Done!

Well, a few hours of work left on this one and it should be ready for framing; maybe by the end of the work day, today.

Four days into the new work.

'110 In The Shade', 12" x 25" - completed. This one has been 'fun' to work on for the last ten days or so. And, I had sort of promised myself that I would not move on to another very dark work, but . . . I think the next up will be one that also contains a lot of dark in the foreground. I suppose I am just in a dark mood right now and may as well cash in on the intensity of the moment!

It is gettin' there, slowly, but surely!

Some of the fauna that has been visiting the flora in my back yard of late, including a cardinal fledge, one of the robin fledges (actually, the only one of the three hatchtlings that I have seen now over the last couple of weeks) and some other four footed creatures. The old picnic table in back, seems to be quite attractive to many for just hanging about in the late afternoons. I am rather amazed at the comings and goings here in the middle of a very built up area on the edge of town and what that says to me is the amazing adaptability of these creatures to live side by side with us and find places of security and 'comfort' in the smallest of natural habitats.

A slow and 'gritty' process, but making headway with this one. This one is a rather large work for me, 12" x 25", with many layerings of graphite going on.

A bit of the broader picture!

Lots of graphite going onto this one.

And the bridge construction continues. I know, I know, does not look like much now, but wait and see!

Over the course of the last few days of last week, as well as this past weekend, plenty of goings on in my backyard as I watched some grackle fledges flopping around. Now that the robins seemed to have backed 'off stage', the grackles have come to the front and it has been fun watching them. This sequence of shots, taken over the three or four days, shows one of the little ones being fed by an adult. Some good reference material once again and I am sure there will be grackles appearing here soon in one of my upcoming bridge works. Thank goodness for the invention of digital cameras!

'On The Rise', recently completed, is another of the bridge works for the 2008 exhibition. The work is 8" x 11".

A visitor at my studio door yesterday. He appeared mid morning and posed rather nicely for me, down on the floor at eye level with him! He nestled in some leaves in a shadowy corner for most of the early afternoon and then later on as the sun lowered in the sky, he made his way slowly across the back lawn and into the tree line at the back of the property. Hope he comes back some day for another visit!

Saturday evening, June 10th will be the opening reception for the small group show I have 11 new works included in at my Annapolis, Maryland gallery, Main Street Gallery. The show will run through the month of June and also includes works by two others of the gallery artists, Sam Dixon and Linda Volrath. The reception is from 6 to 8 on Saturday evening so if you are in the area, drop in and say hello!

'After a Spring Shower', 11" x 11".