Some Recent Watercolors! For the Love of Birds!!!

Great Blue Heron in Flight

As you might imagine, I've been super busy since the last posting. My art show at the Bellefonte Art Museum was a fantastic success - 1/3 of the paintings were sold! Then there was the museum's annual Christmas exhibit/sale... And then I joined a new location for selling my work, The Gallery Shop in Lemont, PA. I'm already a member of Art a la Carte, in downtown Bellefonte, and I still have a few pieces in the Bellefonte Art Museum's gift shop. Keeping new work at each location takes time, energy, and enthusiasm!

Here are a few of my latest watercolors. Most are currently out at the above sites.

Blue Jay

Rufus-sided Towhee

White Throated Sparrow

Winter Cardinal

Rose-breasted Grosbeak

Carolina Wren

Black-capped Chickadee

Goldfinch

Tuftet Titmouse

As you can see, I've been busy painting! There's also a new temporary location for some of my work, the Nittany Valley Chiropractic in State College, PA. I'll be hanging the exhibit tomorrow (weather allowing!) and the show will be up throughout March and April, 2022.

Meanwhile, one of our granddaughter's and her two daughters have temporarily moved in with us until she can find a good job and then a nice apartment. She is relocating to Centre County and we're delighted to have her with us!

Catching Up

RAVEN with GRAPE - 12x24" acrylic painting (c)Pat Dolan

I finally completed the two larger paintings that I worked on during the ART STUDIO OPEN HOUSE a few weekends ago. The Ravens, when painted on a black canvas, look wonderful, but I find that the contrast of the Raven on a white canvas offers a different kind of emphasis. I like both and will do more of both!

GREAT BLUE HERON in FLIGHT - 12x24" acrylic painting (c)Pat Dolan

My love of Great Blue Heron's began about 40 years ago when we were living on the Susquehanna River in Bradford County, PA - up at the top of the state. That was when I first met them and have admired them ever since. They can appear awkward one moment and ultimately graceful the next. It's all in the timing!

Both of these paintings were done using Wendy Davis' excellent photographs for authentic source material. Wendy is an amazing photographer of wildlife, particularly birds. And she lives in British Columbia, Canada. We "met" on Facebook when I saw her amazing "Your Daily Raven" photographs and then contacted her. She's a wonderful photographer, sells her photographs as well as yearly Raven calendars on line.

Open Studio - Spring 2017

Two paintings begun on Saturday morning - a Great Blue Heron in flight from a wonderful photograph by photographer, Wendy Davis of British Columbia. And a Raven, also from photographs supplied by Wendy to me for painting.

Last Saturday and Sunday, the Art Alliance of Central Pennsylvania sponsored an Open Studio Weekend for artists in Centre County, PA. It was a dull and showery weekend, so gardeners and bird watchers were out to see what artists were up to this spring. Each artist demonstrated throughout their open house periods, answered questions, talked about their work, and so much more. Whole families came together - I had one family of three generations of bird watchers come on Sunday afternoon with lots of questions. The elder of the family showed me his wonderful bird photographs taken the day before at an Ohio Marshland area as they were on their way to Centre County for a visit.

Raven with a Grape:
Stage 1:

Stage 2 - 4 or so as I forgot to take more photos!

Stage 5ish: and still incomplete

Great Blue Heron in Flight:

Again, I forgot to take more "in process" photos...

Neither of the above two painting are, as yet, complete. There are some finishing touches to be made, some color changes here and there, and a signature to be added.

Here are two more Ravens (also from Wendy's photos), begun on Sunday as I waited to see what improvements I wanted to make on the two begun the day before.

Stage two:

Stage three:

As with the other paintings, these are still works in progress. Stay tuned for further updates to comwe!

Art Opening a Success!

Last Saturday's art opening at the State College Framing Company & Gallery was a wonderful event. It was especially nice that I had already sold three of my bird paintings prior to the event - the Male Cardinal, the Downy Woodpecker, and the Red-breasted Grosbeak all have found a new home.

Meanwhile, I had the first three of my Raven series framed in time for the show. I love how the frames work so well with the artwork! Here they are for you to decide if the frames are right for the birds!

All the above are available at the moment. Here is the gallery pricing.

I also brought a newly completed painting - not a portrait, but a Great Blue Heron on a 15"x30" canvas. I strongly debated adding something to ground the heron, but decided to allow it to stand noble and free of any distractions. I may change my mind, of course. I've considered adding a simple pencil drawing of reeds towards his/her feet. I'll think on it awhile longer before I make any changes.

And I'm gearing up for a large series of Raven portraits, like the three above. The canvases are now double-coated in black and ready to go. I've selected 10 photographs from Wendy Davis Photography after she graciously agreed to my using of them for reference material. Wendy has a great Facebook page here, if you are interested in Ravens and other wildlife in British Columbia!