Harper and Fitz, two Golden Retrievers pictured here in this watercolor painting I did on commission this week, are like siblings to me. Really. They belong to my dad and his wife, so in a way they are my siblings. I may spend more time with my human siblings, but I generally don't muss up their hair quite as much.

As a former English teacher I am a HUGE fan of the names my dad and stepmother chose for them. Both dogs are named after American Literary Figures: Harper Lee and F. Scott Fitzgerald. 

I'll leave you with the parting words of The Great Gatsby... 

​“So we beat on, boats against the current, borne ceaselessly into the past.” 

Ducks on Ice.  I found this dopping of ducks loitering on the pond at Morris Arboretum two weeks ago. (Language geeks - check this.) 

The shapes appealed to me and I thought it a perfect subject to try out a watercolor exercise I recently read about. The exercise is to simplify the tone into just 4 values using a mixture of burnt sienna and ultramarine blue. This exercise reminded me a lot of the process of making a reduction linocut print.

Aren't these little guys so cute?!?

An homage to my neighborhood ice cream parlor, Sprinkles...complete with what I feel is their signature wallpaper pattern.

I am so grateful that I can walk with my family to enhance our lives with a freshly scooped ice cream cone...ANY TIME OF YEAR! We have 3 winter birthdays in our house, so this is very important to us.

Dear Sprinkles, thank you for the joy you bring to my family. And, thank you for the lovely Valentine's Day display that, to me, really captures the feeling of this week.

Can you guess how many candy hearts are in the jar? At Sprinkles, this could win you a prize!

Bees have a small wing size to body ratio. In fact, a common myth based on this information states that bees should not be able to fly. The truth is... they need to work harder than most insects in order to fly... they are bees after all! Work is their thing! To compensate they flap their wings a shorter span (90 degrees instead of 165) and more times per second (about 240 versus 200).

I drew this big bottomed lady from a photo taken in my garden during the summer. I'm exploring images for a body of larger watercolor paintings and the bees are, yet again, my muse.