This watercolor painting is an homage to one of my favorite locally native species I visit on a regular basis. The starry blossoms that appear on these miniscule plants in late spring are roughly the size of my pinky fingertips.
Blossom Hunter
Getting to watch the wild black flying foxes in Australia that inspired this piece was a dream come true.
In addition to their intrinsic value and beauty, different bat species help humanity out by dispersing seeds, pollinating crops and controlling insect populations. Quoting the qld.gov.au website, "Flying-foxes eat flowers and fruit, and sometimes leaves, from over 100 species of native trees and vines. They supplement this diet by eating fruit from introduced plants found in gardens, orchards, parks and streetscaping."
Habitat loss threatens their survival like it does for so many organisms.
Please tap on the image of the art above if you’re interested in purchasing a print of this mixed media painting. Send me a message here if you’d like to inquire about the original.
spring in San Diego's desert
Anna's hummingbird nest
If you’re thinking about pruning a tree at this time of year in southern California (and a lot of other warm locations), please look closely for bird activity first. It’d be really easy to send this family of Anna’s hummingbirds tumbling to the ground and I suspect most of us can agree that’d be incredibly sad.
OCEAN / EARTH / AIR exhibition
Three of my nature-inspired, mixed media paintings were selected for inclusion in OCEAN/EARTH/AIR, an exhibition juried and hosted by the Surfing Madonna Oceans Project, a local pro-environment and arts group here in San Diego County. The dates are March 29th through April 30th at The Poway Center for the Performing Arts located at 15498 Espola Road. The reception is taking place from 1-4PM on Sunday, April 23rd and will feature live music and readings by this events winning poets. General gallery hours are Tuesday-Thursday 10AM-2PM, Friday 12-5PM and Saturday 10AM-3PM.
An Angraecum sesquipedale-inspired painting
This painting was inspired by one of my own orchids that blooms faithfully every winter. I'm a huge fan of Angraecoids for both their flowers' celestial appearances and their incredible evening fragrances.
Please send me a message if you’re interested in the original painting or tap on the image if you’d like to support a living artist through a print purchase, always much appreciated.
A trip northward
Recent memories of Agua Caliente County Park
Happy New Year
Sphaeralcea ambigua 'Louis Hamilton' (a horticultural selection of desert globemallow) is leaning on our massive Dudleya brittonii in the latest bout of rain.
Chaparral denizen
We may be off to a cold start in San Diego, but it's spring as far as I'm concerned. Patience was required to catch this shot of an Anna's hummingbird (Calypte anna) working a grove of mission manzanitas (Xylococcus bicolor) today. Look at how tight that range map is for the mission manzanita, the only member of its genus (the fancy word for that is "monotypic").
San Miguel Island foxes
I spotted three individual island foxes while camping on San Miguel Island which made for a very special and all too brief trip to Channel Islands National Park. This is my fourth subspecies sighting of island foxes and the most elusive of the northern Channel Islands subspecies according to fox biologists I've interacted with. I'm able to tell them apart by their ears and one of them being collared, the tracking being funded by everyone's support of Friends of the Island Fox. I encountered another on a trail in the dark and was unable to capture a photo, though it may have been one of these three. I also caught nocturnal images and video with my camera trap placed near our tent which may or may not be a different fox, as the ear outlines aren't clear.
Surfing Madonna Oceans Project "Save the Ocean" Exhibition
A trio of board members of the Surfing Madonna Oceans Project selected a mixed media painting of mine for inclusion in the second annual “Save the Ocean” exhibition. This group show of California artists will be on display at the Escondido Municipal Gallery from October 7th through November 4th, 2022. The reception is October 8th from 4 - 7PM at 262 E. Grand Ave. in Escondido. Gallery hours are Tuesday 11:00 - 6:00PM and Thursday-Saturday 11:00AM - 4:00PM.
Nighthawks with Waxing Gibbous
This mixed media painting is loosely inspired by watching lesser nighthawks hunting for insects near an oasis in Twentynine Palms, California.
Please tap on the image of the painting above if you’re interested in a print or contact me directly if you’d like to inquire about the original art.
Comic-Con Art Show 2022
Here are the eight pieces of original art I framed with archival materials for the 2022 San Diego Comic-Con Art Show. It’s taking place July 21st through July 24th. I'll have two panels of work for sale in auction format. The Art Show is located in the lobby level of the Manchester Grand Hyatt in Grand Hall CD along with this year's Will Eisner Comic Industry Awards. Doors will be open Thursday & Friday: 9:00 AM–9:00 PM, Saturday: 9:00 AM–6:00 PM and Sunday: 9:00 AM–7:00 PM. Silent auction final bidding closes Saturday at 6:00 PM. Winning bids are posted at 9:00 AM Sunday morning. All purchased art must be picked up Sunday by 6:30 PM. You don’t have to have a Comic-Con badge to visit the art show.
If you see a piece you’re interested in owning, please send me a message, as I have other work I can hang. Prints may be ordered by tapping on the images of the art below. Thanks for supporting living artists!
-Robin Street-Morris
Yeah, I'm talking about island foxes again...
I have educated guesses about good spots to watch for island foxes on various California Channel Islands. Not unexpectedly, they're creatures of habit to some extent like our mainland bobcat and coyote neighbors. I sat down low on the slope by Banning House Lodge hoping to capture a Catalina Island fox with my 100-400mm lens. When one padded through, there were quite a few people up top eating and drinking in the courtyard which is a shared space for guests to come and go as they please. It didn't take long for some of them to start squealing at the cuteness and conjecturing about what it was. "I thought foxes are black." What? "Oh, look! It's a baaaby!" Nope. "Is it going to come up here and give us rabies?" [sigh] Someone spotted me photographing this charismatic apex predator and tried to shush their crew, but the fox was already on its way down the hill, quite understandably wanting nothing to do with us unless we’ve left food out. If you know me, you're likely aware that my brand of polite in public is a smile and a "hey" before we go on about our respective business, me as quickly as possible. Public speaking is my idea of living hell and I don't enjoy being in large groups, particularly when observing nature, but the comments I heard inspired me to walk up the hill. The intensity of my fox watching was noted by a table of people and I proceeded to present Island Fox Natural History 101 which I only feel somewhat qualified to deliver due to lots of reading, attending online seminars about them and a growing bit of first hand observation. I wrapped things up with the suggestion that they do an Internet search for Friends of the Island Fox if they want to learn more about its life history and ongoing studies and conservation efforts. Hopefully even one of them will follow through with that and maybe even throw a couple of bucks for research said organization's way.
I hung out inside this bait ball on one of my swims which is always a magical experience.
Celebrant (Raven at Skull Rock)
This mixed media painting screams “every day is Halloween.” It’s loosely inspired by Skull Rock in Joshua Tree National Park. Truth be told, there was a much smaller scrub jay perched on said rock formation, the raven was near a campground and the sky didn’t suggest the 15 was on fire. Combining imagery, simplifying some elements and adding others where they are not is part of what makes art art in my opinion.
I'm planning on framing this piece for my display in the 2022 San Diego Comic-Con Art Show running July 21st-July 24th. I'll have two panels of my original work for sale in auction format. The Art Show is located in the lobby level of the Manchester Grand Hyatt in Grand Hall CD along with this year's Will Eisner Comic Industry Awards. Doors will be open Thursday & Friday: 9:00 AM–9:00 PM, Saturday: 9:00 AM–6:00 PM and Sunday: 9:00 AM–7:00 PM. Silent auction final bidding closes Saturday at 6:00 PM. Winning bids are posted at 9:00 AM Sunday morning. All purchased art must be picked up Sunday by 6:30 PM.
Much of the diverse work in my own studio was purchased at this annual event. If you’re local or in town for the con, please consider dropping into the art show and supporting living artists. You don’t need a badge to enter the Manchester Grand Hyatt to check it out.
Please tap on the image of the art if you’d like to view print options. Select the Purchase Original Art tab in the navigation bar if you’re interested in owning the original.
Blue whales are in town!
We spotted three blues and one fin yesterday under June Gloom skies. This kind of lighting doesn’t make for epic photography, but you’ll never catch me complaining about moisture in the air. It keeps vegetation from drying out sooner than it must and me from cooking as well.
Owl Moon VI (Barn Owl)
This is the latest in my Owl Moon series. As always, it was inspired by an actual owl encounter. This barn owl was perched in a palm and peeking around the corner at me, no doubt hoping I’d leave and stop scaring any nearby mice and rats away. Their eyesight is keen, but they hunt primarily by listening.
If you’d like to purchase a print, please tap on the image of the art. Contact me directly if you’re interested in owning the original painting. As always, thanks for supporting living artists.
Hummingbird flight
The Cedros Island bush snapdragon (Gambelia juncea) being worked by this Anna’s hummingbird (Calypte anna) in our backyard is native to nearby Baja, California, Mexico. Hummingbird flight is truly remarkable and you can read about it here if you’re interested.
Formations
I've been sluicing ore for a few years from a local mine here in San Diego County located along the way to Palomar Mountain State Park and I made a friend. She wants to see more of the gem etc.-inspired work I created back in the day and I made this blog post for her. The pink tourmaline piece was made in response to an image of "Pala pink" long before San Diego was on my radar when I was working at the Exhibit Museum of Natural History (now the University of Michigan Museum of Natural History) in Ann, Arbor Michigan. I could see revisiting this source of inspiration based upon specimens I've found myself, but I'm mostly personal landscape-driven these days. Who knows, though? I enjoy having an arsenal of overlapping interests that continues to inspire me. They are all rooted in natural history.
Please tap on the images of the art below if you’re interested in purchasing a print of one of these. Contact me via the “purchase original art” tab in the navigation bar above if you’d like to inquire about original art.