Monarch Butterflies ~ Painting and Conservation

Monarch Butterflies

Growing up in Ventura our street was a stop off for monarch butterflies on their migration. Speaking of their migration, they have they longest of any butterfly. The eastern migration starts in Canada and ends up down in Mexico! The trees at the end of my street, Vista Del Mar, would be covered in thousands of these orange and black beauties every year. Some time after I left someone cut the trees down and the monarchs never came back. 

I just knew I had to paint these beautiful butterflies to represent where I grew up.

They were specifically painted for my solo show in December of 2018. If you missed my last post, here is my artists statement for that show. 

This exhibition is a reflection upon five decades and many places: The cities in which I have lived, countries where I have traveled and destinations that became pilgrimages. All have affected me in ways that are personal, powerful and life changing. These works are varied, as are the memories and connections I have with these places from my “Five Decades.” I hope you’ll enjoy the journey! 

My usual way of starting on the wood panels is to first use a clear gesso or medium to seal the wood. It doesn't completely keep the paint from absorbing into the panel but it definitely helps. Then I sketch the composition with a sanguine or burnt siena colored pencil or pastel. If I was painting on canvas and not using gold leaf I would just paint the composition in with a brush. You can see the reddish brown sketching above and the first layers of orange paint on the butterflies.

This next photo, I'm much farther along. I've added more variations to to orangy-gold in the wings, along with the black. At this point, I was hesitating in adding the white spots. I thought the painting might feel to chaotic but I decided to go for it.  

I made the spots a bit grey to soften them and then added the gold leaf. After the gold leaf I always go back into the edges where the paint meets the gold.

And ... Voilà! 

Ventura 

6 x 12"

Oil on Wood Panel, 2018

Gold Metal leafing

The butterflies sold to my dear friend Shea who I met during High School in our hometown of Ventura. This photo was at the reception, a week before I turned 50, last year. 

We lose a million to two million acres of habitat a year but we can help by planting milkweed (like swamp milkweed and butterfly milkweed) for the larva and other flowering plants like zinnias and even chives, for the adults, which they need to nectar on. This all helps to create backyard habitats for these beautiful butterflies. They also love various types of daisies, purple coneflower, goldenrods, butterfly bush, cosmos, some species of salvia, Viburnum, Mexican sunflower and then Tithonia (Mexican Torch) for when they come through in the fall. 

Check out this video on monarch butterflies.

You can also make a "butterfly puddle" and leave out fruit for your butterflies!

This one from the University of Minnesota and while it's very informational it also kind of cracks me up in its down home local TV vibe. ;-)

links

University of Minnesota Monarch Lab

U.S. Fish and Wildlife Monarch Page

How to build a Monarch Garden in 7 Steps

Happiness is a butterfly, 
which when pursued, 
is always just beyond your grasp, 
but which, if you will sit down quietly, 
may alight upon you. 
~Nathaniel Hawthorne

Blessings and Light!

Ojai Birds and Bats ~ My 2018 Solo Show

Not every winged Creature is considered a bird or a bat. 

Some wings are made of magic.

~Raani York, 2013 

One year ago I was painting like mad to finish 32 paintings for my solo show in December. The show was called "Through Time and Place: Five Decades" and it was my way of celebrating my 50th birthday! I wanted to honor the places that I love and that have influenced me while also feeling very productive as my birthday rolled around. 

They dip and dance 

like barn swallows at dusk 
glancing wingtip-to-wingtip 

against a lavender sky 
barely touching - 

yet, each creating thermals for the other 
to catch and ride - higher and yet, 

higher - towards a pale star... 

~ Kate Mullane Robertson

I used the money from the painting sales to go on my Saint Francis walk last spring. It was another way of marking my 50th, getting in shape, and also being in touch with the gratitude I feel for surviving a life challenging illness 10 ago when I turned 40. It was quite a full circle moment!

The following was my artist's statement for the show.

This exhibition is a reflection upon five decades and many places: The cities in which I have lived, countries where I have traveled and destinations that became pilgrimages. All have affected me in ways that are personal, powerful and life changing. These works are varied, as are the memories and connections I have with these places from my “Five Decades.” I hope you’ll enjoy the journey!

Ojai, California, 2017 (The Swallow)

Oil on wood panel, 2018

8 x 8" 

500.00 

The painting of the bird in my mom's hand above, and the one below of the bat, both represent Ojai, California. I have spent so much time in that little town. Not only is it 20 minutes up the hill from my childhood home of Ventura but my sister, parents and many friends have moved up there over the last 10 to 20 years. 

True hope is swift, and flies with swallow's wings.
― William Shakespeare

The baby swallow had flown out of its nest, under my parents tile roof, a bit too soon. It hadn't been quite ready and we were worried it would become hawk food. We spent half the day encouraging it to fly but before that happened I managed to capture a photo with my mom's outstretched hand. It was so cute! And yes, it finally took flight. We were very proud. :)

Little Brown Bat

Not long after my parents moved to Ojai in 2007 we had a little visitor in the guest room.  It was a little brown bat and when I say little, its tiny furry body could have fit in the palm of my hand! It was so adorable! Fortunately, that bedroom has a door to the courtyard and we were able to encourage his swift exit without too much drama. OK, there might have been a little drama. It's not every day you expect to see a bat hanging from the shade next to your bed! 

There are currently 77 Endangered and 

Critically Endangered bats 

on the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species, 

and we anticipate this number to increase 

as a new assessment is currently underway ...

~Bat Conservation International

"Trish Wimberley looks after hundreds of orphaned baby bats and rears them until they can be released into the wild. It's a tireless, never ending job which keeps her awake all hours (she apparently went 3 nights without sleeping once)."

There are 50 bat species in the United States but there are 1,300 in the world which make up a quarter of mammal species! The little brown guy I painted, that was hanging out in the guest room, was a micro bat. There are a lot of large tropical bats which are called flying foxes. The largest is the Malayan bat and it has a 6 foot wing span! The smallest is the bumblebee bat which has a 6 inch wingspan. Some can fly up to 50 miles an hour! They can live between 10 to 20 years. Isn't that crazy? I never knew until I researched information on bats for this post!  

Check out the "Bat Watch" in Austin Texas! Very cool! 

Leonardo da Vinci was absolutely fascinated by bats and the phenomenon of flight. He produced a famous drawing of a glider with bat wings! I know these little mammals freak people out, mostly  based on age old myths and lore, but they are amazing animals who are also eco-friendly pesticides! They are an important part of ecosystems around the world!

Ojai, California 2017

Oil on wood panel, 2018

6 x 6" 

(sold)

This is an incredible video which shows high speed video of bats in flight at Brown University. At 10:45 you can see how amazing they are in flight by observing their skeletal structure in action! 

Speaking of bats and art, here's one of my favorite munchkins, Natalie, from the art studio where I teach. I love how proud she is holding her charcoal bat tone drawing!

links

10 Ways to be a Friend to Bats! 

U.S. Fish and Wildlife

Bat Conservation International

Hope you enjoyed seeing two more of my paintings from my last show. I've already posted several of my oil paintings from the 2018 show, in my posts from Hawaii and Scotland. Lots more to come! 

Blessings and Light!

Twinkle, twinkle little bat 

How I wonder what you're at! 

Up above the world you fly, 

Like a tea-tray in the sky. 

~Lewis Carroll

Talisman ~ Painting an Owl

Every spring we have a big art show at my work, The Wizard of Art. Each student chooses an art piece for the show, frames it, and then the teachers hang all (133 this year!) works the night before the big reception. The faculty each puts a piece in the show as well. 

Here's a little unfinished charcoal demo I did of a snowy owl, for one of my private students.

White Owl Song, on the beautiful Native American flute!

It's nice because when we have the art show, the students can see what their teachers are working on and that can lead to some nice discussions about how we choose our subject matter, and on occasion, how artists sometimes need to be patient about finishing a piece! 

They come for an hour, or an hour and a half class, so after some of the kids have worked on a piece for a month they think it's been forever and I can say, yes but really it's it's only four hours. I often work for 5 hour stretches or more in one sitting and I can show them an example. Usually, the lights come on and they realize that it's not actually taking them "forEVER" as they say. This, of course doesn't work on a 4, 5, 6 year old!  

Anyway, I wanted to do a new piece for the show and for some reason I'd been kind of obsessing on doing an owl, before I'd ever done that charcoal demo (on the grey paper above.) I had taken a photo years ago of Riley, a little Eastern Screech Owl, when I was in Ojai meeting some of the birds that were rehabbed at the Ojai Raptor Center.

I'm still on my "oil on wood panel kick," so one night after work at the Wizard, I sketched in the owl with a little Conté Crayon. (above) Then, I went in with Gamblin's odorless mineral spirits (a paint thinner) and used it to move the Conté around ... 

Then, I started getting in the values (lights and darks) with burnt sienna and ultramarine blue ...

At that point, I went in with slightly heavier layers of paint and more color ... and for some reason this little guy wanted to be on magenta ... though I don't know why, or at the time where I was even going with that.

As I was starting the owl, I began looking online at all the different symbolic meanings of owls. It's fascinating and I thought the need to do an owl might have some deeper meaning for me.

Different cultures have different meanings for the owl, from wisdom (Athena) and protection, to mystery, to death, rebirth and transformation. 

In Celtic mythology "Owls knew the way to the underworld and were fierce defenders of truth and honor." 

My favorite is that the Owl represents night, the moon and the feminine. So, I'm going with that ... and the truth and honor part. That magenta/red seemed to work with the idea of the feminine, blood and creation ...

My owl palette ...

I was hanging out and painting with one of our old students, Audrey, who started at the Wizard at four years old and is now a fine art major at UCLA. She also teaches at the studio when she's on break. I think I worked a couple nights with her at the studio. Probably in 4 or 5 hour stretches. I loose track when I'm painting.

After that, I took the little guy home to work on it. I showed a picture to my boss who said, "We see owls like that in the desert. Is that a cactus he's on?" And that was it. It was a cactus. I just hadn't known it yet, and I needed someone else to tell me. If you throw something up to the art gods, just pay attention and the answer will come. Often from a smart fellow artist! 

I started doing the detail work at home. As you might have noticed, I love doing detail work. Especially eyes! It's funny because when I look at other artists, I love really loose painting with very expressive brushwork, but when I start working on something, I can't seem to help myself.

It's kind of meditative but at the same time, using a tiny 0000 brush can be tedious and intense. (The smaller the number the smaller the brush!) At that point you take breaks and start photographing your pants!

The claws and the cactus needles were also very detailed. I also added more reds ... Alizarin Crimson, magenta, Cobalt Violet, and Cadmium Red to the cactus.

Here is a National Geographic Documentary on owls ... at 6 minute you'll see one hatch, and you see them grow! 

And here he is! 

Talisman

9" x 12"

650.00

To learn more about the Ojai Raptor Center on their website, click here.
To see my old blog posts about the Raptor Center, click here and here.

Where the bee sucks, there suck I:

In a cowslip's bell I lie;

Then I couch when owls do cry.

On the bat's back I do fly

After summer merrily.

Merrily, merrily shall I live now

Under the blossom that hangs on the bough.

~William Shakespeare

The Tempest, Act 5, Scene 1

The Little Maasai Girl ~ Choosing a Subject and Reference from the Past

“Through all the world 

there goes one long cry from the heart of the artist: 

Give me a chance to do my best. ” 

~Karen Blixen

Babette's Feast & Other Anecdotes of Destiny

When I started gathering my ideas together for my show last fall, I wanted to choose references that were powerful to me. They were supposed to represent the idea that we are all made and shaped by our memories. So, for the "experiential series" they had to be related to important places, times or people from the past. 

In 1989, when I stepped off the plane in Kenya, I experienced a feeling that I had never had before. It was as if my feet rooted into the ground and in a way that I'd never felt before ... or since. I felt at home in a way that was so grounded.  I want to say "extraordinary" but there was something so normal about it, like coming home after a very long journey. 

I have traveled to places since where I've felt at home, or that felt so familiar that it was like visiting an old friend. In Assisi, I could find my way without consciously connecting my brain to my feet. I guess it felt like home too, but more of an out of body feeling.

 In Kenya, I felt rooted. I get emotional just thinking of it.

So, for my solo show I knew I had to paint a memory from Kenya. I wanted to do a Cheetah (being my spirit animal and having seen them about 8 feet away!) but the panel I have for that is 5 feet tall and if I started that, I would have ended up having a show with 1 painting! So, I picked my favorite photo, which was from our visit to a Maasai village. I'm sure you can see why, with her sweet, lovely, radiance.

I started with a sanguine color conté pencil, drawing in her features on the wood panel, then blended with a brush and mineral spirits, gradually moving into using burnt sienna oil paint.

Little by little I added more varying skin tones, then went into the fabric. I love painting drapery, so I can definitely get carried away! I decided to simplify it a bit to keep the focus on her.

I started adding her beads and eventually her silver necklace but I stopped short of the longer beads. I could have gone crazy with all the details ...

There was such a lovely sense of light on her, in the photo  (faded and discolored as it was) ... I knew just where the gold needed to go. 

And here she is ...

Several people wanted to buy the painting but she sold (to my sister) before the show opened.  

Oh, shortly after I started this blog, in 2009, I did a post about Kenya which you can see here.

Hope you are all off to a wonderful spring! I went to the Holi Festival of Colors weekend before last. I will definitely post those very color photos!

Buona Primavera, i miei amici!

Blessings and light!

“Up in this air you breathed easily, 

drawing in a vital assurance and lightness of heart. 

In the highlands you woke up in the morning and thought: 

Here I am, where I ought to be.” 

~Karen Blixen

Out of Africa

Memory Creating the Self ~ Experiential Memory

Life is a balance between holding on and letting go.

~Rumi

2/4/2015 

7 3/4" x 5 3/4"

450.00

Yet another post about my solo show! (I did mention there were 33 pieces in all.)

There were 15 works in the "Experiential Memory" group of paintings. Some I've already posted on the post about the reception, and some I've still yet to post. These particular paintings relate to people (even if they look like flowers!) and to places I've lived.

Once again for those that are happening upon this post and haven't seen the previous writings about my show, here is the artists' statement. 

We are made of memory; genetic, experimental and body memory. We embody that which has come before us, as well as what we have experienced on our journey here. How much do we hold from our own past that we do not remember?

There are places and people we are linked with forever because they have left their mark on us. What is it that we will imprint on others and what will we leave behind?

My work integrates gold metal leafing, which incorporates memories of Thai temples and Italian altarpieces, from my own experience, as well as some deeper sense memory, that cannot be explained. There is a connection to history and tradition that I feel, as if I have been doing it for centuries.

All works are oil on wood panel with gold metal leafing.

(Music from the reception)

1979

8 x 8"

400.00

I chose to paint our sweet Japanese exchange student Noriko, who came to stay with us the summer between 5th and 6th grade. She brought a new world to me outside of my small California beach town. 

Be foolishly in love, because love is all there is.

~Rumi

1989

8 x 8"

(sold)

The painting above became very surreal, in style. I was fighting against it, in the beginning, but then I realized my memory of the place was indeed otherworldly. It was a place my friend and I found to live, on the Ocean, when I was only 20. It was like an incredible dream, to lie in bed and hear the ocean, to toast the sunsets and to play Chet Baker and cook pasta dinners for our friends ... and it was also the first time I ever fell in love.

1973

6 x 6"

(sold)

This was a beautiful pelican who sat on the Ventura Pier letting us take his picture. It's the town where I grew up, and the place I feel in love with the sound of the waves crashing on the beach and of sea birds and where most of my childhood memories live.

Don't sit and wait.

Get out there, feel life.

Touch the sun, and immerse in the sea.

~Rumi

1993 (on the easel)

10 x 10"

500.00

This next painting, was the piece that got me started on doing gold leafing again. I didn't know it would lead me to a whole concept for a show about images and memories that stay with you and become part of your being, and that help create the person you've become. 

I guess that's often the way of things. It looks like a simple still life, but it became something much more.

7/7/2015

7 3/4 x 5 3/4"

(sold)

Come, let us all be friends for once

Let us make life easy on us,

Let us be lovers and loved ones,

The earth shall be left to no one.

~Sufi Saying

Hope you are all enjoying the gifts of the season,

Blessings and light!