Garden Wildlife

Daniel and I have a fairly small garden, and yet we have a lot of animals visiting every day. Maybe because we have eight large trees in our backyard alone.

A couple of weeks ago, we discovered that a raccoon had made her nest in one of the trees in our neighbor's yard. I'm sitting outside as I type this and I can see her looking out just like in the photo below.

Before we discovered the nest, we found one of her babies (a newborn) at the foot of the tree. After waiting for some time to see if he'd get picked up, we took him in (it was fairly cold outside) and contacted a wildlife rehabber in our area who took him in. He was the cutest little thing and quite wiggly.

Here's a different raccoon trying to get comfy for a daily snooze.

We also get a lot of bird visitors and the woodpeckers are always a favorite of mine! The red bellied woodpeckers come to our feeders all the time and aren't shy at all. We love when they start bringing the babies around in the spring. Hopefully I'll get some good photos!  

The pileated woodpecker is one we hear often enough but rarely see. Usually they are high up in the tall trees. They are large and striking looking and when one comes close enough, I run for the camera!

Ok, so this isn't really wildlife, but I couldn't resist taking a picture of Ramses and Louie, the flat cats! It was a sunny afternoon and they both loved the warmth!

Winslow, of course, is the overseer of the garden and makes sure that everyone gets along.

I'm looking forward to the baby raccoons being old enough to peek out of the nest so I can snap a photo for you.

❧ Silke

Charcoal Drawing

You all know I love color, but my other obsession is with charcoal. I am practicing getting an actual recognizable likeness in my drawings. This one is of my sister and after several attempts, this actually looks a lot like her. Not exactly, but closer than any attempt before. I am sure I'll try again...

Wishing you a gorgeous weekend!

❧ Silke

Abstract Acrylics

Lately I've felt in a rut with my art and a little stuck only painting animals and then I realized that I can branch out however I would like to. So I have entered an abstract art phase, where I am free to just follow colors and shapes and experiment.

With these four paintings, I wanted to use a limited color palette: Phthalo Turquoise, Nickel Azo Yellow, Transparent Red Iron Oxide, plus Titanium White.

And I wanted to paint a series of four, working with big brushes and a palette knife.

All similar yet each distinct. I painted over old canvases, which already had texture on them making the paintings even more interesting to me.

Right now I'm working on a new abstract painting that has a lot of texture I created with molding paste and stencils. I'll post it as soon as I finish it.

It's been a while since I posted to Paint Party Friday and I'm looking forward to seeing everyone's awesome art. Head on over to check it out!

❧ Silke

Acrylics, Watercolors and a Commission

Today's post has a hodgepodge of my art, all of them animals but some are rendered in acrylics and two of them in watercolor, which is a fairly new medium for me.

The next two are the watercolor paintings, which are similar to my acrylics and at the same time much more delicate.

And this last painting is a commission that I painted for my client's sister of her four pets. I sure had fun with this one!

I still have a charcoal drawing to show you and also some of my latest abstract art. Sometimes I feel the need to just experiment with colors, shapes and different mediums.

In the meantime, I hope you are having a wonderful Thursday!

❧ Silke

A Monastery and Fried Green Tomatoes

On our way back from Atlanta a few weekends ago, we again took the back roads and stopped at the Monastery of the Holy Spirit. It is not far from the bustling big city of Atlanta, but it feels a world away.

Beautiful and peaceful it felt like a place for true retreat.

 It's definitely a place we want to visit again.

And then... further on the road back to Savannah, we spied a sign for the Whistlestop Cafe from the movie "Fried Green Tomatoes." Come to find out, it was filmed in Juliette, GA!

It is one of my all time favorite movie and so we had to stop! It was the real deal - all the buildings from the movie.

The diner looks a little different than on the movie set, but the food was excellent and we had a great time!

I guess usually there's a long line to get in, but we were there early enough so that we got a seat at the counter. I have to admit, it was one of my favorite discoveries on this trip!

We wandered around for a little bit and looked at all the quaint buildings. Juliette, GA definitely has a sense of humor!

That was the last part of our visit to Atlanta. We are going back soon and are planning to explore some new places.

I hope you are having a wonderful week!!

❧ Silke

A Visit to Atlanta, Part 4 - Folk Art

I'm back after being momentarily engrossed in numbers and tax returns - it's that time of the year! Today I'm going to show you one of my favorite exhibits at the Atlanta History Center. The folk art exhibit. 

One of my favorite parts of that was all the fabulous pottery, much of which was made by the Meaders Family (I included a video about them a little further down).

Daniel and I love pottery and you can see it all around our home. And one of these days we'll add a face jug to our collection!

The video below is a short documentary I found on YouTube on the Meaders Family and worth watching.

Of course, there were other pieces of folk art that were also gorgeous!

So now there will be just one more blog post about our Atlanta Trip with some of my favorite photos. I've also been painting a little and will have more art to show you soon!

I hope you are all enjoying spring and the return of warmer weather! We are in a stretch of perfect temperatures and are enjoying it thoroughly!

❧ Silke