The very place I have been seeking

Here is the finished print! The black and orange/red are separate plates, and the blue is hand colored. 

This quote inspired me:

"I have just dropped into the very place I have been seeking, but in everything it exceeds all my dreams." -Isabella Bird, 19th century explorer and naturalist

But I've also been fascinated with grown-in houses for a while--the kind you sometimes see going wild with tree seedlings growing in the gutters and ivy growing in through the windows and the grass growing ten feet tall, and you know the neighbors probably hate it but it's actually kind of beautiful.

A thousand cuts...

...more or less. Now to make some prints!

Nice day for ducks

It's pouring rain outside, and I'm sketching lots and lots of chickens for a book project while listening to a dove making hooting noises on the porch.

There are about two hundred little chicken drawings on my table, and I only like three of them so far, so I'm throwing in a duck for variety.

Brrrrrr

It's insanely cold today; when I woke up this morning there was a solid sheet of ice on my windowpane. Once I got it scraped off there was one very puffed up bird sitting in the dried vines outside (not 22 or 23 as in the illustration).

Weird: If I count the birds horizontally I keep coming up with 22, and if I count them vertically it's definitely 23. I'm still not sure which is right. This is one of the many reasons why I'm not an accountant.

Stay warm, and Happy New Year!

Insomnia

Something woke me up in the middle of the night. It was my husband snoring: HOOORRRRRNK. HOOOORRRNK. It went on for a long time until he finally rolled over. 

Complete silence. Then I heard, farther away, HUUUUNNGGK. HUUUUNNGGK. It was one of my neighbors snoring. After a while, the noise tapered off.

I was just falling asleep when I heard HINK. HINK. HINK. My cat was snoring, too.

Illustrator Saturday

I'm proud to be the featured illustrator this week on Kathy Temean's Illustrator Saturday blog! You can read the interview here.

Society of Illustrators 55

I was very happy to find out that the painting in my last post was selected for the Society of Illustrators Annual Exhibition!

When I found out, I smiled for a few hours straight, and then started thinking "I'M NOT WORTHY!" like Wayne and Garth in Wayne's World shouted when they met Alice Cooper. Thanks to all the judges who decided otherwise.

 Here's the painting again (in a bad phone snapshot).

The Queen of Halloween

I was looking at a very long family tree and wishing that I could see the people, which gave me the idea for a series of paintings called Imaginary Ancestors.  This queen is the first in line. I was going to paint her holding a flower, but she just wanted to hold a twig instead.

Happy Halloween!

In Flowers

The idea for this illustration came from a dream I once had, that my clothes were covered with flowers that would open in the daytime and close at night.

(It's available as a print in my Etsy shop.)

Evening Song

It's 90 degrees outside, so working on this autumnal illustration ("Evening Song") for Ladybug Magazine was a refreshing break from the heat--in my mind, anyway. Some neighborhood crows obligingly posed for me.

Year of the Dragon

This dragon popped into my head one night, just like it's popping in on the girl in the painting. My publisher decided not to use it, since it didn't look enough like my usual work, but it makes me happy anyway. Here it is, popping in on my blog.

Happy (belated) New Year!

Happy News

The illustration "Flying Horse", which I did for the cover of Cricket Magazine last September, was selected to be in the 3x3 Illustration Directory No.8!

Signs of Fall

Almost half a year later....

There is a cool night breeze and the sound of rain on the leaves outside. It's already starting to feel like autumn.

This is my illustration "Look Up," from the October 2011 issue of Ladybug.

Signs of Spring

• A tiny bit of spring green appeared outside: some flax seedlings that came up from last year's plants.

• The starlings have started to get their black summer feathers, and are pulling up twigs for nests.

• It's 5 pm and still light out, even with a sky full of wintry grey clouds.