Bald Eagles at Conowingo Dam

Last weekend, my husband and I did some birdwatching at the Conowingo dam in Darlington, Maryland. It was a mild fall day with cloudless blue skies and much of the coppery foliage still intact. Lucky for us, the turbines at the dam ran for several hours. An interesting fact about the dam is that when the turbines run and as the water and the fish spew out, the fish float on the surface making them an easy prey for the birds.The dam is a popular hunting ground for piscivorous  birds. The star attraction is bald eagles but gulls, cormorants, herons and vultures are common. It is also a popular spot for outdoor photographers looking for opportunities to take dramatic pictures of eagles diving down the water and sweeping up with a fish in its clutches. I caught a few moments like that myself.

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ABC Wednesday: letter T is for Turbine

Sketches

I am taking a course called Draw Like t is Hot on the Sketchbook Skool. This course teaches how to create illustrated recipes. This is one of the  sketches I did for a home work assignment. The other sketch I did is below where we had to fill up the page with kitchen related things. I did both sketches during the early part of the week. Since then  I have been wasting much time reading election news.

Last Sunday, I finished making this journal. The removable cover is made of canvas which I painted first with acrylic colors and then covered with doodles.

In the happy news department, I was featured in All About You, an e-mail newsletter from Uppercase Magazine.

Linked to Paint Party Friday. Thanks to Eva and Kristin for hosting.

Tiny Art on Matchbox

My time this week was occupied by this fun project, something I had not planned to do at all. I had these empty matchboxes for quite sometime but was not inspired to do much with them till I saw a round up of decorative matchboxes on Design*Sponge recently.

Suddenly, I knew what I could do with the matchboxes. I decided to decorate mine with watercolor illustrations with a botanical theme. I created each label in watercolor using Fabriano coldpress 140 lb. paper. I hand stitched a frame around each little painting and glued it on top of the matchbox. It was a good exercise in small scale painting.

Linked to Paint Party Friday. Thanks to Eva and Kristin for hosting.

Linked also to Try it on Tuesday Handmade by You.

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Halloween Chalk Art Inspired by PageFrights

 Halloween Chalk Art

This is the last of Halloween Chalk Art for this year (see others here). This one was inspired by Bio Diversity Heritage Library's Page Frights, a collaboration with Smithsonian Library where ghoulish images from old nature texts were published all this month for public use. This one of a great horned owl  silhouetted by the light of a full moon is spooky enough but not quiet astronomically correct for this year. As a matter of fact, Halloween is falling a day after the New Moon.

Linked to Paint Party Friday and Moo Mania.

Yesterday was cold and rainy day here. But there was a lot of action in the backyard brought in by a flock of migrating starlings that dropped by for berries and water. The resident robins got all agitated and brought in their own flock from the neighborhood to stand guard over the honeysuckle tree. Here are a few pictures of the standoff.

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This little woodpecker decided to join in the fun!

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P is For Peek

On a crispy autumn morning while driving to yoga class, I stopped by briefly to capture the sun peeking through the trees. It felt like sun salutation in a different way.

It is letter P on ABC Wednesday and I chose the word PEEK.

Linked to this week's Image-in-ing and ABC Wednesday

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Chalkboard Art Halloween and Fall Theme

Halloween Chalkboard Art

 Halloween Themed Chalkboard Art

It is October and pretty much all the challenges that I participate are running with Halloween theme. Which is okay because it makes making art quite fun. For some mysterious reason, I have been doing all the Halloween challenges in the form of chalkboard art. It means that I can create any amount of art using just two supplies: one chalkboard and a few chalk pieces. I really do not  have to worry about running out of paper or paint :)

Linked to: Try it on Tuesday
 Moo-Mania
Art Journal Journey

October Themed Chalkboard Art

Chalkboard Art

Dyed, Painted, Doodled and Stitched Canvas Storage Accessories

Canvas Storage Accessories

I so liked the painted and doodled canvas cloth, about which I posted last week, I wanted to more of it. So, I did. This time I used Dr. Ph. Martin's India ink. I diluted the ink quiet a bit as it is highly pigmented and covered both sides of the canvas cloth with it. When it dried, I used Prisma brush pens to draw the doodles. I finished it with a lot of highlights using white acrylic paint. This time I wanted to  make a couple of storage items with it. I made a zippered pouch and a storage bin. Both came out quiet well, especially the zippered pouch. I was concerned that my junky Singer Esteem II will not cooperate using a zipper foot but much to my surprise it did. Now I am emboldened to make more of these pouches as I have about a dozen of metallic zippers left over from a previous project. I feel quiet excited about it :)

Linked to Paint Party Friday. Thanks to Eva and Kristin for hosting.

Painted, Doodled and Stitched Storage Bin

Painted, Doodled and Stitched Zipper Pouch