Worktable Wednesday - at the easel

...well, trying to be. Plenty of distractions to go around this fall and not enough time in the studio. Still.... I'm working this week and starting new paintings for upcoming deadlines. These are just the first pass, getting the drawings right before really diving in.

Mule Deer, Dixie National Forest,Utah ©

Wee Birdie ©

California Bushtit ©

Worktable Wednesday - Dreaming of Coastal Fog

in progress, variations on a theme ©2014

Worktable Wednesday - pooches

In the Meadow ©2014 12x12"

New Terrain - Sneak Peek

Preserve Grazing  12x30" ©2013 N Strasburg

Coming soon to Sullivan Goss.

On the Easel

Passing Summer Storm {in progress} 30x30"  ©2013

 

New Terrain 

Opens @ Sullivan Goss

Thursday, September 5, 2013 from 5-8

Worktable Wednesday

Critter Crush

Island Kit Fox 12x12" ©2013

Working towards my next show with Sullivan Goss in Santa Barbara. The show will open First Thursday in September 2013. Stay tuned for more details.

Home Again

Paintings home from abroad are welcomed with open arms and eyes. They were finished and shipped off before there was time to absorb them. It's nice to look and be reminded, feel, the path, the journey.

Los Pinos 6 12x12" ©2013

Los Pinos 1 12x12" ©2013

Worktable Wednesday

On the easel today:

Flora and Fauna

Inspiration from the mountains. Wild Santa Barbara Milk Vetch {Astragalus Trichopodus}and a most elusive/evasive coyote, Canis Latrans or otherwise known as the American Jackal, brush wolf or prairie wolf.

SB Milk Vetch 12x12" ©2013 {in process}

Canis Latrans 12x12" ©2013

Spring Plein Air

Outdoorsy, high in the pines, on the deck, mountain dwelling, painting. It doesn't stink. Another spring trying my hand at plein air painting. I like it and I don't. It's distracting and nervy, not to mention frustrating toting equipment to locations and the time setting up just to make a mark. Still, I try.

In the pines 10x12" oil on panel ©2013

Ode

... to the long disregarded blog. Sadly, Facebook has usurped your power, made you a distant object in the rear view mirror of my to do list. You are a passing thought, a "should" and then dismissed with a sigh.

Facebook has made it so easy to share, too easy for the slovenly, with it's quick 120 character punchlines. Does anyone really regard those as ambient intimacy as we are told we should? Or are they merely easier to brush off than a lengthy blog post, or even the briefest of blog entries, that requires more clicking of keys to acquire the meat of a thought.

Like many things, dearest blog, you will morph, you will transform. Let us be mindful of the possibility that your new incarnation may be the Monarch that once was the caterpillar and not another application that lulls us into sleepy discontent as the time wiles away.

Los Pinos 12x12" oil on wood ©Nicole Strasburg

Worktable Wednesday

Today is an easel day.

Thursday efforts

Summer Booty

Worktable Wednesday - computer day

Camping and our local mountains are foremost in my mind today as I sit preparing my next collection of stamps for production. I am creating a grouping of creatures from our local forest along with the human experiences of camping in our wilderness.

Working on the computer all day... not my favorite thing to be doing. Spending time dreaming about my next adventure in the pines.... makes it more pleasurable.

The prototypes will be in the shop by the end of the month and the manufactured versions by the end of July {fingers crossed!} You will know when I know. Happy trails.

Beautiful California. The black blob is our Los Padres Forest.2700 square miles of habitat with Mt. Pinos being it's highest peak at 8831 feet. © N Strasburg

hiking anyone? © Strasburg

our friendly black bear fresh out of hibernation © Strasburg

campfires © Strasburg

roasting © Strasburg

long hikes © Strasburg

and a good tent © Strasburg

Snow Beautiful

snow cold

s'no wonder

i have s'no voice

Snow Day

Road trip Palm Springs

Island Encounters at the Wildling Museum

The show at the Wildling Museum in Los Olivos features a multitude of images of our local Channel Islands. Show runs through the end of the year.

The sun is shining...

despite the dense layer of fog. The paintings are finished, cataloged in the database, signed, dated, and checked over twice. There are yet more details to be fussed over but breathing is easier. I long to clean my studio once the piles of wood are moved to the gallery next week, dust off the printing press and maybe draw for a while.

Towards Willows  12x12" ©2011

The show will host 65 painting, 40 of the much coveted 12x12" size and 25 medium to large pieces. It will be hard to say goodbye to living in and amongst the islands day in and day out. But, I'm already dreaming of what might come next!

Classic Santa Barbara

Summer is finally here in October, 

sweet 80 degrees and not a breeze anywhere to be found.