On a Clear Day

You can see the Olympic Mountains from East Bay Drive in Olympia, Washington.

STUNNING!

Heron Nests

The other day my friends and I took the Woodard Bay Trail near Woodard Bay and at the end of the Chehalis Western Trail in Olympia, Washington. We wanted to view the nesting grounds of the herons. In our area I have seen both the white and blue herons. I would like to imagine that they are not discriminatory and share this wonderful nesting ground. Soon the trail will be closed to people so the herons will not be disturbed.

Photo from my cell phone:



Some interesting facts regarding the heron nests...

Usually, nests are about 1 metre in diameter and have a central cavity 10cm deep with a radius of 15cm. This internal cavity is sometimes lined with twigs, moss, lichens, or conifer needles.

Great Blue Herons normally nest near the tree tops. In colonies made up of several species, they will take possession of the top of the tree and leave the lower branches to other species.

In the spring, males and females reach the nesting grounds at about the same time. Males settle usually where there are nests from former years. Each male then defends his territory in the tree where he plans to build a new nest or restore an old one. From that site, males put on grand displays and shriek loudly when females approach them. New mates are chosen each year. Birds aged two years or more mate almost immediately upon arrival, usually at the nest or, when one is not available, on a branch.

The building of the nest soon follows. The male gathers nest-building materials around the nest site, from live or dead trees, from neighbouring nests, or along the ground, and the female works them into the nest. Ordinarily, a pair takes less than a week to build a nest solid enough for eggs to be laid and incubated. Construction continues during almost the entire nesting period. Twigs are added mostly when the eggs are being laid or when they hatch.

Most female herons lay from three to five eggs in April. Incubation, which is shared by both partners, starts with the laying of the first egg and lasts about 28 days. Males incubate during the days and females at night.

Watercolor Painting With Passion

Fabulous book by Alvaro Castagnet, Watercolor Painting With Passion!

I share art books with one of my art therapy clients. Today Alvaro's paintings captivated us. He is an expressive painter and exhibits a strong, impressive and colorful style with superb interpretation of light effects that capture the soul of places he paints. I like his impressionistic style with realism. His "cityscapes" instills in me a desire to travel.

I found it humorous the foreword of the book quotes Picasso's on painters and painting encapsulates the basic qualities, the prerequisites, for entry into this peculiar pastime of painter - sensitivity, insecurity and insanity.

America's Most Wanted Painting

What would art look like if it were to please the greatest number of people? Or conversely: What kind of culture is produced by a society that lives and governs itself by opinion polls?

A project begun in 1995 by the Russian emigrant artist team Vitaly Komar and Alex Melamid identified the most wanted and least wanted paintings on the web.

This project attempts to discover what a true "people's" art would look like. Through a professional marketing firm, a survey was conducted to determine what Americans prefer in a painting; the results were used to create the painting America's Most Wanted. This project was expanded in both scope and audience through the Internet at Dia's website, allowing visitors to see the paintings based on completed polls of over a dozen countries.

This is a link to the Most Wanted and Least Wanted paintings by country. They're actually a composite based on the answers to the survey questions.

This a link to the survey results - which analyse responses to each survey question by country.

So you ask, what is the Most Wanted Painting in the United States?


The Most Wanted Painting in the USA
(dishwasher size)
Komar and Malamid - survey results

118 Self-Portraits

Karin Jurick has been leading monthly painting projects on her blog, Different Strokes for Different Folks. Recently, she has been very busy preparing for an exhibition in March and consequently wasn't able to lead her Different Strokes for Different Folks crew in their normal monthly project.

However, her monthly painting project blog is so popular that her 'students' decided to do a project of their own and surprise her with it. So 118 artist bloggers all painted a photo of Karin!


a small sample of 118 paintings of Karin Jurick
A project by the arrtist bloggers on Different Strokes from Different Folks

Is It Done, Yet?

When to call a painting done?

One of the most challenging aspects of being a watercolor painter is deciding when a painting is finished. This one has been on my drafting table several weeks in process and the colors have changed several times. I believe it is done. Or, am I just ready to move on?



What are your thoughts?

Moss Trees

The Pacific Northwest and moss seem to go together.

On my morning walk, along the Chehalis Western Trail in Olympia, Washington, I was enamoured by the green outlines of the trees. It happened to be one of those dark, cloudy mornings with a surprise sun break. I believe this condition intensifies the color of the moss. Would you agree?





I also like the little ferns which grow on the moss.