Meet Mrs. Pringles

I've raised many songbirds - often fledglings that well-meaning but misguided people have rescued, thinking they've fallen from the nest. In recent years, I've turned them over to the bird-lady, an older woman in Sedona who cares for injured or orphaned birds. (In Arizona - one may legally care for a songbird for up to 90 days).

A few days ago, my neighbor called. Would I come and get a bird what didn't seem quite right - perhaps it hit a window? The bird-lady is retiring, so I have agreed to take care of the bird.

I think Mrs. Pringles is a female summer tanager. She shows no sign of injury but is unable to keep her balance. Her condition declined dramatically during the first 24 hours...perhaps a slow cranial bleed? But she has not gotten any worse since then - so I'm hoping that in time she'll recover. She needs a bird-sized wheel-chair but in the meantime, Mrs. Pringles spends her days in a 6" Pringles container that I have cut in half lengthwise. This arrangement holds her more-or-less upright. However she sometimes wiggles out of this and I find her standing on her head in the corner of her cage.

I've decided that Mrs. Pringles is incapacitated because of injury rather than illness. If she were sick - she wouldn't have such a voracious appetite. Tanagers eat insects and fruit. She eats as many grasshoppers as I can catch and loves blueberries. Fortunately, my friends, Joe & Anne Garcia, are here - so Joe goes out on grasshopper hunts several times a day.

Mrs. Pringles knows I am the hand that feeds her - and opens her mouth in anticipation of a fat grasshopper when she sees me. I'll keep you posted on her progress.

"Soft Rain Falling"

Every now and then a painting will click from the first brushstroke to the last. This is one of them. It's a 24" x 36" oil on Ampersand board. This particular landscape is one of my favorite places to paint - an area called Mataguay in north San Diego County. I prefer it in the spring or fall when inclement weather softens edges and pushes colors towards the misty blues and soft greens.

I've done this piece for my one-person landscape show, 'The Road Less Traveled" at the Santa Ysabel Gallery, 30352 Hwy 78, Santa Ysabel, San Diego County, California. The show opens on September 5th with a reception from 4 - 8 PM, and will continue to hang until October 11.


I like this piece - hope you do too.

La Senita

SOLD
This 30" x 40" oil is done on 2" deep Ampersand cradle board. It gives the painting a more contemporary look and does not require framing. The subject is senita cactus, common in the Sonoran Desert of southern Arizona. It's also known as 'old man cactus' for the whiskers that grow at the top of mature branches. This painting will be shown at the group show "Legacy of the Southwest" at Legacy Gallery in Scottsdale. The opening is Thursday, July 9th, 7 - 9 pm. I'll see you there!

"Summer Aspen"

I just returned from a two week painting trip in Colorado...and also exhibited my work at 'Meet the Artist' in Breckenridge.

The weather cooperated with cool days, spectacular clouds and enough rain showers to rehydrate this parched Arizonan.

I painted this little piece plein air in front of my sister's house in Silverthorne. Unfortunately, the bark beetle has killed the majority of the lodge pole pines in the area - but the aspen are growing quickly to fill in the gaps. I love painting aspen - and could have spent the two weeks painting nothing but.

This painting is a 6" x 6" oil on Ampersand board.

"Light Through Trees"

For the past several years, I've been hung up on painting light through trees. I think this might be #7. They're all small and all a little different. This piece is 7" x 4".

"The Road Less Travelled"

I'm having a one-person landscape show at The Santa Ysabel Gallery in California - opening September 5th. The title of the show is Places I Remember so I wanted the piece that would be used to promote the show to reflect the theme.

This 10" x 8" oil, The Road Less Travelled, really is a place I remember as it is done from memory. I used some photographs to remind me of color and mood - but there is no photograph of this particular place. Does it even exist? Yes, somewhere in north San Diego County - but I don't think I could find the spot again.

Chow Down

This 6" x 8" oil only took a few hours. It's hard to paint a cute subject without ending up with a cute painting so I concentrated on my warm & cool colors - and used the long shadows to make a strong composition.

I've done this little oil for an upcoming show in Breckenridge, Colorado. My sister and I will be showing our work together at Meet the Artist, June 27 & 28th at the Riverwalk Plaza in downtown Breckenridge.