Attitude
Dinner
Land, Sea, Air
Jay, Crow, Flicker
Loud Mouth
Talk About It
I happen to be reading "In the Company of Crows and Ravens" by John M. Marzluff & Tony Angell, a fascinating look at who crows are and how we interact with them. Our current campsite has a flock of crows (also known as an Unkindness of Crows or a Murder of Crows: read the book to find out why!) who are keeping me entertained as I am stuck in camp with a broken foot. The wonderful book illustrations inspired me to work at capturing these characters. They are unusually shy, but greedy too - a handful of oatmeal cookie crumbs draws them in every time. They still move too fast to capture, so these drawings are from a combination of direct observation and photographs. The feathers and shells I found here, and are drawn from life.
We've been in Puget Sound and the Olympic Peninsula of Washington for the past week or so; heading back to Oregon soon for the last part of this trip.
** Added note: Andrew sent me the following link about crow behavior - fascinating! Click here
Robyn at the fabulous Art Propelled also has a wonderful post on Crows here.
12 comments:
Just love "the Attitude"! Didn't know crows could be friendly!
Love the crows, Terry!! Enjoy the rest of your trip -- bummer to have a broken foot, but you probably wouldn't have had the same opportunities to do these great sketches if you'd been more mobile. You've really captured their attitude.
Sounds like an interesting book. I like the title Loud Mouth... I think he (or someone just like him) was living here for a while. Always crowing in sets of three.
Thanks for sharing the drawings.
Wonderful drawings. Oh my! A broken foot? What happened? I wish you a fast healing. I hope you're as comfortable as possible.
Paz
Hi Jill - I've heard some wonderful stories about crows as pets, very clever creatures! We will be back in Oregon in a few days, I'll let you know what I find in Portland and the north coast....
Chris! Thanks for visiting! I really love the introductions you're making about the artists on Brush-Paper-Water (Loved Amy Arntson!), but miss seeing more of your work - whats up?
Hi Andrew - In my little group of crows there was just a single (female) who couldn't stop telling everyone what to do, she'd just follow another bird around with her mouth wide open, caww caaww caw. Very funny.
Paz, thanks, as always :-) I broke my foot just before starting the trip, a simple fall. The first couple of weeks were bad while on crutches, but now I can get around without them. About 3 more weeks till I'm out of my "boot". So - none of the planned hiking/biking/kayaking for me, but as Chris points out, I'm having lots more time to draw and study art stuff.
Thanks everybody for stopping in and leaving a note!
Love the sketches. Hope your poor foot heals quickly.
Thanks Robyn!
Terry, these are wonderful!! Love the expressions! Sorry about your foot, but happy for the drawings!
I love this Terry. They are sooo inspiring.
Get well soon and be back.
Love the crows, this is a very nice sketchbook.
wishing you quick healing,
faye
Vicki, Faye, and "1,000" - thanks for leaving your comments, so nice to hear from you. My cast is off and I've been painting away - have a show coming up. Will be posting again soon - maybe even today!
These are sensational. You have captured the essence of the crows and each of these objects here!
Post a Comment