White Tigers, Oh My!

One of the highlights of my trip to Great Adventure was seeing the white tigers. They have quite a few of them, but this guy was the biggest. He was so cute, you just wanted to cuddle and play with him! His facial expressions and actions reminded me so much of my own orange tabby tiger, Tigger.


Look at him play with his toy!


That is ONE BIG KITTY!


With focus and determination.

In a very proud moment, he displays his prize.

Camera: Cannon A590 point 'n shoot - through dirty glass. :-D

I can't believe this is the last day of June already! I've been meaning to post more snapshots of my Great Adventure trip for the past two weeks and seem to always be running out of time. I've got an intensive project going on right now. I'm photographing and post processing my artwork for online venues. Between the photography, blogging and the sketching everyday, the days are quickly turning into nights.

Magic Mushrooms In Weird New Jersey

I live in weird New Jersey. It's home to the Jersey Devil and other strange stuff. People from New Jersey get used to it. As you local people know, we've had a tremendous amount of rain the past month here. The woods are wet and there's a lot of mushrooms, moss and fungus growing everywhere. Thursday morning I spent some time going out into our woods with my camera and my close up Macro lens. Here's a few of my unprocessed shots, straight from the camera. I hope you enjoy!




Local friend, Lou Bergdoll wrote in after my sketchingeveryday post yesterday; "Little Louie and I were bicycling in the pines off Atsion Rd. on Three Bridges Rd. going toward the Mulica River this evening and we found the greatest clump of red fungus! I wish you could have seen them. It was absolutely magical in the waning rays of the dying sun. Thanks for sharing! Lou"
Thank you Lou.... wish I could have seen that!

More Wild Safari Babies

Some Fur Babies At Great Adventure

Still got lots of photos to post from my Great Adventure trip. Here's a couple of Bison twins. Just two of the many babies in the wild safari park. Now who doesn't like baby animals?

Ah, Accomplishments!

"For an artist, any accomplishment is merely a minor victory over failure, and no more than a small step up the steep and tortuous path towards excellence." ~ Ian Semple

Busy Busy Busy - See yesterday's Spirit Art post here!

Wild Things

"Like winds and sunsets, wild things were taken for granted until progress began to do away with them. Now we face the question whether a still higher 'standard of living' is worth its cost in things natural, wild and free. For us of the minority, the opportunity to see hummingbirds is more important than television." ~ Aldo Leopold

This photo was taken just minutes ago from inside my screened porch. :-D
I'm in hummer heaven!

More Wild Animal Pictures

Here are some shots of European Brown Bears taken at the Wild Safari Park on Saturday. This bear was enjoying a good back scratch session.

These two were getting into a fight.

We were close, but we were protected by a couple of strands of thin electric wire that separated us from all the growling, huffing, puffing and aggressive posturing.

Wild Safari Park

Yesterday I went to Six Flags Great Adventure for the day with my two sisters, two brother in-laws and niece and nephew ages 6 and 4. Although the weather was a little less than ideal with a few intermittent showers, overall it was a wonderful reunion and a really enjoyable day. Ellyn, Mike and the kids joined us from Myrtle Beach, SC. It was fun spending the day at a theme park with a child's perspective. I took my little Cannon point and shoot and got some good snap shots. Of course, our ride through the Wild Safari Park was my favorite part. Here are a few shots from our car. I'll post more shots from our day throughout the coming week.

It's Maxine, Not Angelica

This morning I did an oil portrait of the black and white kitty that I posted the sketch of on my sketchingeveryday blog a couple of days ago. I called Don and told him it was done. He was in the area, so he stopped by and picked it up. He gave me his $75. donation for the Burlington County Animal Shelter which I will give to them on Sunday, as I will be joining them at their booth for the county's annual "Earth Fair" at Historic Smithville Park in Westhampton. I will take my paints, sketchbook and flyers about the "Art For Shelter Animals Project". Hopefully I will be able to drum up more interest in the project here locally.


See a picture of Don and more about Maxine (not Angelica) on today's post on "Art For Shelter Animals".

New Drawing Challenge

Here's a new shot to sketch from this week. This is a herb garden that my friend Dorrie brought to me yesterday, along with three beautiful patio tomato plants and fertilizer! This little pot shown here has chives, oregano and rosemary in it. It has a wonderful variety of textures, directional thrusts and shapes. This one is super easy!! You should be able to get the overall shape down on this in under a minute.

Each week I'll post my interpretation and any other drawings that people submit. See my 12 minute drawing of last week's photograph here.

2009 Sketching Demo Now On Line!

Learn Sandy's 6 Step Technique Here!

Red Tail Hawk Sketch And Demo

This is the reference photo for today's "SketchingEveryday" post. I documented the process and will be putting together another sketching tutorial in the next day or two.

Attn.: Artists - Sketching Everyday Challenge

My sketching everyday blog has just started up again for the 4th summer in a row! It feels great to be "back in the saddle again"! This year, I'm posting a photo at the beginning of each week. If anyone chooses to sketch it and send in your results, I'll post them on my sketching blog the following Sunday with my interpretation of the image. Here's this week's photo of Squamie, the Barred Owl at the Cedar Run Refuge.

"Look at a day when you are supremely satisfied at the end. It's not a day when you lounge around doing nothing; it's when you've had everything to do, and you've done it." ~ Margaret Thatcher

Donations And Things That Matter

My painting I did at Cedar Run Wildlife Refuge's Wine And Wildlife event this past Saturday.

"You will find, as you look back on your life, that the moments that stand out are the moments when you have done things for others." - Henry Drummond

Wine And Wildlife A Big Success

Yesterday I participated in the Cedar Run Wildlife Refuge's Wine And Wildlife Fund Raiser. It was a gorgeous day and about 200 folks enjoyed wine sampling, great food and lively music. Here is a photo of three of the little oil paintings I donated to their silent auction. I set up and painted another little gosling from the photo in my last post. I'll post that for you next. Be sure to check my summer sketching everyday blog! It starts back up tomorrow. From June 1st to September 1st, I'll be posting a drawing online there everyday!

Baby Animals - Cute Fuzzy Gosling

I've been photographing baby animals at Cedar Run Wildlife Refuge in preparation for their Wine and Wildlife fund raiser this weekend. These shots will be used for painting reference and possible stock photography submissions. I'm also donating their use to the refuge. They can use them in their newsletter, on their web site or as notecards. Here's one of my favorites. Sooo sweet! Now who doesn't love baby animals?

Art For The Animals

"Nature gets into our souls and opens doors to hidden parts of ourselves." ~ Pamela Heyda

This is one of the paintings I will be donating this coming Saturday at Cedar Run's "Wine And Wildlife" event. It is a 5" x 7" oil on canvas board. Find out more about this fund raiser here (post just below this one) on my web log.

"We must preserve the natural world; for without nature, there would be no beauty to inspire us." ~ Hap Hagood

Wine And Wildlife At Cedar Run Refuge

Last week I visited Cedar Run Wildlife Refuge to take some photos of the baby animals. This coming Saturday, May 30th, from 4:30pm to 7:30pm, they will be holding their 8th Annual Wine & Wildlife Festival. I will be participating during the event by painting some of the fur babies that I met last week. They were all sooo adorable! The wonderful folks who care for them really have their hands full this time of year! Even though they were extremely busy, they made my visit very enjoyable. My artwork will be auctioned off at the silent auction. All proceeds will benefit the Woodford Cedar Run Wildlife Refuge operations and educational programs. The event features wine tasting and beer sampling, a gourmet picnic by Tony Lawrence and live music by BLUESBOX DELUX . Sponsers, staff, supporters, artists, artisans, animal lovers and live animals will all be present. An enjoyable afternoon will culminate with the awarding of a wide selection of choice auction items awarded to the highest bidders. For more information email barbara.jones@cedarrun.org or call 856-983-9702. The refuge is located at: 4 Sawmill Road, Medford, NJ 08055. It's a wonderful cause and a bargain at only $45. per person. Make your reservations today! VISA, MC, AMEX & Discover Accepted. Animal lovers, you don't want to miss this event. Please RSVP ASAP! Only a limited amount of walk-in tickets are available!

Farrier Of The Day

My farrier, Jimmy Hall, came out today and gave the horses a trim. He was a good sport and let me take some photos of him working on Rudy. I didn't dare use the flash around Rita. It was even making my laid back buddy, Rudy, flinch a little. Jim signed a model release for me so I could use the pictures for stock, but the photos turned out too dark. I've got to work on the lighting some more. I lightened them up in Photoshop, but the over adjusting resulted in too much noise. Noise is irregular pixelation that can be seen at higher magnification. See Nan, I'm learning! Anyway, I've been plugging away at my photography. With the help of my Photo Guru, Nancy Louie, and some of her borrowed lighting equipment, I now have 50 images on Dreamstime and 28 on IstockPhoto. (Take these links and click on "portfolio" to see my images.) Between framing and photography, I'm not getting much painting done this month, but I do feel happy that I'm making some headway with my new medium!

Hummingbird Update

Hummer season is getting into full swing here in Southern NJ. Don't miss out on the fun. Find out how to attract and care for your own little garden treasures! Hurry, before they all head out to my place! Check out today's post on my Squidoo Lens, 5 Steps To Happy Hummers here.