My Virtual Paintout in Eureka, California

My friend Gail Slaughter who lives near Eureka California sent me a newspaper clipping about the Virtual Paintout.  I decided to try submitting, and this is the first painting I did:

Sequoia Park Zoo, Eureka California
small watercolor on Canson Paper
by me, Mary Stebbins Taitt

The instructions said to go to google maps and using the streetview, choose a view.  I had never done that before, and I thought I'd done it but it turned out to be a photo--I didn't realize it, being unfamiliar with the google maps and streetviews, until it was too late.  So I can't submit it.

So I did another one:

Redwood Highway (101), Eureka, California
by Mary Stebbins Taitt

Unfortunately, being the end of the year and the end of the month, both of these were done more hastily than I would prefer to do them.  But we are out of town visiting and I have limited art supplies and limited time.

(NOTE: we are 400 miles from home and may not be able to get on the internet!)

Autumn Lane

"Autumn Lane 3-111207"
by Mary Stebbins Taitt
Can't leave it alone, got out the old palette knife

This image started out as a pointillistic piece in Tami's moleskine sketchbook (real ink on real paper).  Every time I play with it, I change it.  It is still supposed to be an example of saturation of color, and how desaturation makes things appear to retreat into the background.  However, this copy fails to reproduce the colors accurately.  And I can't fiddle with with it endlessly to get it perfect right now.

This is a digital version done on Artrage.  (The original, also by me, was pen and ink).

Illustration Friday: Silence

I just did a super quick sketch on artrage, new this morning. I think our country may be headed for trouble, run by big business and the war machine.

Click image to view larger.

For today's Illustration Friday's topic, "Silence!"

New Art in Ballookey's sketchbook

Here is my scan of the Hairy Woodpecker painting I just completed, 5 x 8, in Ballookey's Moleskine.  It completes my set of paintings in her mole, but I will not be able to mail until Monday at the earliest, since it's past postal hours on a Saturday.

Hairy Woodpecker, by Mary Taitt

Here is the double page spread, paired with the red-headed woodpecker:

Click the images above to enlarge.

I made a digitally altered watercolor painting as a pocket item:

This was originally a watercolor painting

And I printed 1 picture from my trip to Maine, a picture of the cover for the novel I am going to write during the month of November for NaNoWriMo (first draft of a cover idea) and three pix of people from the Renaissance Festival.  I am including prints, but didn't want to fill up the whole, so I amde them into a collage for the post:

Maine Reflection, Renaissance Festival and Death Angel cover, all by Mary Taitt

Red-headed Woodpecker in Ballookey's Moleskine Sketchbook

Red-headed Woodpecker, Watercolor

I guess I am on a woodpecker kick.  Water color, 5 x 8.  Click image to view larger.

I'vory bill in Ballookey's Mole

I've been traveling and unfortunately, too busy to do art on the road, but I'm home now and just completed the Ivory bill. Below is the two-page spread.  Watercolor, micron pen. (Click images to view larger.)  5 x 8.

Rediscovery of the Ivory-billed Woodpecker, Half a collaboration for Ammon to Complete

005 pen, watercolor.  Click image to view larger.  This is by me, Ammon will add his art later. Anyone else who would like to collaborate on this, for fun, feel free to download it, collaborate on it, post it, and I will link to it or post it.

Pileated Pair, watercolor

Pileated Pair, from photos by Scott Carter out the window of his spare room at Silk Creek.  Watercolor, by me, Mary Taitt, in Ballookey's Mole.  Click image to view larger.  The male pileated is perched on the outside of the house, threatening his own reflection, which he takes as another male.  Click image to view larger. 5 x 8.

Hills at Sunset, Collaboration with Gretchen, she did the hills, I did the sunset.  Various Jelly Roll Pens, metallic etc.  I am sorry my hands aren't as steady as Gretchen's!  5 x 8, watercolor Moleskine.  Click to view image larger.

I've done almost no blogging, no art, no writing etc since the second flood.  Sorry about the repeat, I've posted this elsewhere also.  I don't have the time to maintain so many blogs with our flooding crisis.

Keith and the Life Cycle of the Monarch Butterfly

This is one of my ArtRage paintings: Keith and the Life Cycle of the Monarch Butterfly

I know, it's still a long ways from excellence, but I am working on my 10,000 hours.

Today, we rode out motorcycles through the rain to the Nature Center at Metrobeach, had a delightful walk (the sun came out!), and after walking, went into the nature center.  The naturalist allowed us to watch two monarch caterpillars pupating into chrysalises. She showed us eggs and tiny babies and chrysalises ready to turn into monarchs and we saw an adult she had just released outside.  Among the other things we saw were juvenile black-crowned night herons, several of them, swans and ducks and flowers and lots of frogs and toads. I painted this during dinner on Artrage on my iPad.

To see the image better (small details of life cycle), click on the image to enlarge it.