Done and done!

Happy to say that this painting which I am calling " Christmas Morning" is finished, framed and hung! I plan to make some canvas prints for sale in time for the Holidays, hope to make frames for the prints out of rough sawn wood like I did for the original.
Cheers
Bill

Woodworking

I do not claim to know all the ins and outs of how to make quality furniture out of wood. Far from it in fact. What I have are some basic skills acquired over the years from odd projects and watching others with far more experience. The main driver for my desire to build things recently can be summed up into 3 points.
1. I finally have the room, and most of the basic tools to make stuff.
2. Its a lot easier, more fulfilling, and cheaper to make exactly what you want rather than try to find it at a store.
3. I LOVE the smell of a wood shop in use!

Here are my first 2 attempts with no outside help at making furniture. I feel like a few basic wood working classes would help a lot but its also pretty fun to figure out the issues as they arise, as long as your not wasting boards!


Project #1
Graphic design table

Project #2

TV stand

Scarlet Tangers and Chainsaws

I can tell another year has gone by when I see my second Scarlet Tanger. Without fail, every summer I have seen exactly two of them in different places, totally random. It could be that I don't pay close enough attention, or was not familiar enough with their song, but times they are a changing.

Yesterday afternoon, during the peak heat of the day, I thew on some long sleeves, heavy canvas Carhartt pants, and headed out to cut down a dead hemlock that has been bugging me for a few weeks. Not my best idea in recent memory.

About an hour into it I had to stop to tighten the chain. While doing so I caught a bright flash of red out of the corner of my eye. That was no cardinal, the jet black wings gave away what would be come my first Scarlet Tanger sighting of the year.

After finishing up in the punishing heat I was relaxing on the front porch searching some more info about the Tanger. I played its song a few times on my lap top to see if by some chance it might draw the bird in for a better look, and it did. It was almost too easy. The bird spent about 10 minutes with us , VERY confused as to what was going on. I decided to snap a few photos and let him get back to doing what ever Scarlet tangers do on a summer evening, and i got back to doing what I do, cold beer on the deck!

More Spring migrants arrive

Since my last post a few more of my favorite birds have trickled in and sang for me. Although I have been really busy still have a little timer here and there to listen and look for birds. The red eyed Vireo I photographed yesterday was very unique. I literally brought my laptop outside when I heard one singing behind my house, I played its song from my favorite bird website and with in 20 seconds a pair of vireos cam flying down to investigate. That's how I got such a fine photo of such an elusive bird.

I like to keep it simple when I'm outdoors and not bring a lot of gadgets, but this was remarkable. This might actually be a reason to finally get a smart phone...but only for this!

 American Redstart

Blackburnian Warbler (lifer)

 Northern Parula (lifer)

 Red Eyed Vireo (lifer)

Red Eyed Vireo ( lifer)

New England Warblers!

I decided to really try to photograph as many warblers as I can this month. With so many species migrating through and so many types of habitat close by it has been it has been a great challenge so far.  Here is where I am as of May 11th.

 Chestnut-Sided warbler

 Common Yellowthroat

 Black and White Warbler

 Black Throated Blue Warbler ( FINALLY!)

 Oven Bird

Prairie Warbler

Black Throated Green Warbler

Yellow Warbler

Yellow Rumped Warbler

Chestnut-Sided Warbler

Some birds get stuck with the silliest names, its almost as if someone was in a major time crunch to name all the birds in the world in one day and could only give each one a fraction of a second to think about an appropriate name. This is very true with the Chestnut-sided Warbler. Clearly it makes sense, the chestnut sides are very obvious, but what about a Masked Yellow Crowned warbler, or perhaps North Eastern Field Warbler. A name with some meaning or character. Ok, so these names are no better but I think I made my point.

 

I must not lose site that this is one of my favorite birds, a harbinger of spring, with a song that carries across vast fields. I see these little birds only a handful of times each spring and early summer, but never have I been able to get so close and capture so many clear photos of such a fast moving skittish bird. Hope you enjoy!

Winter Farm Painting update

This past weekend I spent a good amount of time refining the depth in this painting. I want to start creating a sense of space and distance, this will be followed by another round of detail and color calibration. Its been some time since a painting has been this much fun to work on!

A New Painting!

Over the past few weeks I have been working on this painting every free chance I get. Its the largest painting I have ever done on canvas, 3feet by 4 feet.

Although it has been a long time since I have consistently painted week to week, I really feel like I am in the groove on this one.

I changed my mind 3 times until I finally committed to this farm layout. The original idea was to paint a street in downtown Portsmouth, NH. After taking many photos I was just not in love with the images, mainly because the original idea had inclement weather, they day I shot was clear.

The 2nd idea was based on a photo I took a few months ago of a barn on a hill, I really liked the image but felt like it was not very well suited for painting and would not allow me to enjoy the process enough.

 The second painting concept.

I finally found this farm right along side a secondary highway in Strafford , NH. I totally changed the landscape, and added snow and removed trees to get the feel that I was looking for. Have a look at the process so far.

Short-Eared Owls and Wet Feet

 Yesterday afternoon I found myself in the southern end of the NH coastline.  With rates as low as this it seemed to be a good choice to refinance my house, so this would be the second closing inside of a year. Booooring.

All said and done at 3:50 I decided to head to a secluded spot not far away in Rowley, Mass. This area looks out over Plum Island Sound and is a known hunting spot for the Short-Eared Owl. This would be my 4th visit to this wet and windy area hoping to catch a glimpse of this bird that would be considered a lifer for me.

As luck would have it, the road leading from the car to a good observation point was flooded with brackish, sulfur smelling water. There I stood, with my only nice shoes, button down shirt,  camera in hand, perfect setting sun, staring across the water to where I needed to be.

 It seemed clear I had but one choice. Immediately I rolled up my pants and took off my shoes and socks and began wading across the freezing water to the other side, about 40 yards. Once on the other side, I dried my feet quickly in the dried sea grass, slipped my shoes back on and trudged onward.

Within 30 feet of getting my shoes back on an owl rose out of the grass 50 yards in front of me in perfect light. Then another, for about 10 minutes I watched as 2 owls seemed to taunt each other and hunt over the marsh. Just seeing these amazing birds for the first time was like a dream. The moment made me forget about my freezing, wet feet and the fact that the wind had picked up and I realized I should have probably put a jacket on some time ago. Looking back at my truck a half a mile away I stuck it out til sun set.

 

 The water gauntlet with no way around.

Like clockwork, as soon as the sun set, the moon rose in the east 180 degrees to the east.