Each morning before breakfast, I spend quality time with my beloved cat, Clydie. He’s been with me for nearly four years now after showing up one morning out of nowhere. After a while I gained his trust, but he insists on being an outdoor cat. He used to spend a lot of time right around the house and he often helped me work in the garden or sat beside me on the deck when I was simply enjoying some quiet time. But other cats have shown up over time and Clydie has sadly decided

I finished the art journal spread which has been part of my recent adventures with watercolor. With my last few projects, I think a new branch of my art path just opened up! It’s a watercolor celebration! the finished art journal spread, bear visits the garden I’m pleased with this spread because it’s full of little creatures, happy, and joyful. And I’m thrilled to have found a way to work with this medium that has eluded me for so long. I described the start of this project

Several ideas were in my head for this next art journal spread, but I finally settled on recording some of the things I’d learned in my holiday adventure with watercolors. In the past few weeks, I’ve made several groups of cards with watercolor, pen, and pencil. Now the holidays are over and I’ll be returning to my usual practice of drawing and painting with acrylic. But I want to remember the watercolor fun. You can find out more about making the cards in my last blog post h

I was browsing decks of tarot cards for a gift for a friend and once again thought of making my own cards. I wouldn’t make a tarot deck. I simply don’t know enough about the subject. But I’m aware that many artists make inspiration decks and thought it might be fun to give it a try. Coincidentally, I ran across an online class from Laly Mille on that very subject and thought I’d give myself a holiday gift of it. It was fun and inspiring to watch, and was excited to begin work

I’ve finished my latest piece. Here’s where I was when I stopped last time: where I left off last time It took just a few more additions to finish this art journal spread of a barn owl, and one of them—the text—finally revealed to me what the spread is about. I’ve called it “Spirit of Owl.” the finished barn owl art journal spread The Text The text was the first thing I added. This was because I thought the glow from the candles might be in front of some of it. I took care wi

This, my latest art journal spread, was born of very little thought or inspiration. I decided to portray a barn owl, for little reason other than I felt like it. Barn owls have good associations for me and perhaps after the previous spread inspired by my witnessing of a hawk carrying off a rat, something lighter and more positive would be a good idea. I began by sketching the bird. And then, for reasons unknown, light showed up in the form of three candles. Where this all wou

A few weeks ago, I posted two drawings—one of a rat and the other of a hawk. The drawings were the beginning of my response to a distressing scene I’d witnessed: a hawk carrying away a struggling rat. You can read more about this backstory in my earlier post here . The experience and the drawing led to an art journal spread in which I attempted to work through a spiritual question which has haunted me for a long time—the death of animals. This turned out to be a process of sp

a quiet dawn Objectively speaking, this is not a remarkable scene, but it is very special to me. It’s the view at dawn from the door of my workshop. The building is actually an old garage for farm equipment and is about about a hundred yards behind the house. Soon after we moved here nearly four years ago, I spotted an apparently stray black cat. I managed to tame him rather quickly and named him Clyde. My four year old granddaughter called him “Clydie” and it stuck. Clydie S

The other day I saw something which froze my heart and flooded my eyes with tears. A hawk was carrying away a rat. I had such a clear view—painfully clear. The hawk had the shoulders of her prize grasped in her powerful claws. I could see how bright, smooth and white the rat’s belly fur was, and could see her little legs flailing as if desperately trying to find ground under her feet. I’ve had several pet rats and have had occasional wild ones visiting my garden. I’m sure man

I recently recorded and published my next episode of flip throughs of my art journal, and it happened that one of the four spreads I discussed was my all-time favorite. It brought back a flood of memories of the covid lockdowns. That’s not the reason it’s my favorite spread, though. It’s that the story it told was so intriguing and personal. Here’s the spread. the crocodilians from their Zoom call The crocodile from the Nile river valley, an alligator from the outskirts of th