Robin Arnold Art

These two birds enjoying a cup of coffee on a cold winter's day is my first ever digital drawing. For years I've wanted to try this but never got around to it for various reasons. In the last few months I bought the Mac I've always wanted and a drawing tablet. Unfortunately, it looked like my digital drawing  was going to end before I ever got started because of the pain it caused in my hand and arm. I had the tablet all packed up, ready to send back to NYC, when my spouse insisted on going to Staples and buying me a better, more ergonomic chair. I unpacked the tablet and gave it another try and it made a huge difference. I won't be giving up on traditional media but this was a lot of fun....except when I overdid the "Undo" button and lost half of my painting! This was done in Photoshop using a Wacom tablet. The painting printed beautifully on my Epson 1480 and I even made a few cards to send out for Christmas. This is for sale as a 5x7 or 8x10 print i...

I've been going through a rough stretch with my drawing lately so I was ecstatic when I finally came up with something cute and funny that wasn't a total mess. This still needs some tweaking but I like the idea. When I redo this I think I'll make the bird with the stocking smaller and rounder and bring the birdhouse over to the left and up a bit. I'm also not sure about painting them yellow. Red birds would have looked better but I thought it may be too much with the red stockings. Merry Christmas!

Earlier this week we were taking a walk around the marsh and we saw a pair of Canada geese sitting on top of a muskrat den. We figured it was the same pair who nested there last year but as we got closer we noticed there was something not quite right with one of the geese. It's head was wasn't dark black and the bill and feet were orange, not black as they should be. I took some photos and posted them on FB to get some opinions on this odd goose. Turns out this is a hybrid goose and after doing some research it seems likely a Canada goose mated with a Greylag domestic goose.  This is a photo of the hybrid goose swimming with his mate in our pond. I was surprised a female would pick a mate who was not the norm but I guess it's not a big deal to her. The hybrid also doesn't sound like a Canada goose as you can hear in the video below. This pair is still fighting with another pair for the rights to a  nesting spot in our marsh so it will be interesting...

I'm still plugging away with my watercolors and I have a couple to share that are at least recognizable. On September 8th we went to Meyer's Hatchery in Polk, OH. to pick up six tiny chicks. They are the cutest things ever and Gena and I have been spending as much time as possible with them so they will not only be good egg layers but also good friends.  The new additions to our family are Maggie, Debi(both named after high school classmates), Amelia, Susy(named after my junior high German teacher), Harriet and Cuddles. This painting was my third attempt and although it has a lot of flaws I'm happy with it. I painted this from one of my photos....no way I can sketch constantly moving chicks! Amelia, as in Amelia Earhart,  is the yellow chick and was so named because she was trying to fly since she was a day old. Amelia is a Blue Ameracana, which is considered a rare breed. Susie is a Barred Rock and although she was named after my German teacher, her name also pays tri...

Several wood ducks and hooded mergansers have been flying in and out of the new nesting boxes we put up this spring but one female wood duck has finally claimed one of the boxes as her own and is now incubating the eggs. This is the box on the edge of our pond and the one that we are able to keep a closer eye on. Female wood duck perched on a nest box Now that the female is incubating the eggs the male wood duck isn't hanging as much around but a week ago, when the following photos were taken,  he was still with the female. While she was checking out the box or laying eggs he would swim around in front of the box, keeping a watchful eye on the surroundings. Male wood duck swimming in front of the nest box I was  very fortunate to get a photo of the two of them together before she entered the nest box. I won't get another chance for a photo like this until next spring! Pair of wood ducks in our pond near the nest box

 I'm fairly certain this is the pair who have claimed the pond box as their own. Yesterday afternoon the female went into the box and the male took a five hour nap on top of it. I hurried home from work so I could get a photo but Gena said they both flew away about five minutes before I got home. I took this photo last week of the duck eggs in the pond nest box. I checked for two successive  mornings after I took this photo and it went from four eggs to six and from six to nine which indicated more than one duck is laying in this box. After the female is done laying eggs she pulls out her own downy breast feathers and mixes  them in with the wood  chips for extra warmth. This photo was taken two days ago on 5/5/15.  Let the incubation begin!

On April 24, just over a week ago, I wrote about the two wood duck nest boxes we put up on our property. The box we put on the back edge of the pond is visible from our house and with our binoculars we've been able to watch ducks, sparrows and swallows checking it out. Nest box on the edge of the pond We're not experts on monitoring nest boxes of any kind so after doing a little research we discovered that the boxes should be checked in the morning to help keep raccoons away. I assume this is because the scent we leave behind will have a chance to dissipate before the racoons come out in the early evening. So every morning I have checked on our two boxes. The one on the edge of the marsh hasn't seen much activity yet but I'm pulling a huge wad of twigs, feathers, etc. out of the "pond box" that the house sparrows are trying to take over. Thursday morning I mistakenly thought the box was empty and when I started to open it a female wood duck flew out...

April usually brings kinglets, yellow-rumped warblers and several other early migrating birds to our property but this year, because of northeast winds, the migration is a little behind schedule. I finally saw a pair of  yellow warblers two days ago near the back of the property. Male Yellow Warbler in dogwood We have several of these warblers nest on our 12 acres every year.  I found this nest in the following photo last year before the leaves of the dogwood had totally blocked it from view. Female Yellow Warbler sitting on her nest. The winter of 2013/2014 was so severe that for the first time in almost 30 years we didn't have any Canada geese goslings being raised on our property and it looked like this year was going to be a repeat of last. In the last week, however, we have had a pair hanging around in our marsh and we're hopeful they'll nest on top of this muskrat house. Our marsh is only about 5 years old so this will only be the second time we've h...

April 1st was a nice day, so when I got home from my part-time job I decided to skip supper and spend some time outside with my camera. The male ring-necked duck was in our pond again so I slowly headed in that direction, trying to hide behind the trees as I approached. This duck is no fool and spotted the bumbling human before I got halfway to the pond. I have been trying to get a good photo of a ring-necked for the last few years so I was disappointed when he flew off.  I wasn't ready to give up so I  headed for our small marsh, walked the short incline to the dike and was again disappointed to see there were no ducks in sight. I stayed on the dike for another 30 minutes watching flocks of tundra swans fly overhead and trying to get some flight shots. It was beautiful watching them in the setting sunlight but  the photo opportunities just weren't there so I headed back to the house to finally get some supper. I was in the backyard...

"The very chemical composition of our blood alters slightly in spring; we sense the coming of the season in our life-stream." Edwin Way Teale Well, I feel something in my blood but it might be because I have ice running through my veins. Two more nights this week with temps in the single digits or below zero. The highway is buckling up in front of our house, our driveway and porch are falling apart and who knows what is happening with our three year old cistern. We also lost one of our sweetest hens due to the stress of this awful cold weather. Her name was Pearl and she was rescued from an egg factory in CA. She had reached the two year old mark and was slated to be gassed because she had outlived her usefulness. She was a sweet and curious little hen and she truly acted grateful that she finally had a chance to experience the life of a free-range chicken. I hadn't intended on having a chicken in the following photo but Pearl tagged along with me that morning to the...

Snowy day in Ohio is an understatement! When we woke up this morning we had about a foot of snow on the ground. We went to TSC on Saturday and stocked up on bird seed and suet to help out our feathered friends during this nasty storm. So far at our feeders we've had goldfinches, house finches, cardinals, blue jays, chickadees, nuthatches, tree sparrows, juncos, house sparrows, downy woodpeckers, mourning doves and a red-bellied woodpecker. We've also had a Coopers hawk visit several times looking for a meal. The wind wasn't too bad Sunday morning so I went out with my camera to see if I could get some photos of birds in the snow. Northern Cardinal This first one is of a Northern Cardinal. I've tried for a long time to get a nice photo of a male cardinal sitting on a snowy branch but it never worked out very well for me. I finally got a nice, sharp photo of this cardinal sitting in a snowy thicket.  I like this one because you can see the snow sticking to his ...

Cottonwood Hand Carved Decorative Birdhouse Welcome to my new blog and first post.This whimsical birdhouse is my latest cottonwood bark carving. Cottonwood bark is a popular carving medium and I'm always looking for different ways to use it in my work. Although the best bark comes from the western states I have been able, so far,  to find usable bark in the area in which I live. This type of carving is called deep relief because the back of the piece is not carved. Back of birdhouse carving The bluebird is carved from a small piece of basswood and was glued into the birdhouse opening. The carving was finished with acrylic paints, two coats of satin varnish and one coat of wax. The carving can be purchased at: https://www.etsy.com/listing/219951825/relief-carving-decorative-birdhouse