Secret Life Of A Groundhog

My illustration from QUESTIONS, by Lee Bennett Hopkins, HarperCollins

February 2, Groundhog Day.

This year he saw his shadow.

Six more weeks of winter.

Ever wonder what a Groundhog does

for fun the rest of the year?

Chucks wood.

Yeah, as in "How much wood would 

a Woodchuck chuck.......

How come?

Groundhogs and Woodchucks are the 

same animal. :~)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Groundhog

2012 So Far

 ⓒCarolyn Croll 2012/ Silkworm with 
Mulberry (after Maria Sibylla Merian)

Six days in.
So far: 


Discovered my lovely 
blood-red Bokara, scored 
on sale when Wanamakers 
went out of business years ago,
totaled by wool moths.


Imbibing massive amounts 
of chicken soup, tea w/lemon 
and honey. Gargling through
my annual head cold.


Received an email requesting
permission to use "part" of a 
piece of my sample art from 
the internet, after the requester 
had lifted, altered and used 
it twice. 
Permission denied. 
Property of a client.


Another year begins........ ACHOO!
:~)

A Natural Master

bell-flower Frond, JoAnne Russo, photos Jeff Baird & Rachel Portesi, with permission

JoAnne Russo's striking large embellished
pods on their graceful textured branches
drew me in to her display at the 2011
Philadelphia Museum of Art Crafts Show.

blue-bud/ Joanne Russo, photos Jeff Baird & Rachel Portesi, with permission

Upon closer inspection her spellbinding naturalistic 
forms become otherworldly in their scale textures 
and colors. Organic in material, waxed

linen cord, Renewable Palm ivory (Tagua nut) 

beads dyed. Looking even more closely, a zipper and/or

ordinary hook and eyes.

chameleon, JoAnne Russo, photos Jeff Baird & Rachel Portesi, with permission

Her love of nature evident in every imaginative piece.
Surprises rewarding those who look a little closer.
JoAnne's enchanted work reflects the skills she has 
acquired over 30 years as a master basket maker.

White-teapot, JoAnne Russo, photos Jeff Baird & Rachel Portesi, with permission

Guild- cactus, JoAnne Russo, photos Jeff Baird & Rachel Portesi, with permission

You can learn more about JoAnne Russo and see much more of her 

extraordinary work at:

http://joannerusso.com/

   

Goodnight Irene

(click on images to enlarge)

Started the week with an earthquake.
Which struck just as I'd finished downloading
some trial software from Adobe. The IMAC 
started dancing. Weird noises. First thought.
OMG the mother of all VIRUSES! 
Then NPR announced "Earthquake!".

My illustration from WHAT WILL THE WEATHER BE?, by Lynda DeWitt, HarperCollins

Now we are having a Hurricane, named Irene.

(see August 17, 2009 post in archives).

Pounding winds and rain last night.

Meteorologists tracking weather, from WHAT WILL THE WEATHER BE?

More expected this afternoon.

Watching TV. Schuylkill River and 
Manyunk streets flooded. Many trees down.

2 young gents featured rowing a
just purchased raft down a Manyunk St.
Interview over, immediate arrest by
Philadelphia's finest.
The charge (as stated by an officer), 
"No common sense." 
How infinitely more crowded the
jails if that was law.
The Cat Boys and I are on the top floor,

37 stories above all but wind and rain.

A little scary.

More evidence that I've drawn everything in the word at least once (or so it seems). ;~)

                                             

                                         Looking forward to Monday!

(My art for a different, but apropos, project. )

Another Mother

Click on image to enlarge

Mother's Day 2011: Mrs. Robin atop her nest cleverly 

built under the eave of my Sister and Brother in law's 

house. Keeping her babies dry and cozy while Dad 

supplies the bugs and worms.

Do East

(click on images to enlarge)

More snow, more scenes. This time east of Broad St.

Beginning my career years, book and magazine 

publishers surrounded Washington Square.

The Curtis building, north side of the Square.

The Saturday Evening Post, Ladies Home Journal

and Jack & Jill used to live here. Converted to

offices. Always reminds me of the north side of

London's Grosvenor Sq.

The old J. B. Lippincott building.
Converted to loft style condos. 
How appropriate and fun for a book Illustrator and Author to live in the 
former publishing house. 
Had my name on it perhaps, but not 
my "number" $$$$.

Next door, former Mayor Richardson Dillworth's
colonial style home. Built in the 1950's and the 
object of dispute whether to save or demolish.
To the left, The Atheneum, a special collections
library focusing on history. For more info:
http://www.philaathenaeum.org/about.html

Goings on over head.

Look carefully, be rewarded.

Find some one enjoying a snack 

over head.

Meanwhile, Down In The Village...

Elevatored down from the mountain top for supplies 
today. After the Mayor assured us all major streets 
were plowed and/or salted. 
Apparently, that meant mostly around City Hall.

Locust Street, major bus route east. Come Spring melt.

Two blocks from my place, just three blocks

from City Hall. Deep ice snow ruts. Illegal 

parking on both sides is a Philadelphia tradition.

Approaching Rittenhouse Square from the west

Only clear streets I saw, on or across the

Ben Franklin Parkway. You can see snow

piled on the Red Tail Hawk nest on the top 

floor right window sill of the Franklin Institute. 

Capistrano has its Swallows. Philly, our Red 

Tail Hawk family. Mr. & Mrs. were seen 

adding twigs to their nest before the snow 

came. Hope, Spring, Eternal!

Hawk Watch blog:

http://sunnydixie.blogspot.com/2010/12/happy-new-hawk-year-theyre-back.html

Our Turn

Finally, it snowed in Philadelphia too.

About a foot in the city. 

Enjoyed a delightful catch up lunch with

old friend, colleague and marvelous painter, 

Leslie Baker ( http://lbaker.com/ ), back in 

town to install her daughter at University, 

Afterwards,  on the way home,  I passed the 

Magnolia trees in St Mark's churchyard.

                                           (click on image to enlarge to see birds)

The branches were full of Robin Red Breasts dining on 

the buds as well as some brown berries on 

sidewalk trees.

I'll never understand how birds can stand the

freezing cold on their little naked birdie feet.

Brrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr!

What's The Natter?

No idea what this Squirrel was on about.

Nattering loudly as I passed by late last 

Saturday afternoon.

 

Nattering Gray Squirrel in Washington Square 

Park November 20, 2010


(click on image to enlarge)

Liza Doolittle Day

The Birthday Girl, six decades ago

Today is Liza Doolittle Day. 

First mentioned in the lyrics

of Just You Wait Henry Higgins 

in Alan Jay Lerner and Frederick 

Loewe's, MY FAIR LADY.

And its my birthday.

Now I'm off to get my free 

bus pass. ;-)

Happy Day!!

Hidden Treasure (Who Knew?)

For history and art loving people like me, 

my city of Philadelphia holds much treasure, 
some less immediately evident than others.
Latest example, the LaSalle University Art 
Museum, where yesterday a friend and I saw 
a small but delightful exhibition of Charles 
Willson Peale And His Family At Belfield.

                     Charles Willson Peale, self-portrait

When Peale, the famous portrait painter and 
curator of his own early natural history museum 
(considered the first natural history museum 
in America and once housed in Independence Hall), 
retired from that post, he moved his family 
to the country. 
The property, just east of Germantown and now 
adjacent to the campus of LaSalle University, 
he called Belfield Farm.

            A view of Belfield by Charles Willson Peale
Today, the President of LaSalle lives in Peale's 
charming old house.

                                  Peale's house at Belfield
Mr. Peale and I are "old friends". His paintings
of his family were a great help to me during my 
REDOUTÈ research. Since Peale's children were 
also artists, as was Peale's brother James, and they 
lived at approximately the same as the Redoutè 
family, details of their dress and artists' tools 

were immensely valuable.

                           The Peale family by Charles Willson Peale

The Redoutè family from REDOUTÈ,The man Who 
Painted Flowers by Carolyn Croll

Another artist of the period to whom I am 
indebted is Elisabeth Vigee LeBrun, Marie 
Antionette's portraitist. Madame LeBrun 
painted her young brother, also an artist, 
wearing the sort of costume the Redoutè 
brothers would have worn. Again including tools 
of the trade, portfolio and a drawing instrument 
that held charcoal at one end and white chalk
at the other.

                        Young artist by Elisabeth Vigee LeBrun

         Young Pierre-Joseph Redoutè 

The artist's brother by Elisabeth Vigee LeBrun

The Redoutè brothers, Pierre-Joseph and Antoine Ferdinand in Paris
Besides this special Peale exhibit, the LaSalle 

University Museum of Art houses a small but 

interesting collection of paintings and prints 

from the 15th thru 20 centuries. 

Took me long enough!
(http://www.lasalle.edu/museum/exhibitions/peale/) - link


click on images to enlarge

Happy 363, Old Girl

Today is the birthday of the remarkable artist and

pioneering entomologist, Maria Sibylla Merian.

 example of her work

From her youth she studied insects, and recorded

her discoveries in her studienbuch, or journal.

My illustration of Maria observing silkworms

Eventually her interest in insects and the natural

world led her to Surinam to study the inhabitants

of the Amazon rain forest in Surinam.

MSM in old age

On the day she died, Tsar Peter the Great of

Russia purchased her studienbuch and took it

to St. Petersburg. He founded the first Russian 

Museum of Natural History around it and Maria's

journal is still there today.

In England, King George III bought Maria's

original watercolors from her book of the 

Insects of Surinam. They remain in the Royal

Library at Windsor Castle where I was graciously

permitted to view them several years ago.

There is more to tell, but I'll stop here and save

the rest for a book. ;-)

Stay tuned.