The first of two new, smaller works that will be headed to Howard/Mandville Gallery in Kirkland, Washington for their upcoming annual small works show in October. 'No Place Like Home' chimes in at 7" x 7 3/4".

I'm pleased to note that North Light Books' most recent addition to their ongoing series, Strokes of Genius: The Best of Drawing . . , this volume encompassing a focus on "Design and Composition", will be released and available shortly. I can't wait to receive my copies and dig through as I am sure there will be a lot of wonderful and inspiring works to behold. The last three volumes, in which I have also had works included, never fail to make me think and offer future challenges as I leaf through them.

Hot off the drawing board yesterday afternoon, this new work will be one of several pieces (along with the also recently completed osprey work and one other) to go to McBride Gallery in Annapolis shortly for next month's opening of their Best of the Chesapeake annual fall show. This work measures 7" x 15 1/2". I've never done turtles before and I think I might have to try it once or twice again; I enjoyed working on this one.

Fresh Face

After 8 and a half years (Wow!) of blog entries, I thought it was time for another face lift this morning . . . something a little more colorful with this update (I believe the last changes were made a couple years ago). Still the same old me, posting about work and such, but with a brighter twist.
And no, I'm not doing street signs now, just a bit of fooling around on one of those sites that enable you to upload your own images into interesting or funny settings. Hmm . . . if I could find Bristol board large enough . . . !

Two weeks from this Saturday at 9:30 in the morning, during the opening weekend festivities of this year's edition of the internationally acclaimed exhibition, Birds in Art, I shall be standing before a crowd waiting to hear . . . well, waiting to hear just why the Woodson Art Museum has named me this year's Master Wildlife Artist. As noted in earlier postings here, I've been at work on putting together a Power Point slide presentation to go along with my talk on that Saturday morning and I've finally gotten a tightened and refined version of that slide show onto disc. My talk is getting worked and reworked as I zero in on what I believe will be of importance to that audience and with another couple of days worth of review and editing, should be done next week. As I've said before, I am greatly honored to have my work spotlighted in this way by the Woodson Art Museum and am looking forward to 'spelling out' (through my talk titled, 'The A, B, C's of an Artist's Life') the not-so-secret method to my madness! If you are nearby or in the immediate Wausau, Wisconsin environs, join us on Saturday morning, September 7th.

In this past week or so, the invitations to the opening weekend of this year's Birds in Art exhibition have gone out to museum members, artists and guests. I had not seen the invitations myself, but had heard that the design was quite unique and wonderful, not only spotlighting the major events of the weekend in simple yet eye-catching text, but some of my works that will appear in the mini retrospective as this year's Master Wildlife Artist as well. I was truly impressed with the invitation when my copy arrived earlier this past week. Having dabbled in graphic design myself, I know how challenging putting together an interesting package can be and Mr. Richard Wunsch, the designer of this beautiful tri-leaf card, got a major tip of my hat for his well designed effort. I believe he has been responsible for the design of the catalog for Birds in Art for some time and I have often commented on just how clean and appropriate his design concept for the catalog always is, making the art stand out as it should. (Experiences in the past with graphic designers who put together art catalogs under the impression that it was more important to spotlight the designer's overall imprint as opposed to putting the spotlight on the art, attests to the fact that not all art-related volumes are created equal.)

As I have talked about here before, being very 'plugged in' to overall compositional ideas and the various elements of creative design that they encompass when I am putting together a new work, I am always drawn toward good, well balanced, interesting design in any form. This invitation fits that bill completely. Check out Rick's page on the web to see some more of his design work and photography. I look forward to chatting with him in person at the opening in a few short weeks.

Bay Watch, 10" x 23" . . . completed yesterday as anticipated. After completing the bird, I did realize that I needed a bit more 'weight' to the right and added that slightly distant branch just to give strength and a bit more perceived balance. I'm happy with it! You can find it, mid September, at McBride Gallery in Annapolis for the Best of the Chesapeake annual gallery show. The remainder of this week is devoted to pulling together all my random thoughts and ideas for my talk at the Woodson Art Museum on September 7th during the opening of this year's Birds in Art exhibition at which I will be honored to receive the Master Wildlife Artist medal. Now, how does one go about wrapping up 50 years or more of creative life in a 45 minute talk?

Coming into the home stretch now . . . another few hours today and this one is done. Once the feathers are finished, I am going to decide if the background needs a bit more weight on the right side of the composition to balance out the left facing direction of the bird . . . meaning maybe the addition of another branch in the background beyond the bird and with a basically right leaning movement; won't really know that till the bird is complete and I see just how much weight it carries across the mid point vertical split. In my original sketch, what is shown is what I felt comfortable with as far as balancing out the composition. But, sometimes it is not till the very end that I realize that a bit more weight needs to be given to one side or the other especially in a very horizontal work like this one. Remains to be seen! But then, that is the 'fun' of being an artist . . . all possibilities are open for 'discussion'.

Late on updating the progress of this current work . . . between dealing with issues of back pain and trying to get in some visiting this week at the county fair to photograph much of the daily horse shows . . . here is where things stand at this hour, while readying to head out shortly for the final day of the fair and the annual draft horse pulling contest. Feathers, feathers everywhere.

I've been busy . . . recording and re-recording sound bites for the Woodson Art Museum's audio tours for this year's Birds in Art exhibition, which, by the way, will open in a month's time! Next on my agenda is to focus on my talk for the opening weekend and putting together a Power Point slide show. In the meantime, work continues at the drawing board . . . here is the start of a new work that will head to a show that opens in mid September at McBride Gallery in Annapolis, this year's Best of the Chesapeake.

As mentioned in my previous posting, The Woodson Art Museum's Project Postcard is quite an event for attendees of the opening night reception for this year's edition of Birds in Art, on September 6th. I've enveloped my four contributions to the event and will get them off on Monday. As a teaser, here are my four postcards . . . slightly altered so as to keep their images a secret till they are purchased by some lucky buyers next month. If you'd like the opportunity to acquire one of these or any of the other dozens and dozens of postcards that will be donated by exhibition artists, contact the museum to find out how you may access an invitation to the Friday evening event. And, don't forget to bring cash . . . the museum won't take plastic!