Mid-winter 2024 update

This winter has been one of the mildest on record. We can hardly even have called it winter, because it was mostly rain and mud. I think this season should have been called Mid-Mud, or Mud-something.

Anyway, good thing I had these latest projects to keep me busy:

Spots for Seattle Met

Wolves circling, for an article about eviction in Kingston, ON. For the Skeleton Park Press,

Portrait of novelist Kim Thúy for Canadian Geographic.
Polka Spudz in Barry’s Bay, ON for Every Chip Stand.
Perky’s Fish & Fries Too in Elmvale, ON for Every Chip Stand.
A&K Lick-a-Chick in Little Bras d’Or, Nova Scotia for Every Chip Stand.

Halloween illustrations

I had a great summer this year, but I’m always excited for my favourite autumn season. Joel and I put on a big Halloween display at our house, and I look forward to it every year when the kids fill the streets by the hundreds for trick-or-treating. Here are some unashamedly Gothic Halloween-themed illustrations:

 

Portrait of Edgar Allan Poe

Birds on the feeder

I have a birdfeeder outside the window where I work and it attracts all manner of little songbirds, mostly finches. I have a handy copy of Birds of North America on my desk so I’ve managed to identify most of them.

Here are 3 birds I see regularly on the feeder: slate juncos, white-breasted nuthatches, pine grosbeak (red finch). I used to see them more often, but my neighbour cut down a bunch of foliage on his side of the fence and so the birds have less cover now and don’t frequent my feeder as much 🙁

Foxhounds

 

 

Here are a bunch of new pieces. I went through a couple weeks lately where I needed to flex the compositional muscles. Don’t get me wrong, I enjoy drawing for Papillon Press cards but it’s also nice to get some actual backgrounds in some illustrations.

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More birds

Every now and then (okay, pretty much every year) family members request a piece of art from me. Aren’t they lucky? A quick and easy way for me to that is to paint studies of birds because guess what? I like birds. Here are a few in watercolour and ink:

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Baltimore Oriole

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Pileated Woodpecker

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Common Kingfisher