Wildlife seen en route

Posted on June 5, 2017 by Mary Beth Frezon

Saw this fellow, a yearling button buck today and he reminded me of the one that walked across I-90 Sunday night, slowing me to about 40 and slowing the three lanes of traffic behind me. I always wonder if the people behind me saw why I was blinking my brakes at them or just figured they better stop too. I took the added precaution of tooting my horn at the deer and it finally ambled to the median. Today’s deer was so very curious about a stopped car that I thought it would wander over and stick its head through the open window. It didn’t. It finally turned and sprang off, flag flying, to the next field where another deer was waiting.

Posted in In the neighborhood, life around us | Tagged , , | Comments Off on Wildlife seen en route

Out Looking Around This Morning

Posted on June 1, 2017 by Mary Beth Frezon

My intention was to get up early, grab a coffee and go out and paint. The night-spirit was good intentioned but the morning-spirit was not so fast moving. I did get up and grab a coffee but by the time I was out there, there wasn’t a lot of time so I went back and took morning photos of an area I’d found recently and am thinking about painting. It’s called gathering reference material people. You can check out the still photos here on this Flickr album but I also took this short video. Hope you enjoy the water and birdies.

Posted in birds and chickens, Do the Work, en plein air, In the neighborhood, life around us, photography, the creative process | Tagged , , , | Comments Off on Out Looking Around This Morning

Waiting for this to dry

Posted on June 1, 2017 by Mary Beth Frezon

The sky didn’t really look like this last night where I was but it was very bright and colorful. I decided I’d try making one with dark clouds too. Really wet so it needed a good drying.

Sun’s out today after yesterday’s thunderstorms so I guess we better make the most of it. The weather folks tell me we’re about four inches over the normal rainfall amount since January of this year… No wonder we feel a little squishey!

Posted in Do the Work, overhead, the creative process, watercolor | Comments Off on Waiting for this to dry

Guess MB’s Been Busy?

Posted on May 31, 2017 by Mary Beth Frezon

Yes I have been busy! Thanks for checking up on me.

I had a few days off over the holiday weekend and spent it doing some painting, some visiting of Mom, and clearing out of some boxes and other recyclables. Geesh. And laundry. And watching painters on YouTube. And eating.

I did this because I had cut up some paper and one piece didn’t cooperate, had a little boo-boo along an edge and it ended up this weird shape. Really just wanted to work out getting some tree/foliage texture going on so I’m calling it a good practice piece but not a good painting.

This was done one day at work using an iPad, a Pencil and the Procreate app.

I found some lupines in a field not too far from work so I did this quick sketch from a photo.

Everyonce in awhile I like to try to paint along with one of the youtube painters I follow, but of course I don’t know what the final idea is and I am too impatient to stop the video to let things dry so I carry on. This is a screen shot of the one by Alan Owen of the UK.

This is mine, looking a little more “spring in North America”:

More to come! Lunch over!

Posted in Do the Work, life on the web, the creative process, watercolor | Tagged , , , | Comments Off on Guess MB’s Been Busy?

The Little Close Encounter

Posted on May 24, 2017 by Mary Beth Frezon

Go out into the woods they say. Commune with nature they say. Draw strength from all beings. Yeah. Well sometimes you go into the woods, think deep thoughts and write a big book. Othertimes you go for a walk and stuff happens.

I thought I’d record some of the beautiful bird songs Tuesday so I used my phone. I was almost instantly sorry I wasn’t video recording. As soon as I hit the record button of course all the birds stopped singing, so I take a few steps toward the birds I can see and hear…

The next thing that happens is two birds tumbling through the air together whooped down on me out of nowhere and continued on their way. Whether they were enjoying what we called in Zoology Class a ‘cloacal kiss’ or were joined in a turf war I didn’t get a chance to find out.

Posted in birds and chickens, In the neighborhood, life around us | Tagged , , | 1 Comment