Blu Beary's story

Blu received his nickname because of his great fondness for blueberries, although on occasion he does love a good lingonberry or even a delicious huckleberry! In his neck of the woods, Blu has been known to devour over 30,000 berries in a whole day…they are just too delicious to resist!!

Blu is also a very curious bear and will inspect almost anything to determine if it is edible. Atho he can be very lazy at times, preferring to sit from the comfort of his trusty log sniffing the smells drifting on the breeze.

He drives everyone nuts!

Wilderness Retreet (c) Kathryn Hansen 9.5x20

Despite Chippy McNutters diminutive size, he was pretty much a big shot in his neck of the woods as he could gather up to 165 acorns on a good day. His furry friends however were starting to have concerns about Chippy's hoarding problem. Intervention seemed inevitable. Luckily for Chippy hibernation season was right around the corner so he was able to skirt the issue till Spring!

Looks hoo's talking

A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhoot (c) Kathryn Hansen 10.25x14

Roosting quietly in an ancient forest tree, Whoolio Talon is completely camouflaged by his brown and white stripidy plumage. Even his large soulful brown eyes and yellow bill seem completely unnoticed in the dense foliage. He and his friends are deeply absorbed in a game of Marco Polo...their own modified version of blind mans buff in the woods. Swiveling his head, he listens to the rich baritone of his friend who is "it" hoot out..."who cooks for you...who cooks for you." Whoolio was born to play this game as he is rarely "tagged"...his feathered friends highly regard and respect him for it. He is in a class owl by himself.





Despacio Owlington, Whoolio's BFF owlways seems to be "it"!!

A sitting duck

Sittin' in the Mornin' Sun (c)2018 11.5x10.25 graphite pencil

A few years ago my sister and one of my best friends flew to WI to attend Barbara Jaenicke's pastel workshop at the beautiful Dillman's Bay Resort in Northern WI!

While slowly making my way to class one morning from our cute little log cabin I spotted a funny looking duck out on the pier in front of the classrooms. I had never seen a duck like this before, so my attention quickly diverted over towards her and with camera in hand I sat with her for quite awhile, missing out on part of the morning session...leaving my friend and sister wondering what had happened to me in such a short distance!

At the very end of December 2017 I started to draw Myrtle the female Merganser from WI, trying to get her complete in between commissions with a deadline in my head of April 15th. Not for tax day of course...but to enter her in the Leigh Yawkey Woodson Art Museum's Birds in Art Exhibition. 

You see, I use to live about half an hour away in Plover WI so this was a pretty big deal even then. In 1994 I was even invited by a friend who's air brush painting juried into the show, to the closed artist reception, meeting in person Robert Bateman, Carl Brenders, Richard Sloan, just to name a few of the master artists there! Ever since that exhibition, I had always wanted to enter a piece of art in it but was too intimidated to even try. That is until now!!

Now I feel I am skilled enough, experienced enough, and feel worthy enough to be in the same exhibition as the great wildlife masters I have admired and been SO inspired by through the years. So I tried, and if I don't get in I am ok with that as at least I finally mustered up the courage to go for it this year. Next year I will be even more confident and ready to enter again!!

**stay tuned for my next post about how I designed and composed my drawing of Myrtle**

Secretive and elusive

Black Rosettes  Kathryn Hansen  (c)2015  7x10

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!!!

All Done~ recently completed drawings up for sale!!

I recently realized that I show you so many beginnings to my work but never show you the completed pieces here on my blog, only on Facebook do I ever seem to post the final piece! What the heck!!!

So here are some completed works of late. If you are interested in any of these pieces you can find the prints for sale on Fine Art America or for the original piece contact me directly!

Rest Stop   9x6.5  sold

Piercing Glare   8.5x6.5    $459.00

Hushed Majesty  10x6.5   $375.00

Eye Spy   5x7   $75.00

One Step Ahead   6.25x10.5   $539.00

**to see oodles of more drawings go to Fine Art America**

Outta my comfort zone?

I felt very confident after watching a few Janie Gildow videos and reading her book on colored pencils. Granted I did not do a single suggested exercise...as that's not me...I like to just jump in and figure it out as I am going along. Most the time that kind of madness is fine but as soon as I got to Swains art store I felt like a fish out of water and felt myself getting very nervous!! Luckily I had already researched the type of paper I wanted to use as I only like to use papers with plant based sizing...so I headed first to the paper isle to get some Mi Tiente...man was it flimsy but okay...now to find a piece that wasn't totally bent up. Obviously since they are so thin it must be hard to handle without getting quite a few dents in it...note to self...try Dick Blicks art store next time!! Then there were a million Prismacolor pencils to choose from with no color chart in sight! Ugh!

But with my paper and pencils in hand I headed home to start!

I had already drawn out my tiger, now I just had to figure out how to transfer it onto green paper.

I rubbed an old 3B graphite pencil then charcoal over the back and transferred it that way, altho this method did not work very well as I could barely see any lines on the top portion of the paper. There has to be a better way to do this!!

My inspector, Dakota thought I did a pretty good job but still chewed up my paper and pencils when not paying attention! (never leave artwork unattended when there's a kitten in the house!)

I started with lightly redrawing the top portion then jumped in on the eye, and so on. Omgosh, was it fun! Messy yes, lots of wax everywhere and my tips kept breaking, so a lot of sharping...but boy time just flew by!! I made a few mistakes with placement and color but I just scrapped it and it worked out just fine!

This beast is night and day from graphite, actually once I got into a groove, lost all my trepidation regarding it I  thought it was waayyy easier than graphite (in my humble opinion!) I wasn't slaving over a million details like I do with graphite! 

I am definitely hooked but there is SO much more to explore with colored pencil and I am SO eager to try it all now that I am over my fears about it!