I was pleased this year to again be invited to contribute a piece of colored pencil work to the Colored Pencil Society of America (CPSA) National Convention silent auction  - "Small Works of Great Magnitude". Works are offered for bid throughout the convention and the collection can be seen on the CPSA website (www.cpsa.org) shortly after June 30th. All pieces are size limited (11 x 14") and required to be representative of the invited artist's best work.

My contribution this year is something from my own backyard, literally.  The subject is a chestnut-back chickadee perched on the hanger for a windchime on the back deck. These little birds are around all year and seem very tolerant of we humans - might be because we feed them well. I can usually get quite close as they go about feeding. haven;t yet got one to land on my hand but I'm working on it. In the right light they have a bright russet-orange look to their back feathers.

 "Strung Out Chickadee", © 2013, 14x11", Colored Pencil on Canvas

The piece is done in solvent-enhanced colored pencil on a piece of Fredrix Archival Watercolor Board that has a surface of very finely woven, primed canvas. My technique is described in depth on the "Process" page of my website.