The inspirational seed for this painting  started on a bike ride in the early morning at Bacon Creek Park.  With a camera in my back pack I was sure I would capture some great morning light scenes.  So off i went.  It was a beautiful fall day here in the midwest.  Initially this little squirrel was about a football field length away from me as I rounded the curve on the bike path. He could see me coming as he was foraging through the leaves gathering nuts for the winter. Keeping an eye on me as I rode my bike closer around another curve, he worked faster and then zoom, ran up one of the oak trees. I lost sight of him.  It would have been a great photo, but I rode on by just far enough to stop, turn around and see if I could find him again. There he was, watching me in the fork of the tree, as I watched him and captured the moment.

It is always fun to receive a new set of pastels. You open the box with excitment and wow! All those colors so neatly packaged and labeled.  A person can be intiminated.  I don't want to mess up this box.  

How will I repace this color should it become my favorite?  After all,  I am going to use them so the labels have to come off. Then it hit me.  With the help of todays digital technology . . . photograph the open box before I touch the pastels. Does that ever eliminate the fear of breaking up the box.  Each label that came off the pastels was attached to a blank sheet of paper in the same order of the box, which matches the digital color photo. However, this  is the best part  - laminate it and you have a great element resistant color chart and reference to reorder from. With this digital image of Great American Art Works  Richard McKinley's Landscape Pastels , I can read the label colors and numbers for reorder.

It is fun to share ideas so I would love to hear yours.

Hello there Ms. Gengler-Copple,

 I hope this isn't a bother, but I just wanted to take the time to send you a quick thank you note on behalf of my students and myself. My name is Kathryn Miller and I'm a teacher for some lovely students at a charter school in Northern California. We just wanted to let you know that your page (http://www.debgengler-copple.com/links/) has been such a great reference for the/wildlife conservation project we do every year - so a big thank you from Mrs. Miller's class :)

 As a small token of our appreciation, we thought we'd send along another helpful page that one of my students actually came across. The page is at http://www.aaenvironment.com/environment-library-endangered-animals.htm It's an endangered animal guide and has a various resources my students have also been able to utilize for their environmental project.

 And if you wouldn't mind adding it to your other resources, I'd love to show my student who went above and beyond to find the site that her work was appreciated (maybe a little extra credit!). Let me know what you think :)

It is a great place to learn about the wildlife in the world. Click on the photo to learn more about the Javan Tiger.

This photograph of a  live Javan tiger was taken in 1938 at Ujung Kulon and published in A. Hoogerwerf's "Ujung Kulon: The Land of the last Javan Rhinoceros". This file is in the public domain in Indonesia because its copyright has expired, according to Article 30 of Indonesia Copyright Law No 19, 2002.

   'Baby Face'   8" x 10"   Pastel                                                                                                                 

I am extremely  thrilled and thankful to be able to announce that 'Baby Face' received the Best Wildlife Award at ths years SKB Workshop Miniature Art Show in Dubois Wyoming. It is an honor to be amongst so many talented artists from across the country and world.

This pastel painting is not where I want it just yet . . . so more work will be done. This little guy and his mom are wild horses in Wyoming and we just happened to be in the right place at the right time to capture the sight of three of them.  One was a beautiful big grey stallion (a painting of him will come also). The curious look in his eyes and the rough hair coat tell a story of his yet young life.  Definitely is important to stay close to mom. "Wild Thing" seems to be a good fit when titling this painting.

And these are the two carpenters who constructed this awesome building . . . Glen and Joe.

This is the location of the new artist studio/garage after about a 2 weeks of work by Nelsen Construction Inc.  

Some of you are interested in the progress, so here is the windows facing East on the upper floor, above the garage.

The view facing East is nice, but we artists really like the North light. This is the North wall with potential windows to provide natural North light.

More follow up photos to come.