Sunday Sketches

I am sill obsessed with the magnolia blossom!

Previously I posted the block print version.

Here is my latest rendition in oils.


It feels great to be painting again after a quiet time.

View more Sunday Sketchers.

Block Printing Addiction

Yes, I believe I have the cravings to make block prints!

The other day, my artists friends and I had our second play date and, once again, chose to create block prints. Ellen Miffitt teaches the medium locally, but we got to enjoy her in-home class and culinary treats.

Last time I tried the flexible block and this time I went for the more stiff kind, but not as stiff as the old linoleum block.

I chose to carve the dogwood flower which bloomed in my yard last spring or was it early summer? This bloom was unfolding and a bee was in a frenzy searching for nectar and annihilated the stamens. It was absolutely fascinating to watch.

Here is the block:


The first print:


Printed on wall paper:

We put another date on the calendar; addiction confirmed!

Murals for a Cause

A fellow artist was brought to my attention because she too creates murals to bring awareness to a specific cause.

I was in Gaza creating murals to bring awareness to the water crisis, and Jame Kim is creating murals to bring awareness to endangered migrating species.

She calls her project the Migrating Murals.

Jane Kim combines the accessibility of street art with meticulous scientific detail. She plans to paint a series of eye-catching large-scale murals in public places along the migration routes of endangered species like the North Pacific blue whale and the whooping crane. The whale murals will stretch from Baja California to Alaska and crane paintings in locations from Texas to Canada.

Her Sierra Nevada bighorn sheep murals will dot U.S. 395 from Olancha to Lee Vinning - two small California towns that mark the herd's approximate southern and northern boundaries. She hopes to complete them by October.


The Sierra Nevada bighorn sheep population has dwindled to around 400, and estimates suggest that the remaining numbers of North Pacific blue whales is currently in the low 3,000's.

Next on Kim's agenda is to paint murals of endangered coho salmon, possibly stretching all from the Pacific Northwest to South Korea.