Fern Hill and New Colored Pencil Wildlife Work In Progress Portrait

 A glorious morning out around Fern Hill this morning. It's a short hike, but I love all the wildflowers, native plants, birds, and wildlife that are at this little sanctuary.

The flowers are starting to bloom. Wild Rose, Valerian, Chokecherry, Pacific Ninebark, Dogwood, Wild Rhododendron, Bluebonnet, and Western Wallflower are just to name a few.

It was awesome watching these two mallards. It was almost like they were putting on a show for me.

Swallows hanging out at home.

A multi-family of  Canadian Geese.

Canadian Goose posing.

My site is down temporarily. I have moved it from the Arvixe hosting to Wordpress.com. I hope to have it up soon. So, I will be sharing my current work-in-progress on my blog.  It has been nearly 2 years since I have picked up colored pencils. I hope I can remember how to use this very versatile medium. I just started working on this commission of a Mountain Goat this week. Stock photo reference is by Pixabay.

The piece is in colored pencil on Strathmore Artagain paper. I am starting off first with a complementary grisaille technique using a terracotta  Prismacolor Verithin. I got this idea from artist Carrie Lewis' article on  How to Draw a Complementary Grisaille

Hope you all have a blessed week!

Happy Creating!

Columbia Loop and Cape Disappointment

Columbia River on the Washington Side

Yesterday, we took off early to tour and possibly catch in on some hikes on the east part of the Columbia Loop that is part of the Willamette Valley birding trail. So we headed towards the St. Helens and Scappoose areas.We arrived first at the Zellerbach Trail and then the Marine Park Trail. Both trails were not what we were expecting so we headed on towards the Columbia Botanical Gardens. None to say,  it was not what we were anticipating for a trail either and were quite disappointed. The Gardens is located in town and was overgrown. It looked like we would need a machete to work our way through the trail. So onward we went up hwy 30 towards hwy 433 and across to the Washington side, as neither of us had venture around this area. We were not disappointed. Gorgeous drive along Hwy 4 following the Columbia River.
On the Washington side of the Columbia River we discovered there was wildlife refuges, and estuaries. The Julia Butler Hansen Refuge for the Columbian White-Tailed Deer and the Columbian White-Tailed Deer National Wildlife Refuge just to name a couple. We slowly worked our way to llwaco Washington to tour around Cape Disappointment. A must see if you never have seen the light houses there and a great opportunity to learn about some WWII history as well.

*Some of these photos will be available for stock and/or available as prints for purchase at my DA and Zazzle Stores.

Columbia River	Columbia River
Boat on Columbia River	Julia Butler Hansen Refuge
Gray's River Covered Bridge	Gray's River Covered Bridge
Gray's River Covered Bridge	Gray's River Covered Bridge Construction
North Head Lighthouse	Near North Head Lighthouse
Daisy	Margined White Butterfly
Water Tower	WWII Lookout Station
Cape Disappointment Lighthouse	Pillar Rock

Keep on Creating!

Have a blessed week!

www.mooresartgallery.com

Ankeny National Wildlife Refuge

Ankeny National Wildlife Refuge

Woke up at 5:30 this morning to head to Ankeny National Wildlife Refuge. The refuge is located just south of Salem, Oregon. Although this isn't as well maintain as Fernhill or Jack Bottom wetlands, it is great place for bird lovers to catch glimpses of a variety of songbirds, waterfowl, and birds of prey. There are also beaver, coyote, turtles, frogs, deer and variety of other wildlife that roam this refuge of fields, marshes, and ponds. In addition, there are several native and non-native wildflowers and shrubs throughout the wetlands.
There are several little trails and boardwalks to meander along and catch glimpses of wildlife, birds and wildflowers. There are a couple of blinds and overlooks to view wildlife and birds as well. The Eagle Marsh Kiosk and trail was my favorite out of all of the trails. As it was teeming with waterfowl and we even caught a glimpse of a beaver. Altogether we hiked approximately 3.9 miles along the dike trails and the Pintail/Egret Marsh Boardwalk.
Some of these new photos will be available soon as prints, cards and/or stock. Prints and cards will be available at my DA and Zazzle store and stock will be available at my website.

Pintail Marsh Area

Ankeny Wildlife Refuge

Pintail Marsh/Mohoff Pond	Pintail Marsh/Mohoff Pond
Yellow Parentucellia	Wild Teasel
Thistle	Slender Tarweed
Broadleaf Arrowhead	Cattail
Cedar Waxwing	Wild Carrot

Eagle Marsh Area

Eagle Marsh - Ankeny National Wildlife Refuge

Eagle Marsh	Swallows
Canadian Geese	Canadian Geese

beaver

Keep on Creating!

Have a blessed week!

www.mooresartgallery.com