4 star guide

This warbler is the perfect guide to lead this herd of elephants to the Ewaso Nyiro River in Samburu!!

Tour Guide  Kathryn Hansen  (c)2015 8x10

And these were our awesome guides while in Kenya!

 My sister and I were resting on the deck of our luxurious tented cabin on stilts in between safari outings when I spotted this herd!! Some of these elephants just wandered through the camp at night, a few even trapped my other sister in her tent until the guards were able to shoo them away! 

It was another amazing experience in a long list of unbelievable surprises and adventures!!!

Why are elephants so wrinkled?

This dynamic duo are up next on my drawing board. 

After combing through hundreds and hundreds of photos from my Africa trip, I mashed these two elephants together. Lorelai, the mom is actually from Amboseli National Park and her baby Rory is from Samburu but in my small drawing they have always been mom and baby! 

Not sure if I will add any birds to this one as I want the emphasis to be on Rory's turned head, looking back at the viewer. 

I am hoping to have it done in time for the TAG Gallery Open California Exhibit in August, which means it needs to be completed by mid June. Not sure if I will be able to make it but I am going to give it my best shot!

(They take too long to iron!)

a gif of obama

my youngest daughter and i traded services...she made this "gif" of obama for me and i made her pasta. she finished way before me!!

have a fabulously fun weekend!!

"The continued existence of wildlife and wilderness is important to the quality of life of humans."

~Jim Fowler~ 

2013  (c) Obama the Elephant by Kathryn Hansen

the start of a brand new year!

as i dropped my daughter off at school this morning i took a deep breathe and thought, phew...back to some normalcy and routine again...yay! 

not that we didn't have an amazing holiday, we really did! just after what seemed like endless weeks of celebrating, routine is what i was beginning to crave.(not carbs and sweets any longer!)

so my first drawing of the year is Obama...the elephant! 

 we immediately met this giant fellow (they LOVE our president over there, so named this local resident after him.) when we arrived at the "elephant bedroom camp," which is located on the banks of the Ewaso Ng'iro river in Samburu Kenya. you can see we got super close to him, to the dismay of the establishment...the guards and workers where frantically waving fallen palm fronds to keep him back while we took photos, but then we had to move it up to the lodge away from the river.

 Obama (i don't know why i love saying that, but i do!) took a long time to draw out...his trunk was challenging to get right...but now it should be easy going...except that ear...i can see that will be challenging as well!! stayed tuned!

Only when he no longer knows what he is doing does the painter do good things.

  Edgar Degas

 well, i finally put to rest "out of the burrow" (see previous post). i fixed the areas on the bottom of the piece that i wasn't feeling the love for and at least to me it's much better. now for this piece (above), "along for the ride"...ugh...i have reworked the background more times than i can remember and still am not happy with it! i have a few ideas but need to sit with it for awhile. i won't be entering it in the birds in art show as i feel it's just not up to my standards for entering such a prestigious show.

i don't know why i am in such an elephant mood this year...i must be dreaming of kenya!! but here is the start of a new piece. i started with the most challenging part first...the background and making these egrets look like they are in motion and not just hanging in mid air. so far i am not liking the background but am going to keep at it until satisfied!! 

this seems to be a recurring theme lately...highly dissatisfied with certain areas in my drawings!!

forging ahead and "just california"

 i am sooo hoping to be able to finish up with this elephant drawing in the next week! then i know that i will have the birds in art show covered...well...with at least one drawing! i'm a bit nervous about starting the bird as that's the focal point of this piece and has to be super accurate! the bird will end up being pretty small so i will have to dig out my reading glasses to magnify all the details. what can i say...these eyes are getting old!!

and cool news...5 drawings were chosen for the "just california" gallery show at the mcgroarty arts center in march. the reception is march 9th from 6-9 , just right around the corner! and like, i just realized today that i have a lot of framing to do...and fast!