A Red Red Rose

I took several photos of my neighbors roses a few weeks ago and Wow! what colors I got. I was hoping to go back over and take more but I have not had the chance. The sun that day was mostly hiding behind the clouds. Just as I saw this red rose a bit of sunlight beamed down on this red beauty in just the right way. The camera captured some amazing colors that day. Partly cloudy and beams of light on just the right perfect roses.

Today I drew this rose as an ATC, which you can see on my main Philosopher Artist blog. I could not capture the colors in the drawing as the camera did, but the drawing turned out almost as fantastic as the original. Not quite the same but good in its own media. I love to draw as well as doing photography and it is even more special when I can create one from the other. Now I will have to draw the other roses in the other photos I took. Have a fun and creative day!

Walden Nature Journal

I have begun to add my drawings and writings to my new nature journal. It turns out the the paper is a lovely weight with the right amount of tooth to draw on. When I erase mistakes they come off without leaving any evidence, which is a good thing.
I would have to say that this is my favorite journal thus far. It is so inspiring to draw in Thoreau's book. I cannot wait to do more drawings and that is another good thing, because I cannot get better at drawing what I see unless I practice a lot.

Art is such a joy, now go and create!

My New Nature Journal

It has been awhile since I posted here on my nature blog, shame on me for being too lazy to upload photos;-) Anyway, I have been busy creating and taking photos, but not everything I do fits the outline of my nature blog. At least I have been creating.

I have started a new nature journal to draw in. It will be drawing in a copy of Walden. No worries it is only a Barnes and Noble classic printed in 1995. It is a nice book. The paper is a nice weight and has dark print, which is good because I still would like the words to show through most of my drawings. The cover is a dark green cloth and as you can see the cover is very pretty. I won the book on Ebay for very little money. It is a brand new copy, never read because the pages creak when you open it. In fact, the book has been sealed since 1995 so it is in perfect condition. I was searching for a perfect book to do my drawings in and I think this is the perfect one.

Now you are going to ask, "Why Walden?" Well, it is because this is my favorite book. I have read it now going on 8 times and I love it every single reading. Because I have so many other copies of Walden; 1 for each member of the house (but they have not read it all the way through), and 3 copies for me. One copy is the version I read and write in. There are a lot of notes in it. Another copy is the small B&N red cloth covered classics that they put out a couple of years age and the last copy is this new one that I will be drawing in and also perhaps some writing, such as a poem or a comment and the names of the flora and fauna, etc. Okay, I admit I am a bit eccentric but hey, at least I am having fun;-)

Because the book's cover is very nice cloth I wanted to protect it from the elements so I wrapped the book in plastic and made a cloth book cover to keep the original clean. The pattern for the cloth cover seen here with the deer is simply the same as if I had used a paper bag. The ole way we used to cover our school books. Real simple. The material is a piece of vintage fabric I found at a thrift store.

I think it is perfect for the theme of the book. I also think that Thoreau would get a kick out of the cover and what I am doing with his book.

The left photo of the deer is the back of the book, the middle photo is the spine and the right photo is the front of the book. I loved this fabric when I saw it and got all they had, but there was not enough to make anything, except maybe a pillow and I do not like pillows on the sofa.
Now all I need to do is find some flower or something to draw and then more and more. I will post my drawings from time to time just to show you all how it is going. I am off to have some more fun. I hope you have a creative day as well!

The Flowers are in Full Bloom

I have been taking a lot of photos of the flowers in my yard. I do not really have a lot of flowers during the summer, but spring and early summer there is a bunch of blooming beauties. I have more that I will post later.

The Tulips are in Bloom

Finally, the tulips have bloomed in my yard. At least in the backyard they have, the front yard tulips will be open soon. I have not ever taken photos of them so this year I am. It may be the last year that I get to see them because we may have to sell our house before it goes completely into foreclosure. It is a sad thing, because I love this house and I do not want to move. I will enjoy my home as long as I can and deal with what comes.
My favorite tulip so far is the yellow with red variety. Red is my color of choice but I love how it is up against the yellow. It is so bright and cheery, they put a smile on my face.
I have been doing an art project on the computer using my tulip photos from last year turning them into kaleidoscopes. The colors and shapes are so fascinating. I cannot wait to turn these lovely shots into more kaleidoscopes. (You can see some of my kaleidoscopes on my Philosopher Artist blog: http://thephilosopherartist.blogspot.com/ ) Perhaps the tulips in the front are different colors so that I can have even more crazy kaleidoscope photos. We shall see, I hope you all enjoy these spring beauties.

Spring has Sprung

We finally have spring and it is most welcome by humans and other creatures. This is a pinecone that my son put peanut butter and bird seeds on for the birds to eat during the long winter. It seems to be missing a lot of seeds so it did work and now that it is spring the birds can find a lot of other food to eat.

I saw that the flowers had bloomed on the cherry tree yesterday morning but I wanted to wait until the afternoon to take pictures. However, the sun decided to hide behind the clouds making the lighting on the blooms spotty. I like the effect the light did on these blooms. My tulips are just about to bloom. The only problem is that the weather for about a week may not be so nice as far as taking photos. I will hope that the tulips stay long enough for me to have a chance to take their picture. For now I hope you enjoy these beautiful little white flowers.

Chickie is my Blue Fronted Amazon who likes to be outside on the porch with me, honestly she likes to be with me 24/7;-) She also likes having her photo taken.

I was going through my photos and found some very beautiful pictures that I took up Provo Canyon in Utah. One of the activities I am working on is getting my website going in order to sell my artwork which includes my photography. I am experimenting on the size that should be online and if I should put a watermark on it. The photos need to be seen but not so that people can copy them without my permission.

I cannot wait to get out into the wilds and take more photos. It has been way too long since I have done that and I miss it a lot. The power of intention is what I need!!!

Easter Glory

Welcome to my new blog which is my online nature journal where I can share my love of nature. My plan is to use my artistic skills in various mediums to capture that beauty that is found in nature. In the past couple of years pain has kept me from being outside or at least traveling to other areas of my beautiful state. This year I am changing that and no matter how much pain I am in I will go exploring. I hope that you will return to see my work.

Easter Sunday:

I hope you all had a wonderful Easter weekend. The weather here in Utah held out and gave us a bright and sort of warm Easter Sunday. Winter feels so long that many of us hunger for the warm weather and the birth of Spring.

My tulips are not blooming yet as you can see in these two photos. A lot of green but very little blooming color. Soon they will bloom and then I will grab my camera and or my drawing material and run out to capture their beauty. It has been so long since they last bloom that I can barely remember what color they are. I believe that there are white, yellow and red tulips. It will be just like Christmas when one waits for that exciting moment when the gifts are open and the surprise can be celebrated.

My husband bought me a bouquet of tulips so that I could feel Spring. Of course, I had to take pictures of these pretty orange/red and yellow flowers.

I used my Canon Rebel XTi and forgot to write down the settings. Oh, well maybe next time. I do miss using 35mm and my 120 film cameras. Another activity to do this summer is to dust my other pretty cameras off and use them to capture more beauty.