These two small, loose acrylic paintings with silver and gold colored pencil detailing were painted on scrap paper that I had saved. They feature two flowers currently in bloom in the garden: zinnias and yarrow.
The roaring sound of cicada tymbals has noticeably quieted. The next generation of periodical cicadas is young and silent. After hatching from eggs laid in trees, they will fall to the ground and tunnel into the earth, where they will live in darkness for years. These days it is the lightning bugs who are putting on a show. The insects sparkle against the backdrop of navy blue evenings and to the tune of crickets and tree frogs.
The blooming zinnias have been left alone by the deer who are notorious for chomping off the tasty flower buds and preventing the orange, red, and pink hues from coloring the garden. This year the zinnias had a head start. Instead of starting from seeds, they were planted as fully blooming flowers, and the deer have left them alone so far.
My summer reading has been featuring some historic themes. One of the books that I am currently reading is called Lost Animals: Extinction and the Photographic Record by Errol Fuller. The book is about extinct animals that had lived during the early days of photography and managed to have their picture taken before completely dying out (usually as a result of human actions). I am also reading Charles R. Knight: the Artist Who Saw through Time by Richard Milner, which is about a wildlife artist who had a knack for depicting extinct animals that people of the late nineteenth century and early twentieth century had never seen before. Think dinosaurs and saber-toothed cats. Imagine painting an extinct animal when the only physical information with which one has to reference is a skeleton.
As for my own artistic endeavors, my current work in progress is a colored pencil piece and is about one third of the way finished. I have mostly been working on the background, but I recently put down the first layers of colored pencil on a portion of the subject itself, which was exciting. The drawing consists of both flora and fauna, and that is all I will say about it for now.
When I am not staring at my art in progress or reading books, I am enjoying the hot summer days exploring at the beach, in the fields, and in the woods, usually with binoculars in hand, birding. The days might be longer, but time is ever fleeting. So instead of publishing two blog posts per month as I have done since three summers ago, I just might publish only one per month. We shall see. I have art to make and birds to watch.