Inside the Belle Isle Zoo again

We went to the Belle Isle Zoo on Easter Weekend. There were other people there looking around, too. The place is abandoned, is being trashed, is growing up to weeds, but the electricity is still on inside it. (We did not wreck it, we just took pictures--but other people are vandalizing.)

Skywatch Friday: Kites

There were hundreds of kites in the air at Metrobeach. And this is what the sky looked like in the windy waves of the pond.

Here is my newest art piece:


A Bird in the Hand, first half of a collaboration with Mike Kline in Ash's Mole. BB and I took a hike at Dodge park and at the far end, farther than we'd ever been before, we found this dead robin in some branches that looked like a skeletal hand so that's what I made it into. This is in the front of the Mole, as there aren't enough pages for everyone otherwise.

I did it in ballpoint pen and gouache. Click image to view larger.

Owl Babies

Remember the owl sitting on her nest at Metrobeach? Well, now there are babies. YAY, two of them. I took this with my little point and shoot through a spotting scope.

Here is my latest painting, a water color of pansies. It didn't scan altogether well. I have misplaced my garden journal and my nature journal, so this is on arches 140 lb 9 x 12 paper. Click to view larger.

Spring in Detroit

At Pier Park, the first boat has been placed in a slip, the kids are playing on the beach and fishing.

In the woods, the wildflowers are in bloom (bloodroot, cut-leaved toothwort, Dutchman's Breeches, spring beauty, trout lily, hepatica) and in our yard, the daffodils, jonquils, hyacinths and forsythias.

Statuary: War Memorial

This is part of a fountain at the War Memorial in Grosse Pointe Just north of Detroit a couple miles.

Signs of Spring: Frogs Singing

It must be spring, the frogs are out and singing! YAY!



HAPPY SPRING! YAY!

Here (above) is a new painting I did with Steve Loya, a collaboration--he did the background and I did the doves.

And finally, a couple of new quick sketches from my little watercolor sketchbook--spring makes me think of FLOWERS! YAY!



I'm sorry; I am working on a PhD in behindedness. Busy with the holidays and preparing for them and various upcoming deadlines etc.

Grosse Pointe Woods Presbyterian Church

Happy Easter to those who celebrate! Happy day, happy spring to those who do not.

This church is right on Mack, on the outskirts of Detroit.

I have more pictures of this church, but am having trouble posting.

Wild Turkeys on Belle Isle

Just in time for an Easter Feast. Seriously, though, this one is loose in the park.

On a cozier note, my granddaughter just turned 3. She's opening birthday presents and cuddling with her Grandpa. (I got lots of cuddles too!)

Skywatch Friday: Looking out at the sky

131 Kercheval

Detroit Wildlife (and art)

Cute, huh?

A friend of mine recently posted a picture of a BOBCAT taken in her backyard. This is what passes for wildlife in Detroit--Norway rats. Yeah, they are cute. These are young ones. But they still carry the plague and other diseases and foul grain and steal food and chew holes in walls etc. And bite.

What follows is a potpourri of new art--if you call it that--my art is not always successful.

They are: Hellebore or "Lenten Rose," very quick sketch. I've misplaced my garden journal, so this is in my small sketchbook. BB staring and squinting into really bright light--we ate dinner OUTSIDE for the first time this year. Winter aconites, again in the small sketchbook, and part of a large painting I'm working on in acrylics.

BB grabbed my camera and stole a shot of me working on the hellebores. Keep in mind it's still March (or was, anyway, when I made these yesterday)--and in Detroit, March is not usually warm enough to lie on the ground outdoors in a short-sleeved shirt--which I was here.

Except for the first image, click the images to view them larger.