urban nature

Southwest Florida flora and fauna. Plants include ginger, fern, bromeliad, Thai plant, banana plant, orange tree, bird-of-paradise, and hibiscus. I have no idea what the tree with the dangling potato things could be. While sketching, the squirrel climbed down a palm tree to relieve himself. He was very friendly.

Gasparilla Marina

Boca Grande, Florida. This was sketched on-location. It took several days of studying water to create this sketch.

Florida coffeeshop

The past week I have been in Florida for the annual visit with my parents. This is a subjective interpretation of my iced coffee at the Cafe Rouelle in Punta Gorda, Florida.

Holidaze Boat Rental

Punta Gorda marina. You can rent everything from a kayak to a pontoon boat to an outboard motor fishing boat. The fake plastic palm trees are a "special" touch to the decor.

Florida mango tree

Charlotte Harbor bridge in the background. I love mango, I wish these were ripe! When they are ripe, these are really messy trees. The fruit ooze sticky syrup all over everything. The fruit at the top of the tree were stripped away by the birds.

porch view

I never get bored with this view. My porch faces due East, so sunrises are never missed. Sunset red, amber, purple and blue play a light show on the ridge. During the day, cloud shadows glide across the pasture and up into the hills. During the storms, the ridge disappears completely. This gives the strange illusion of being in a flat landscape. At night the stars are abundant above the canvas of the trees. This is the best view I've ever had the fortune of living with everyday.

floaty pen collection

Over the last twenty years or so, I've collected these souvenir pens on my travels. They come from Eskesen, a company in Denmark. The original pens, you may remember, are the naked man or naked woman. You tip the pen and their underwear disappear. I thought this was a great novelty when I was a kid. From this, they created little scenes in the pens from places all over the world, some are very obscure. I have well over 100 pens in my collection.

http://www.eskesen.com/

garden art

A glass gazing ball. Inside are marbles for weight to keep the gazing ball from flying away in strong winds (which is often).

garden art

A cast iron pagoda. Inside is a chunk of ice blue coca-cola slag glass.

cat feet

Over the course of each moleskine sketchbook, I create a compilation of themed sketches. These are a few quick drawings of my cat Clarence's feet. Thank you for your patience, Clarence. Now it's on to small moleskine number eleven.

roof line

A quick sketch of my little house. I've been busy on a project lately. It's been an obsession. More normal sketch postings to come soon.

Aloe vera blossom

This Aloe vera is blooming on the south side of my house. Above on the ledge are horseshoes collected around the 5 acre property. Happy Easter!

houseplant

fish tank

Brush pen and photoshop.

yard art

Left; an old clinky clonky bamboo windchime. I love these things. Right; an old purple martin bird house. The wood is rotting, so I doubt it's been inhabited in in quite some time.

Large moleskine with Faber-Castell PITT pens.

the birdfeeder and the hopeful cat

Throughout the winter I have had many birds feeding and living very close by. They are so much fun to observe. Clarence, my cat co-exists nicely with them for the most part. Only once, I found cardinal feathers on the ground. They are either the least suspecting, or the bravest of the birds.

houses on a hill

This is quick pencil sketches, inked later without photo references. I had to invent the small details.

rural location sketching

A montage of houses in the hills on the edge of town.

Having lived, traveled and sketched extensively in large cities, rural sketching is a different challenge. There are very limited public places, most land is privately owned. I see many places where I would like to get a closer look for sketching, but the "keep out" and "private property" postings are serious business.

Although I sometimes take chances with trespassing, it makes me very uncomfortable. (I had a shotgun pointed at me once while sketching in a cattle pasture, that was not good at all. Ranchers have no mercy). In these cases, I sneak in, sketch very quickly and take snapshots. Using a camera is a dilemma in the sense of being a "purist" in the location sketching crowd, but I would be very limited otherwise. Besides, I have always loved photography almost as much as drawing, sketching and painting.

sketching stools

A couple of months ago I bought two of these wooden stools at a community yard sale. I keep them in my truck for on-location sketching. The original owner is a man from Denmark who bought these at a Dude Ranch in Montana. Dimensions; 18" x 14" x 3".

palms on the beach

Way back in art school I painted quite a bit with gouache. I really enjoyed it then, so I have been experimenting with it again. I love the chalky look and blending qualities of gouache. Sometimes I feel a great urge to go back to art school.

April showers

A late afternoon thunderstorm.