Chrysler Museum and the Rubber Duck!

The Dutch artist Florentijn Hofman's Rubber Duck has settled in the Hague Inlet across from our newly renovated Chrysler Museum's main entrance. It really is a world traveler after visiting Holland, France, Brazil, Japan, New Zealand and several other countries. Now here it is in Norfolk, not so far from my studio. Thought I would go check it out. It was a beautiful day! The yellow and the blue! Art or not?

I wonder how it got so big........

Box Turtle Painting

I started my turtle etching but found time running short so decided to create a painting for the show instead. Etchings require a lot of going back and forth with possible corrections and with going out of town several times, I wasn't sure I could finish in time for the "Earthscapes" show at my art center. So I turned to gouache painting to create this turtle scene. I wanted to make a scene which included some of the native plants in my lawn like wild strawberry and violets. 

Bluebird Gouache Painting

Bluebirds, pokeberry and hawthorn!
9" x 9"

Buttercups

Just around the corner from my house I found an explosion of buttercups, sometimes considered a weed but they are beautiful here in the light of the late afternoon. They are from the family Ranunculus, Latin for "little frog" since many species are found near water, like frogs. Isn't that interesting? There's the false belief that these plants give butter its characteristic yellow color but that's definitely not true because the plant is poisonous to cows and they know it!
Here are a few photos I took yesterday afternoon.

a little sketch

Love long shadows like these