here in central Maryland.

A few more shots from the trip to Chincoteague today. Just a few of the thousands of snow geese that winter in the area. Nice birds!

'Rounds', just finished this afternoon, will be on its way to my Annapolis gallery, Main Street Gallery, tomorrow, along with several other small scale works for their Holiday showing through the end of December.

And today, some more images from Chincoteague, beginning with the ever present island ponies. This is just one of several dozen images, the others of which are no doubt going to show up in works over the next six months.

One of my sharp eyed friends, spotted a small group of quail in some tall grasses just beside the road and we were able to quickly get several good images before the little band disappeared into the shadows. Good timing, in the right place at the right time!



I have tentatively identified these little guys as sanderlings. There were small groups of them all along the shore line, darting back and forth into the foam of the breaking waves and making for some good reference material for future works as well.

And so, it is back to work in the studio. With just under two weeks to go to an Open Studio I am sharing with an artist friend, lots to do. This little guy was done from reference just shot at Chincoteague last week. I just could not resist drawing this kingfisher.
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Most of the blue herons that we saw at Chincoteague were young birds, not yet fully matured and fully colored. But, we managed some great reference material. Again, as with that one 'show egret', we had the good fortune to find a heron that stayed pretty much in the same spot each day and let us catch it in all sorts of light and poses. I guess most of the birds are rather aclamated to the passing vehicles and walkers so they don't always fly off. Good for artists in need of descent reference material! At one point, I was hardly ten feet from one of the herons.

No, I have not fallen off the face of the earth, just been out of town. First at the Waterfowl Festival on the eastern shore of Maryland. The show was well attended over the four days and sales were pretty good. Among the works I sold were the cheetah and lion cub works posted here earlier this month. After the Festival, I and several artist friends enjoyed some R&R (rest and reference work) at the Chincoteague National Wildlife Refuge on the Atlantic shore of Virginia. Known for its famous ponies, this time of year sees tens of thousands of snow geese beginning their winter residence. Over the next few days, I will be posting some images from our time at Chincoteague, beginning with egrets. We were treated to several days of photographing one particular egret that hung around in one spot and struck wonderful poses for us at all times of day. But of course, there were egrets, great and small, all over the island and at almost every pull off, we managed to see and enjoy numbers of the beautiful white birds. Enjoy!

A little something completed this morning. Now, how did this lion cub get in here with all those sheep? Does the lion truly lie down with the lamb?

And - Ha, ha, ha! Happy Halloween everyone . . .

It's been a busy week, mostly working on this piece. Just completed, 'Autumn Morning', will be off to the Waterfowl Festival with me in two weeks time. The Festival is an annual event in the beautiful and historic town of Easton, Maryland on the eastern shore of my state. The show opens on Thursday evening, November 10 and runs through Sunday afternoon. Over 100 artists, carvers and sculptors will be in town for this well known show. There is a link to their web site from my home web site, check it out if interested!

Sheep seem to be reigning in the studio at the moment, so here is yet another work destined for an upcoming group show in mid November . . 'A Little Nudge is Always Reassuring'.
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The latest off the drawing board - 'The Duchess'. Not sure what the breed of this ewe is but from some on line searching, thank goodness for Google, she could be an Arapawa which is a breed from New Zealand. In any event, here she is! (6" x 4")
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'Henpecked' - need more be said? :)
The work is just over 3" x 5".

'Ebony and Ivory', 7" x 11". A pair of young karakul sheep rams.

Another little cheetah cub study - 11" x 9". I just love these little fuzzy creatures!