Cedar Waxwing Watercolor Painting

It's been a long time since I've posted anything but I'm going to try and breathe some life back into my blog. I've had problems with a pinched nerve over the last year that was so debilitating I had to resign from my job and for a few months it was hard to lift my arm to paint. This was no great loss to the art world but it left a big void in my life. Although it hasn't gone away it has gotten better. I still have a hard time taking photos, lifting binoculars and sometimes drawing/painting but I am getting the strength back in my arm and the pain is much more manageable than a year ago.

Despite my physical limitations and my utter lack of confidence in my abilities I do think I reached a new plateau in my watercolor painting. After a ton of bad paintings ending up in the wastebasket something finally clicked. The painting below of a Cedar Waxwing was a breakthrough and although I still have many failures they are not as frequent as they were a few months ago.

Cedar Waxwing in Watercolor

I always loved watercolors because to my untrained eye they looked lighter and more airy, if that makes any sense at all. I've since found out it's the transparency of watercolor that I loved and I think I finally achieved that in this painting.

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Travis the Giraffe

My latest painting is a portrait of Travis, a giraffe that lives at the Toledo Zoo in Toledo, Ohio. For a small fee you can feed Travis from a platform that puts you high enough to look him straight in the eye. I took a photo moments after my partner had fed him and it was that photo that I used as reference for this painting. Overall, I'm happy with this but as always there are areas I need to work on. Even though I tried several times I couldn't get the wrinkles in his ears so they looked three dimensional. I had to stop fussing with it or I would have had a hole in the paper! For a long time I didn't visit the zoo because it was sad to see all of these beautiful animals kept captive but I've softened my view over the years. This isn't a perfect world and what humans have done to the environment and the wildlife that inhabits it is appalling. I now feel zoos have their place and they, among other organizations, are helping to ensure these beautiful animals

Pumpkin Head Ghost

Like most of you, time flies by for me. I'm a part-time medical courier and every April in the same doctor's parking lot I look at the date on my route sheet and feel relieved I won't be driving in snow and ice for a few months. In November I'm sitting in the same parking lot and wondering where the time went and how can I possibly do this job for another winter. Spring bird migration, sitting on the deck carving, mowing tons of grass, swearing at the mosquitoes and deer flies; it's all over in a flash. What can make the time seem to go even faster? Designing and carving holiday items. It's tough to think about Halloween or Christmas in February, June or August but I've learned the hard way I need to work on Santa Clauses and pumpkins year round. An added twist is you never really know when they will sell. In 2013 I didn't sell one Halloween carving but in the summer of 2014 I sold three. A serious collector is always on the lookout for something new

Frog and Butterfly

We have some very large bullfrogs on our property and yesterday I saw three sitting in the shade of a maple that grows on the edge of the pond. I wanted to get a photo of one of the monsters and while I was fiddling around with my camera and trying to get into a good position, I noticed something sticking on its skin near the frog's mouth. I figured it was a blade of grass but when I finally got a closer look I saw it was a spring azure butterfly. I couldn't believe the frog didn't eat it's friend. Blame it on the extreme heat or the frog had just ate a very large meal. We are in a moderate drought so there is the possibility that the butterfly was getting a much-needed drink off the frogs moist skin. Much better than getting your feet muddy near the edge of the pond. And yes, I do plan on using this photo for a drawing/painting :)

Robin Arnold Art

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