Something different

Elephants on Granite?

   I have put aside the graphite pencils for colored pencils and I have traded my paper for rock this time. It has been bothering me that as much as I like the drawings and paintings I create they are not unique, and they easily get lost in the vast sea of great art out there in the world. That sameness leaves me wondering why I keep doing it, 

and that sameness leaves me feeling unmotivated to create more of the same. 

So I begin a pursuit of something different, something unique. I have been using 

river rock as a canvas for some time with waterslide decals made from my drawings, but that too has become repetitive, un challenging and again, more of the same. I have seen a lot of artists who paint animals on rocks, they cover the whole rock with paint and make it look like an animal. The qualities that make me pick up a particular rock are color,  pattern, texture, and shape and the last thing I want to do is hide them under a layer of paint. So with my first attempt I have chosen a rather large 8" wide, 7" deep and 5" high piece of what I believe to be granite, and weighs in at approximately 13lbs. I used colored pencil to enhance the rusty color of the rock behind the elephants and incorporated the natural pattern in the rock with the details in the elephants. Over all I am very satisfied with this first attempt at something different and I have several more ideas that I can't wait to get started on !

A visit from a Starling

This little guy (or gal) Starling fell from it's nest in the eve of the roof near our door. We watched over him  the whole day thinking he would eventually fly away.  But all this baby wanted was to get back in that nest. He tried climbing up the screen on the porch, he tried climbing and jumping from the Shepperd's hook below the nest and out of despiration he even tried my daughters head !  That evening, tired of watching the struggle I popped him on the end of my mop and standing on tiptoes hoisted him back home to the hole in the eve where he stayed with his nest mates for Two more days, then they all flew away.