one more plover Early stages I picked a neutral warm ground color for the panel, drew a 2- inch light pencil grid and did a quick sketch. Then I started the underpainting. I try to use as much of that ground color in the piece, letting it show through as much as possible. I thought it would be fun to show you the beginnings, before I obsess over all the final details. This stage is always quite loose. You can count the brushstrokes before they all get glazed over and merge

It was the last day of our Cape Cod vacation. Before we hit the road we took one last walk down to West Dennis beach. Because of the seawall we had a nice low bird's eye level view of this piping plover. I was able to rest the camera on the wall to steady the lens. I got a handful of photos of the plover making trips from the nest down to the water’s edge for food. The news is not good for this little plover. It was recently listed as an orange alert “ tipping point " spec

This past summer Kate and I visited our community of friends in central Pennsylvania. We spent some quality time with them in the...