It’s another rainy day today, so our bird feeders are extra busy.
The young male Anna’s hummingbird (bottom) is sporting some impressive chin plumage, but missing his tail feathers.
plants and animals
bee architecture
I uncovered some leafcutter bee cocoons when I was weeding the plant pots on our front step.
In the summer I see the bees flying in to little holes in the dirt with the leaf disks they cut from the raspberry bushes tucked under their bellies. Continue reading
Prints – Society6 – free worldwide shipping until March 8
Society6 is offering free worldwide shipping on my unframed (paper) prints, until midnight PST, March 8, 2015 through this link.
painting | Crows Rocks Driftwood
Finally. Finished and varnished.
I’m a bit happier with parts of this a couple of revisions ago. But the point of this one was to just get it done and move on. Learn from the mistakes, etc.
So. I’m moving on.
Crows Rocks Driftwood | oil on canvas | 16″x20″
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More about crow artwork -> Society6 is offering a free worldwide shipping promo until Jan 11, 2015, midnight Pacific Time. It’s not automatically available through my store, and only available by clicking through this link.
(*Free Shipping offer excludes Framed Art Prints, Stretched Canvases, Wall Clocks and Rugs)
prints – 25% off + crow prints
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INPRNT is offering 25% off all prints until Sunday, Jan 4, 2015. So I’ve added a couple new pieces to my shop.
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Prints – 5$ off + free worldwide shipping until Dec 14 ’14
Society6 is running a 5$ off + free worldwide shipping promo until Dec 14 2014 – to access the sale and shipping deal on my prints, click through this link.
sketchbook – hummingbirds
Recently, I found some old sketches I did years ago for a (killed) project. I’m feeling a bit inspired to revisit them and take them a bit further, now that I have regular, living reference buzzing around outside the window.
Prints – 5$ off + free worldwide shipping
Society6 is offering 5$ off + free shipping on my prints, until tomorrow (Sunday, Nov 9, ’14) through this link.
Studio visitors
These visitors to the feeders that hang outside the studio window make a working weekend much more enjoyable.
so many bees, just one sting
This is a tiny portion of the thousands of bees in my friend’s hives:
Because I had my eye pressed up against a viewfinder attachment on the camera, my veil was pushed up against my face. One of the bees crawled up on the outside of my veil, got a bit wedged between the camera and my face, and gave me a [small] sting on the nose. It only smarted for a couple of minutes, and it didn’t leave a stinger behind. But it did make me even more careful to make sure I didn’t wedge a bee between the eyepiece and the veil, because they do crawl all over the hood and I find I don’t really notice anything other than what I happen to be focused on filming – including the bees ricocheting off the back of my head.
monotype – Driftwood, Rock, Crows | Cape Roger Curtis
Driftwood, Rock, Crows | Cape Roger Curtis
Oil monotype on rag paper
8 1/2 ″ x 11 1/2″ image area
This monotype is referenced from a bunch of photographs I took on my last visit with friends to Cape Roger Curtis on Bowen Island and includes some of my favourite subjects – birds and driftwood. I like the twisting shapes of driftwood, and the contrast of bleached bone-white against dark, wet rocks. I like how huge logs perched on the tops of mounded rocky shores, or crammed together in twisted masses are reminders of the wild energy of the waves that put them there. Continue reading
film – Osmia [mason bees hatching]
A few years ago I bought a tube of blue orchard mason bees and what started as 10 bees quickly grew into 100, and now 250 over a couple of years. This year they quickly filled an entire stacking nest block.
Kirsti Wakelin 